Stones agreed to censorship

2006-02-07 09:46

New York - Age, it seems, has mellowed the Rolling Stones, who agreed to have their half-time performance at Sunday's Super Bowl censored twice for lyrics deemed too sexually explicit for family viewing.

The National Football League (NFL) said on Monday that the British rock and roll legends had been consulted about the cuts prior to their appearance at the championship game between the Seattle Seahawks and Pittsburgh Steelers.

In an apparent compromise, Mick Jagger actually sang the offending lyrics, but the NFL, which produced the show, switched off his mike so that they went unheard in the stadium and on the broadcast by the ABC television network.

All according to plan

"As planned and agreed upon with the Stones, we turned down Mick's mike for two specific seconds," said NFL spokesperson Brian McCarthy.

The cuts included the final word of the lyric "you make a dead man come" from the song Start Me Up and the word "cocks" from Rough Justice.

"The Stones were fine with it. They didn't have an issue. Mick knew that's what our plan was," McCarthy said.

Producers have maintained tight controls on the content of the Super Bowl's half-time show ever since Janet Jackson's right breast was exposed two years ago in what was famously blamed on a "wardrobe malfunction".

The incident, which was broadcast to millions of TV viewers worldwide, led to the CBS network - the broadcaster for that year - being fined $550 000.

Only one song untouched

This year, ABC showed the half-time event on a five-second delay, the first time such a precaution against profanity or Jackson-like exposures had been taken in Super Bowl history.

ABC spokesperson Mark Mandel said the network had played no part in censoring the Stones.

"ABC had nothing to do with it," Mandel said. "There was nothing that was heard in the stadium that required ABC to do anything."

The Stones sang three songs on Sunday, wrapping up with the anthemic Satisfaction which went untouched by the censors.

"Here's one we could have done at Super Bowl I," Jagger, 62, said as he introduced the golden oldie.

"Everything comes to those who wait," he added - again without interference.

- AFP