Mick Jagger turns 76 in July. Despite the frontman’s apparent eternality, most of the Rolling Stones’ fanbase, hovering between the ages of 45 and 75, is either approaching retirement age or already in it — which makes them the ideal demographic for the unlikely group sponsoring the band’s upcoming No Filter tour.
When fans arrive at each venue for the Stones’ upcoming U.S. tour, a bus manned by the Alliance for Lifetime Income, a one-year-old D.C.-based nonprofit set up by two dozen financial services firms to boost awareness about retirement income options, will greet them outside the stadium. The Alliance, which doesn’t recommend specific advisors but encourages people to explore financial planning tools and various non-employment income options such as annuities, is the sole sponsor of the Stones’ tour, in a partnership spurred by the band’s previous relationship with one of the nonprofit’s members. (Life insurance company Jackson National had sponsored a Stones museum exhibit in Nashville last year.) Since the Alliance is a 501(c)(6) nonprofit, the cost of the deal was “far less” than that of a corporate brand deal, but the band was interested in supporting the cause, organizers say.
“One of the things about today is that people age and continue to live life to the fullest but don’t think about retiring,” Jean Statler, executive director of the nonprofit, tells Rolling Stone. “We started talking to the Stones in June 2018 and jumped on the chance to be their tour sponsor. It was a dream come true. When you look at the demographics of people who follow the Stones — it was a way to get 100 percent coverage of our target audience of 45-to-75-year-old people with some investable assets, ready for their post-career living.”
Statler adds that the organization hopes to get its name out to all of the the band’s 1.5 million concertgoers and 24 million followers on social media, via promotion in its “prime spot” at the shows themselves and via online campaigns between the two groups. “I think we’re breaking through barriers here because we’ve co-branded with the Stones signage and just by them allowing us to talk to more people, we’re able to better help address the societal crisis of people outliving their money,” she says. While the Stones deal is the first musician-focused campaign the nonprofit has inked, it may be on the lookout for similar deals. “I understand Bob Dylan is touring next year,” Statler says. “Who knows?”
The Alliance’s bus will also offer behind-the-scenes experiences of the Stones’ tour through Google Cardboard as they queue up to enter the stadiums for the shows. Some members of the tour, such as the Stones’ longtime tour production manager, will be specifically featured in the nonprofit’s campaign as people in high-risk jobs who are exploring appropriate retirement financial options.
But the band itself will likely not promote retirement planning — seeing as how the Stones have stayed quiet on any plans to give up their own gig. “We’re trying to pick some [songs] we haven’t done in recent years, stuff we haven’t done before,” Jagger said Monday in his first interview since the heart surgery that caused the Stones to reschedule their tour. “Most of the time people don’t want too much unusual,” he added. “People like a little bit unusual. They don’t want 100 percent unusual.” Asked about his own health, Jagger, nonchalant, said he’s “feeling pretty good.”