Rock legend Mick Jagger surprised the Oscars crowd on Sunday night when he turned up to present the award for Best Original Song.
But the Rolling Stones frontman, who walked out to a standing ovation, said he wasn’t the first choice for the gig.
“The producers really wanted Bob Dylan to do this,” he said. “Bob didn’t want to do it because he said the best songs this year were obviously in the movie ‘A Complete Unknown,’” Jagger said, referring to the Dylan biopic nominated for multiple Academy Awards.
Jagger then broke out his Dylan impression.
“Bob said, ‘you should find somebody younger’,” he said. “I said ‘OK, I’m younger. I’m younger than Bob, I’ll do it’.”
Jagger, 81, is a little more than two years younger than 83-year-old Dylan.
But there may have been even more truth to the joke than that: The Hollywood Reporter said producers went knockin’ on Dylan’s door to see if he’d present and perform at the ceremony.
He turned them down.
Since the singer of “Like A Rolling Stone” wasn’t interested, the producers turned to a Rolling Stone instead, although Entertainment Weekly said Jagger’s version of events was indeed a joke.
“El Mal” from the film “Emilia Pérez” won the award.