'Rock 'n' roll is not really meant to be played in a chair': The Rolling Stones, in Philadelphia this week

Back in April, before tickets went on sale to the two '50 & Counting'  Rolling Stones shows that will take place at the Wells Fargo Center in South Philadelphia tonight and Friday, I spoke with Mick Jagger on the phone.

I talked to the Knight of the Realm about a number of topics, from Margaret Thatcher to high ticket prices, which top out at $597 and have not sold out for the Philly show.  ("There are low prices, too," he said. "I think there are different prices for different pockets.") You can read the full conversation here. Use promo code X49T if you're not an Inquirer subscriber.

On this tour, the band has brought along guitarist Mick Taylor, who joined  after Brian Jones' death on July 3, 1969 and remained until 1974, playing on some of the Stones greatest albums (all produced by Jimmy Miller) including the decadent masterpeices Let It Bleed (1969), Sticky Fingers (1971) and Exile on Main Street (1972).

I asked the 69 year old archetypal rock n' roll frontman if he had a favorite period in the Stones illustrious history, and if that was it. He was typically non-committal.  "Not really," he said. "Actually, no. I can make one up for you if you want. When we started out, it was hilarious. Then it was pretty difficult. It was very hard to break out in America. Then when we did, in sort of '66 or so, it was really a fantastic time. … But I don't really have a favorite."

In their 51st year, the Stones are still wont to drop songs into their set by artists that they went to school on as teenagers in the London suburbs in the early 1960s, such as Chuck Berry's "Around and Around." I asked him if those original heroes still give him a thrill, and the conversation went in this direction.