In his 1985 solo hit “Lucky In Love,” Mick Jagger sang that he was “a bettin’ fool/ a gamblin’ man.” Well, an actual person who fits that description has now changed his name … to Mick Jagger.
According to the U.K.’s ITV, the 62-year-old man says he ruined his life gambling and has now changed his name to Mick Jagger in an effort to escape his past. The recovering gambling addict started betting on horse races at age 12 and subsequently went through hundreds of thousands of dollars. His family disowned him and he was forced to live on the streets.
“I’ve had plenty of low points when I’ve thought it would just be better to end it all,” Mick told ITV News Anglia. “I’ve had flats. I’ve had jobs. I’ve lost them through gambling. I spent more time in the betting shop than I did at work. I never paid my rent or my bills because I always gambled it away.”
The good news is that five years ago Mick connected with a local homelessness charity. He now lives at the charity’s home base and works in its garden, and he hasn’t gambled in 18 months.
“I’m a new person. Just because we suffer with addiction we’re not bad people,” he tells ITV News Anglia.
No word on what the real Mick Jagger thinks about this — perhaps he has “Mixed Emotions.”
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