Mick Jagger talks about writing the theme song for Apple TV+ ‘Slow Horses’ in new interview

The upcoming Apple TV+ thriller “Slow Horses” features Mick Jagger’s first-ever television theme song. The iconic Rolling Stones sings says he wrote the lyrics because he had read and liked the Mick Herron book on which the series is based.

Mick Jagger’s first TV theme song is for Apple TV+ ‘Slow Horses’

Slow Horses is an espionage series starring Academy Award winner Gary Oldman, based on the novels by Mick Herron. Set to make its worldwide debut Friday, April 1, 2022, the series features “Strange Game,” a theme song with lyrics by Jagger, and music by Daniel Pemberton.

“It’s a quite popular series of books, so I knew what it was about,” the singer told Variety. “I knew the vibe really well, so as soon as [Daniel Pemberton] sent the track to me, I just dashed off a few pages of notes of what I thought it was about. It came very, very quickly, which is always a good sign.”

Due to the ongoing global pandemic, Pemberton and Jagger could not meet in person to collaborate on the Slow Horses theme song but they worked on it over a series of Zoom sessions.

“I played him the track on guitar,” said Pemberton. “I’m not even a good guitarist. That was very weird, playing guitar for Mick Jagger on the Zoom line.” As for Jagger, he says he wrote the lyrics, “just recorded it on my iPhone, and sent it to him.” “It’s quite irreverent, but the Gary Oldman character is irreverent,” he continues. “It’s also slightly eerie, so it combines those two things. You don’t want to make it too serious.”

Music supervisor Catherine Grieves and director James Hawes wanted a song that had “the same gravitas and swagger” as Slow Horses‘ lead character Jackson Lamb. Naturally, they only thought of Mick Jagger but thought it was unlikely that the rocker would even consider it.

“It is a resoundingly British show in a very confident British genre, which had to find a flavor of its own,” Hawes says. “Right from the get-go, I thought that we could use a song in the opening to help us set the tone,” he continues, “particularly with the first show, which has a very dynamic, perhaps more conventional action opening.”

The first two episodes of Slow Horses will begin streaming on April 1, 2022, with the rest of the episodes following on a weekly basis. For $4.99 per month with a seven-day free trial, Apple’s streaming service is available on iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac, Apple TV via the Apple TV app.