he truth of the matter is that Glastonbury never really asked the Rolling Stones to play before – I heard they had thought about it, but no official invitation was ever made. So as soon as we were asked, we did it. I remember Glastonbury in the old, ancient days, when it was originally a battle between people who wanted to go and do this sort of festival, and the police who didn’t want them to. My brother lives in Glastonbury, he used to go to the festival in its very early days, and it was always part of my family’s festival outings – my children Jade, Lizzy, Georgia and Jimmy had always gone for years, and they told me about their experiences. I always watched it on telly, and was pretty aware of what was going on. For the 2013 festival, I went the night before we were to play to get the feeling of the weekend, and I watched the Arctic Monkeys to get the vibe of the crowd. Then I went around the site with my children and hung out with them. I was like a punter, a bit – went to the dance area, Joe Strummer’s area, a few other places. I was slightly less punterish in that I didn’t have to walk all of it – I did manage to get a ride. The next day was a perfect English summer day, and I was very thankful for that. I spoke to Bono when he had his Glastonbury experience, which he said was one of the most difficult days he’s ever done a concert – it was mindblowingly difficult because of the weather. I was afraid it was going to be the same for us, but it didn’t turn out like that. People always try to do something special for Glastonbury, like when Jay-Z did Wonderwall. A week or so before our appearance, I thought, if we’re going to do a big night at Glastonbury, let’s try and do something a bit topical. So I thought I’d rewrite the lyrics of Factory Girl to do something different. I was a bit wary of it, if people were really going to get it – but they got it. Going on was this amazing sight. I’ve done a lot of big crowds, but normally when you do these big crowds you can’t often see them. In this case, though, the crowd goes up the hill and was illuminated by flares. You could actually see 100,000 people, which was amazing. The crowd was amazingly supportive, vibrant, enthusiastic, exuberant – even though you’re a long way away from them, you can still feel the wave of feeling coming from them. Glastonbury has had a long, involving history, as almost a protest, and then evolving into this anything-goes, very different, multi-generational event, with every kind of music represented and lots of other things besides. I used to joke that it’s the alternate Ascot, which is maybe a bit of a misnomer, but it’s an amazing English cultural event that embodies some kind of Englishness – some odd Englishness. Glastonbury is a great tradition, and the way it’s evolved, it sort of represents this rather eccentric English culture, in a really good way. Everyone reveres it because of that, and because of its longevity – it’s been passed down through generations. People have got this special affection for it. • Mick Jagger was talking to Laura Snapes