Forgiving a 1967 drug conviction and the small matter of a Rolling Stones album called Their Satanic Majesties Request, Queen Elizabeth II knighted Mick Jagger during her birthday celebration in June. “The thing about honors is that you should never ask for them, and you should never really expect them, but I think you should accept them if they are given to you,” said the Stone, who joins Sirs Elton John and Paul McCartney as a fellow knight-of-rock.

Elton To Be Knighted by Queen

Jagger, 58, who was nominated by British prime minister and Stones fan Tony Blair, said that news of his elevation to “Sir” had friends teasing him by brandishing plastic swords and falling to bended knee in his presence. “My dad gets to be a knight and wear armor all the time,” Jagger's four-year-old son, Gabriel, told his classmates, according to London's The Mirror.

This story is from the July 25th, 2002 issue of Rolling Stone.

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