People try to put us d-down
Just because we get around
Things they do look awful c-c-cold
I hope I die before I get old

Last weekend while I was watching the James Taylor and Carole King documentary, I was asked about their ages. I did some Googling to find out that Carole was seventy-nine years old. Her age didn’t surprise me. I knew she had started in the music business in the early 1960s as a songwriter. I was curious about her children so I did some more research to find out about her family. That’s where I got my first surprise. Her oldest daughter, Louise, is sixty-one years old.

I am closer in age to Louise than I am to Carole? Really? How is that possible?

I went on to dig a little deeper. Does Carole King have grandchildren? Oh yeah, she does. Her oldest grandson, Dillon, was born in 1985. Carole King has been a grandmother for thirty-six years. She’s since added three more to the collection of her offspring’s offspring.

So after thinking about this I realized that she can’t be the only classic rock legend who is a grandparent. Far from it! Here’s a partial list:

King’s partner in the documentary James Taylor and his ex-wife Carly Simon have a grandson who is now thirteen. Keith Richards has five grandchildren. Eric Clapton has two grandsons. Ronnie Wood has six grandchildren. Paul McCartney has eight grandchildren. EIGHT!! They call him granddude.

Even the guy who sings about dying before he gets old has grandkids. Get this…Roger Daltrey has fifteen grandchildren. That’s right…FIFTEEN!! He makes Sir Paul look like a slacker.

There are even rock stars with great-grandchildren. Mick Jagger has three of them. His oldest, Ezra, is three years older than Mick’s youngest child. Ringo Starr has one too. Ringo’s great-grandchild is the granddaughter of his son Zak. Remember when Zak was born in the early days of the Beatles? He’s now fifty-six years old and a grandpa. How old does that make you feel?

How weird is all of this? It used to be that our music heroes died very young. Twenty-seven was the not so magic age. Jimi, Janis, Jim, Amy, Kurt and so many more never came close to reaching the life expectancy age. I guess if you can make it past the early death thing, you get to see the other end of the spectrum. No Doubt, it’s much better this way. Oh, man, don’t tell me Gwen Stefani is a grandmother? Not yet….phew!

Talkin’ ’bout my generation
Talkin’ ’bout my generation
Talkin’ ’bout my generation

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