If there were ever a musical, low-stakes instance of bringing a gun to a knife fight, it might be the half-prank, half-celebration The Rolling Stones decided to pull on the last night of their 1972 summer tour at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Stevie Wonder, a popular Motown artist but lesser-known to the mostly white rock crowd, opened for The Stones.
At the end of the night, The Stones invited Wonder back to the stage so that they could do a mash-up of “Satisfaction” and “Uptight”. “They’re both the same beat,” Mick Jagger recalled in a 2026 interview with the New York Times. “And then someone—I can’t remember whose idea this was, it might have been mine—decides that we’re going to throw custard pies at the end because it’s the last number of the show of the last day of tour.”
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“It’s rather unfair for Stevie,” Jagger continued. And while there might be some truth to that, the blind musician was quick to join in.
Stevie Wonder Recalled the Last Night of The Rolling Stones’ Tour
In Craig Werner’s Higher Ground, Stevie Wonder recalled being on stage at Madison Square Garden that fateful summer night. Once the custard pies started flying, he said, “I got me some of that. Gimme that pie, baby. Somebody threw one at me, and I said, ‘Oh, wow,’ y’know, poor Steve. Then I picked it up and did it. I was picking them up where I could find ‘em and giving a fling. One of my singers picked up a piece, and we were smearing it all over each other’s faces.”
“All these people, horn players and everything, just sliding around, stepping in pies and chucking them, stuff flying all over, meanwhile, everybody’s still playing,” he added.
As chaotic and carefree (and custardy) as the last night of tour felt, that string of concerts proved invaluable for Wonder’s career. Getting in front of The Stones’ fans helped Wonder pique their attention. When Wonder released his fifteenth studio album, Talking Book, he grabbed that attention with both hands with tracks like “Superstition” and “You Are The Sunshine Of My Life”.
Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
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