The Rolling Stones are one of the most influential rock bands of all time,
and that influence extends far beyond the music industry. In fact,
one of their lesser-known legacies is the band's popularization of a certain iconic cocktail.
In June of 1972, the Stones had just set out on their American tour promoting the album
Exile on Main Street, starting with a series of shows on the West Coast of North America — kicking
off the California leg of the tour in San Francisco and moving down towards San Diego.
The band was nervous about touring California, however, after the horrific and tragic events
at the Altamont Speedway concert in 1969. In the midst of that show, the Hells Angels
recruited to act as security became violent, leading to the killing of one young fan.
To help the group relax before making their way down the coast, concert promoter Bill Graham
rented out the Trident restaurant in Sausalito for a private party. A bartender named Bobby
Lozoff was working there, and as the bar had a juicer, he was experimenting with making
cocktails using fresh juices. When Mick Jagger approached Lozoff and asked for a margarita,
Lozoff asked if he'd like to try something he'd been working on instead.
Bobby Lozoff had been particularly interested in serving tequila cocktails,
because Sausalito had become a popular stopover for people
running marijuana out of Mexico into San Francisco. Lozoff once remembered:
"Myself and a bartender called Billy Rice started experimenting.
Anything made with gin or vodka we started making with tequila."
First named by a 1930s bartender at the Arizona Biltmore Hotel,
the Tequila Sunrise is a riff on the Singapore Sling, only made with tequila
instead of gin. Lozoff offered Jagger the drink, which consisted of tequila, fresh orange juice,
sweet and sour mix, soda, and grenadine — and the Stones frontman loved it.
"It was a magic night."
"Everybody was thrilled. Everybody was jazzed."
"Nothing got broken."
Lozoff later recalled:
"Mick came up to the bar and asked for a margarita,
I asked him if he had ever tried a Tequila Sunrise, he said no, I built him one and
they started sucking them up. After that, they took them all across the country."
The Rolling Stones were such fans of the cocktail that the ingredients for Tequila Sunrises became
requirements on the band's tour riders, and had to be delivered to their dressing rooms before
each show. Promoters reportedly received a letter regarding the band's drink preferences that noted:
"It would be very strange to see Keith Richards in top form without the company of a good tequila."
In his 2010 autobiography Life, Keith Richards even referred to
the 1972 cross-country tour as "the cocaine and Tequila Sunrise tour."
Once word got out that the drink was a favorite of none other than The Rolling Stones,
the Tequila Sunrise took off across the United States,
and soon people were ordering it everywhere. Articles about the Rolling Stones included copious
references to the band drinking them during interviews and press conferences; the Tucson
Daily Citizen even ran a Tequila Sunrise recipe right before a Rolling Stones show in the city.
Soon, other rock bands got in on the trend. In 1973, the Eagles released the Adult Contemporary
Top-40 hit song, "Tequila Sunrise," which both Johnny Winter and Rick Derringer followed up with
re-recordings of the single "Cheap Tequila." However, as the drink's popularity spread
throughout the country, bartenders ran into a problem. The beverage, which traditionally called
for fresh-squeezed orange juice, was now being ordered in places far removed from the tropical
locales where oranges grow. Instead, they had to turn to store-bought Tropicana, or the somewhat
less popular Minute Maid, in order to try to capitalize on the Sunrise's growing popularity.
While the Tequila Sunrise might have fallen out of fashion since its glory days in the 1970s,
this sweet, fruity citrus drink might well be due for a comeback. In 2015,
Jose Cuervo ran a commercial and later created a commemorative tequila bottle paying tribute to:
"The tour that became legend. The drink that fueled it."
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