Obama reveals innermost secrets as he lands cover of Rolling Stone

London, Apr 26 (ANI): Barack Obama, who has landed the cover of Rolling Stone, has revealed his admiration for aging rocker Mick Jagger, torn into likely presidential opponent Mitt Romney and declared his own confidence in his singing ability in the latest issue of the magazine.

In a wide ranging interview with Rolling Stone's publisher Jann Wenner, the 44th and current president of the US outlined his thoughts on the upcoming election and how he will campaign in anticipation of facing off against Republican candidate Mitt Romney in November.

Mixing levity with serious politics, Obama began by revealing the events behind his impromptu decision to sing the opening line from Al Green's 'Let's Stay Together' at a fundraiser in the Apollo Theatre in New York in January, telling the influential magazine he was never worried.

"I can sing," the Daily Mail quoted him as saying.

"I wasn't worried about being able to hit those notes," he said.

Talking about the moment he burst into song to rapturous applause, Obama recalled how the event came to pass.

"It was my fifth event of the day.

"It's about 10:30 at night, and we go up to the Apollo. I wanted to hear Al Green. The guys who were working the soundboard in the back, a couple of real good guys, they say, 'Oh, man, you missed the Reverend, but he was terrific, he was in rare form.' So I was frustrated by that.

"Since I was on my fifth event and have been yakking away for several hours on all kinds of policy stuff, I just kind of broke into a rendition of 'Let's Stay Together'.

"And they're like, 'Oh, so the president, you can sing, man. You should do that onstage'.

"I looked at press secretary Jay Carney, and he was tired too, and he said, 'Yeah, go for it.' So I went up there and we did it," he said.

In the interview, which caps a week devoted to courting younger voters, he even recalled watching singer Mick Jagger.

The Rolling Stones front-man was rehearsing for his appearance at a White House tribute to the blues in February and the president was impressed by the respect Jagger displayed toward lesser-known and younger musicians.

He said Jagger recalled the generosity he had experienced upon meeting blues greats like Howlin' Wolf and B.B. King, and displayed "the sense of him wanting to do that same thing, that it all comes full circle."

"It's amazing to me the degree to which he's able to cut through a bunch of the nonsense," he said.

Sounding an election-year theme, Obama told the magazine that Romney can't disavow the conservative views he embraced as candidate during the Republican presidential primaries.

At the same time, he acknowledges that he, too, is struggling against public skepticism because of the slow economic recovery.

He avoided characterising Romney as a flip-flopper, a common criticism Romney faced during the Republican primary contests, and instead tagged him as a candidate who willfully embraces the Republican Party's most conservative views.

"I don't think that their nominee is going to be able to suddenly say, 'Everything I've said for the last six months, I didn't mean'.

"I'm assuming that he meant it. When you're running for president, people are paying attention to what you're saying," he added. (ANI)