After watching last night's Super Bowl halftime show, I'm genuinely curious as to why (apart from the millions of dollars they get from touring) the members of The Rolling Stones still want to work with Mick Jagger. Sure, even at his best the man never had what one would call a "pleasant" singing voice, but what he did have was a great "rock voice." And that voice was a perfect match for the band's sound.

But those days are long gone. Simply put, Mick can't sing anymore. At all. In last night's performance there was no real tone to his voice. Gone was the sexually-charged growl of the 60's, 70's, and 80's. In its place was an unrecognizable series of atonal grunts. It was awful.

(As bad as it was, however, Jagger's voice sounded far better than Jessica Simpson's did in that Pizza Hut commercial; and Simpson even had the advantage of being pre-recorded. And post-produced.)

The real shame of all this is that, musically speaking, The Rolling Stones sound as good as ever. Guitarists Keith Richards and Ron Wood and drummer Charlie Watts can play their instruments every bit as well as they could at their peak. Perhaps better. But it's all being wasted behind a front man who has no instrument left.

I realize the money is still good, and that's probably the only justification they need for soldiering on. And they're hardly alone in that attitude. Just look at Harrison Ford and Robert DeNiro. Those guys can still act with the best of them -- when they want to -- but right now they'd rather pick up big paychecks for awful movies. The sad thing is, none of these guys should need the money!

In my opinion, former Stones' bassist Bill Wyman had the right idea. Once it became apparent that the band was a mere shadow of its former self, he ditched the rock life and went into the restaurant business. He's still musically active, too, but these days he focuses his energy on jazz and blues ensembles, not bloated arena rock.

You know, it's pretty sad when a guy who owns a diner called "Sticky Fingers" is the last bastion of musical integrity.