(Credits: Far Out / Raph Pour-Hashemi)
Sun 13 April 2025 15:52, UK
A compliment from Keith Richards is rarer than a scientific term for the back of the knees or a cheese sandwich in China. However, his keen ire is not just the sign of a cynic, it is one of the reasons The Rolling Stones rose to the top. The band have always exhibited an ‘us against the world’ attitude and it propelled them forward throughout the 1960s as rebels with a cause.
In fact, having a clear cause as a band – a profound sense of pride and purpose – is pretty much the defining characteristic that dictates whether Richards will like a band or not. He loves knownable and defined artists like Chuck Berry and even AC/DC, but as soon as he thinks a group is getting convoluted he starts to cut them down.
When it comes to The Beatles, it was around about the moment that they went psychedelic that he began to vent his spleen. And as for Jimi Hendrix, he felt that the guitarist was hamstrung by the need to be outrageous and that got in the way of his unique talent. But at least he had a degree of respect for their undoubtable talents.
However, while he considered Led Zeppelin, The Who and Black Sabbath to be competent bands, he certainly didn’t hold their artistry in any esteem. “I’m not gonna say I like Led Zeppelin, The Who, Black Sabbath, I would only be lying, not my favourites,” he told Living Legends. “They are all good, I know them, they are all good players and everything, but as a band no.”
So, who did he like out of the British cannon? Well, not many at all. “I just was never really interested in that many English rock ‘n’ roll bands actually, at all. I mean, I usually like guys like Johnny Kidd and the Pirates, and that was before I was even recording. But there was something [about] the Yeses and the Journeys and all them that just left me a bit cold,” he told Rolling Stone.
(Credits: Far Out / Raph Pour-Hashemi)
Nevertheless, there was one band that stood out for him. And in typical Richards fashion, they weren’t a band, but rather a single musician who just happened to play in bands. “I always liked Steve Marriott, very much from the English point of view. You know, The Small Faces and then he had Humble Pie,” he declared. In fact, Marriott wasn’t far from being Richards’ hero.
Despite his tragically brief life, Marriott was not unaware of the impact he had on Richards either. “He loves me. He’s always been on my side. He got me out of the hole,” Marriott said in a 1983 interview. “The only people I keep in touch with are Keith Richards and people like that ’cause they’re the only people I want to talk to.”
In his time of despair, Richards helped him out, ushering him towards sobriety, which enabled him to create a few more albums before he died as the result of a house fire. This was believed to be caused after he lit a cigarette in bed while drunk, jet-lagged and fell asleep. Despite this untimely end, he still remains one of the genre’s greats.
And he very nearly ended up being a member of The Rolling Stones in 1974. He had been Richards’ first choice before Ronnie Wood, but it all went pear-shaped at his audition. “Steve told me, ‘I was good and stood at the back for a while, but then Keith would hit this lick, and I just couldn’t keep my mouth shut’,” Pam Marriott told the biography All Too Beautiful.
Continuing: “Keith wanted him in, but there was no way that once Steve opened his mouth, Mick would have him in the band. He knew Steve would never stay in the background. They were the one band in the world that Steve would have loved to have been in. He just wanted to work with Keith.” Seemingly, Keith would’ve been delighted to work with him, too.
Related Topics
Subscribe To The Far Out Newsletter