Keith Richards' Rep Denies Violence Claims

Keith Richards reportedly threatened and attacked a Swedish journalist during an interview at a Paris hotel Tuesday — though his representative denied to Rolling Stone that any violence had occurred.

According to online translations of an article in the Swedish-language publication Aftonbladets, Richards, who was promoting his memoir Life, became hostile when he realized that the paper's interviewer, Markus Larsson, was the man who had given a Rolling Stones concert a bad review after a 2007 concert in Gothenburg, Sweden, describing them as "amateurs." Richards reportedly demanded a public apology for the review, as he had after the concert reviews were published.

Photos:Exclusive 'Life' Excerpt: Keith Richards On The Debaucherous 1972 Rolling Stones Tour

Tuesday's meeting "ended with the rock star threatening Markus Larsson and hitting him in the head," the article claims, adding that Richards said, "You're lucky to get out of here alive" to Larson before he left.

Q&A: Richards on Brian Jones, Mick Jagger and Life

However, a spokesperson for Richards says that the allegations against the singer were false. "At the conclusion of the 20 minute interview Keith Richards jokingly tapped the journalist on the head after his questions got a bit silly," Richards' spokesperson tells Rolling Stone. "From the people in the room during the interview they would suggest that the writer has allowed his imagination to get the better of him."

Photos: Keith Richards on the Cover of Rolling Stone

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Song Stories

“Too Close”

Next | 1998

Next was formed in Minneapolis when the uncle of Terry "T-Low" and Raphael "Tweety" Brown, who was a gospel choir director, introduced the brothers to Robert Lavelle "R.L." Huggar. Sounds of Blackness singer Ann Nesby groomed the R&B group before handing them over to Naughty by Nature's KayGee, who wrote and produced "Too Close." The idea for the song was sparked "from a conversation we had with several girls at a nightclub," explained T-Low. "It's talking about the club scene, with guys getting out of hand and the female telling him to back up, asking, 'What are you doing?'" 

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