The Rolling Stone Interview: Keith Richards
Now you’re in the situation where your own solo record is coming out. Do you feel any sense of competition with Mick?
Obviously the situation is there for it to be perceived that way. No, I don’t feel any sense of competition with Mick. Whether Mick feels a sense of competition with me – that’s another question. Why we didn’t go on the road behind Dirty Work … that might be an answer to that.
You mean he felt that it was more your record or…
Or who runs the deal. I think to Mick that’s more important than it is to me. You see, I tip my hat to Mick a lot. I admire the guy enormously. In the Seventies, when I was on dope and I would do nothing but put the songs together and turn up and not deal with any of the business of the Stones, Mick took all of that work and weight on his shoulders and did it all and covered my ass. And I’ve always admired him very much for that. I mean, he did exactly what a friend should do.
When I cleaned up and Emotional Rescue time came around – ”Hey, I’m back, I’m clean, I’m ready; I’m back to help and take some of the weight off your shoulders” – immediately I got a sense of resentment Whereas I felt that he would be happy to unburden himself of some of that shit, he felt that I was horning in and trying to take control. And that’s when I first sensed the feeling of discontent, shall we say. It wasn’t intended like that from my point of view, but that’s when I first got a feeling that he got so used to running the show that there was no way he was going to give it up. That, to him, it was a power struggle.
To turn away from the Stones for a moment, what do you make of the state of rock today? Some have said this is the worst period in the history of rock & roll.
My cheap answer to that would be ”Yeah, wait until my record comes out!” [Laughs.]
I wanted to run the Top Ten singles by you and get your impression of them.
All right, run ’em down.
Number One is ”Roll with It,” by Steve Winwood.
Steve is great, but the record, eh. He’s not pushing anything further. I mean, he’s a great musician, but he doesn’t seem to me to have a driving desire to really do anything. If he bothers to work, it’s fantastic. I think he’s one of the best English musicians that we have.
But at the same time, my problem with Stevie – he’s gonna fuckin’ hate me forever for saying this – is that he’s kind of faceless. What’s Number Two, George Michael?
Number Two is ”Hands to Heaven,” by Breathe.
Never heard it. Don’t know nothing about it.
Number Three is ”Make Me Lose Control,” by Eric Carmen. He had a hit recently from the ‘Dirty Dancing’ soundtrack.
A nice P.R. job.
Number Four is ”Sign Your Name,” by Terence Trent D’ Arby.
He’s more interested in Terence Trent D’Arby than he is in anything else, as far as I’m concerned. Hey, a nice-looking boy – but hung up on himself. A great voice, but that’s not enough.
‘‘1-2-3”, by Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine.
A Holiday Inn band, a club band that made it. Very nice. Love the girl. Like Dirty Dancing: just to watch, yeah. But it palled really quickly.
‘‘I Don’t Wanna Go On with You Like That,” by Elton John.
Reg, give me a Rubens, and I’ll say something nice. Reg Dwight. Lovely bloke, but posing.
‘I Don’t Wanna Live Without Your Love”, by Chicago.
Chicago? I haven’t heard it. Chicago to me was always…I mean, you’ll get a lot of put-downs this way, guy! [Laughs.] You’ve got to forgive me. I haven’t heard that particular record, but I would think ”contrived.”
”Monkey”, by George Michael.
Shave and go home. He’s a wimp in disguise.
”Hold On to the Nights,” by Richard Marx.
I don’t know the particular record, but I have a feeling – why do I say this? – maybe there’s something interesting in there?
And Number Ten is ”Just Got Paid,” by Johnny Kemp.
I wish I just got paid! Who the hell Johnny Kemp is I don’t know.
I also wanted to ask you about the current superstars.
U2 I like. I like Bono very much. When I worked with him, I’d never heard him. I found the guy very interesting and very open. Then, afterwards, I started listening to them. It’s human music; it’s not pushbutton music.
To me the disgusting thing about popular music at the moment … and especially I’m disappointed with you black guys, just pushing buttons and shit. They are, to me, really fucking up. With the drum machines and the engineers that have never … you set up a drum kit and say you’re gonna use a live drummer and they go, ”What? How do we record a thing like that?” Music’s got to do with people, not pushing buttons. To me, it’s kind of weird that George Michael is Number One on the black charts. Because, ‘ey, ‘ey, what happened to Little Milton? What happened to the soul? [
You mentioned Bruce Springsteen earlier. What about his music?
Bruce? That’s a tough one, because I like the guy. But the music… I don’t know. I’m the toughest taskmaster of all time. I’m going to annoy a lot of people. Bruce? To me, it’s pretentious.
What’s pretentious about it?
I love his attitude. I love what he wants to do. I just think he’s gone about it the wrong way. These are just my opinions, and okay, I’ll annoy the lot of you. Bruce? Too contrived for me. Too overblown.
I know you haven’t liked Prince in the past. Has your opinion of him changed?
Prince, I admire his energy, but he’s riding on a wave. To me, Prince is like the Monkees. I don’t see anything of any depth in there. I think he’s very clever at manipulating the music business and the entertainment business. I think he’s more into that than making music. I don’t see much substance in anything he does. Too much appealing to … a Pee-wee Herman trip. And I like Pee-wee Herman better than Prince. He’s appealing to the same audience. To me, it’s kid stuff.
What do you think about Guns n’ Roses?
Not much. I admire the fact that they’ve made it despite certain resistance from the radio biz. I admire their guts. But too much posing. Their look – it’s like there’s one out of this band, one looks like Jimmy, one looks like Ronnie. Too much copycat, too much posing for me. I haven’t listened to a whole album to be able to talk about the music.
I’m a very hard taskmaster. I know that everybody’s gonna say, ”Oh, he’s putting everybody down.”
Well, tell me what you like.
I don’t like much. And I don’t want any of these guys to feel like ”Oh, he’s an old fart, blah-blah-blah. But we’re up there, blah-blah-blah.” I’m not interested in that. My main thing is ”What are you trying to do, just be famous? Or have you got something to say?” And if you do, are you forgoing it in order just to be famous?
I’ve always liked AC/DC, all right? I like U2; I really do. I think Bono, especially, has something special. INXS I’m quite interested in. I like Tracy Chapman. Ziggy Marley I find very interesting because he’s not just ”the son of,” He’s avoided being, I hate to say this, Julian. He’s taken from his father and built on it, but he’s not just ”the son of Bob Marley.” He’s got his own things to say, and he’s serious about it.
The Rolling Stone Interview: Keith Richards, Page 5 of 6