Of all the fiery temperaments in the world of rock ‘n’ roll, Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards is certainly up there with the best of them. Amidst the countless musicians Richards has met and worked with over his decades-long career, only one seems to have truly matched Richards’ volatile energy and innovative guitar playing. In fact, one could argue that without Richards’ personality and musical match’s trailblazing career in the 1950s, there might have never been a Rolling Stones in the first place.
However, kindred spirits aside, Richards learned a valuable lesson one fateful night when he ended up with a black eye courtesy of his guitar idol.
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The Rolling Stones Are Descendants Of The Father Of Rock ‘n’ Roll
Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards has rarely been one to mince his words. Nor is he afraid to get physical, even when that means hitting a fan with his guitar mid-song when the audience member charged the stage toward the band’s frontman, Mick Jagger. While many rock ‘n’ rollers of the 1960s and ‘70s had similar career paths, tempers, and affinities for the “sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll” lifestyle, Richards stands alone as a uniquely brash, unapologetic, and influential guitarist. But whether we’re talking about Richards or his many contemporaries, one can trace virtually all of these musicians back to the Father of Rock ‘n’ Roll himself: Chuck Berry.
“Even if you’re a rock guitarist who wouldn’t name him as your main influence, your main influence is probably still influenced by Chuck Berry,” Richards wrote in a Rolling Stone feature on the late guitar icon. “He is rock ‘n’ roll in its pure essence. The way he moved, especially in those early film clips; the exuberant ease when he laid down that rhythm was mystifying and something to behold. He used his whole arm to play. He used the shoulder and elbows. Most of us just use our wrists. I’m still working on the shoulder bit. Chuck was not one of those guitar players grimacing at every note he played, which is so common among us all. Chuck’s smiling as he’s playing that s***.”
Richards said listening to Berry as an aspiring guitar player “blasted you into another stratosphere.” The Stones often covered Berry’s music when they were cutting their teeth in the early 1960s, which Richards said was interesting because “it’s not as simple as it looks. It’s also a matter of how interesting you can make it.”
The Guitar Idol Once Left Keith Richards With A Black Eye
Even with the immense respect Keith Richards clearly had for Chuck Berry, there were more than a few times when Berry would have to remind Richards that he was not a musician to be trifled with. “Chuck Berry once gave me a black eye,” Richards told Rolling Stone, “which I later called his greatest hit. We saw him play in New York somewhere, and afterward, I was backstage in his dressing room, where his guitar was lying in its case. I wanted to look, out of professional interest, and as I’m just plucking the strings, Chuck walked in and gave me this wallop to the frickin’ left eye.”
Still, Richards didn’t hold it against Berry. “I realized I was in the wrong. If I walked into my dressing room and saw somebody fiddling with my ax, it would be perfectly all right to sock ‘em, you know? I just got caught. He would do things like throw me off stage, too. I always took that as a reverse compliment, sort of as a sign of respect—because otherwise, he wouldn’t bother with me. He was a little prickly, but at the same time, there was a very warm guy underneath that he wasn’t that willing to display.”
Photo by Al Seib/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images