Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards has never been one to mince or apologize for his words about anything or anyone, including his closest colleagues, but a joke he made about bandmate Mick Jagger in 2018 proved to be the one comment he admitted to regretting.
While the comment clearly wasn’t scandalous enough to stop the Stones from touring together, it was bad enough to warrant an apology from Richards on social media. (Although, most of the only community that responded seemed to agree with Richards’ original sentiments.)
Keith Richards Regretted This Joke About Mick Jagger
After decades in the business, Keith Richards has no problem speaking his mind exactly how he sees fit. From harshly criticizing their former opening act, Prince, to openly expressing his disdain for fellow British rockers Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones guitarist has always said what he wanted with little to no remorse. But that changed following a 2018 interview with the Wall Street Journal.
Unsurprisingly, Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger made his way into Richards’ conversation with WSJ. Richards said of his bandmate, “Mick’s a randy old b******. It’s time for the snip. You can’t be a father at that age. Those poor kids” (via Rolling Stone). At the time, Jagger had recently had his eighth child with girlfriend Melanie Hamrick—the first child the couple had together.
Not long after the vasectomy comment went viral, Richards took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to recant his statement. “I deeply regret the comments I made about Mick in the WSJ which were completely out of line. I have of course apologised to him in person.” It’s unclear whether Jagger or his girlfriend asked for the apology, but the online community certainly didn’t feel like it was necessary.
“It’s not like everyone else in the world isn’t thinking the same thing,” one X user replied. “Heck, it’s good advice for a guy approaching 50, let alone 75,” another wrote.
This Was Hardly The First Bandmate Quarrel
After working together for longer than most people in the music industry have been alive, it’s no wonder that Keith Richards and Mick Jagger would have the occasional spat. Richard described their tensions in great detail in his memoir Life, recalling how he used to call Jagger “Her Majesty” as a jab at what Richards saw as his prima-donna behavior. Richards also took the time to insult Jagger’s “tiny todger” in his book—an interesting memoir choice indeed.
Richards has also not-so-subtly lashed out at Jagger in song, like in his 1988 solo track “You Don’t Move Me.” The guitarist has skirted around the answer of whether the song is truly about Jagger, but lyrics like, Why do you think you got no friends? You drove them all around the bend, make it hard to believe the song wasn’t aimed at Jagger.
Personal feuds and spats aside, the Stones show no signs of slowing down their rigorous performance schedule. So, if there is any bad blood remaining between the two iconic musicians, it’s obviously not bad enough to keep them from rocking out on stage together.
Photo by Sven Hoogerhuis/BSR Agency/Getty Images
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