Mick Jagger used to be annoyed by Keith Richards constantly playing Beatles songs.
The normal flat share madness: Even Keith Richards and Mick Jagger didn’t always agree on many things when they were young, when they shared an apartment in the mid-sixties. This apparently also included musical taste: Jagger has admitted that many of the Rolling Stones’ songs were inspired by the Beatles’ pop hits because Richards was obsessed with them.
“Keith Richards was the pop man”
Speaking to Mojo magazine recently, he explained: “Originally, Keith was really the pop guy. I only wrote lyrics to his pop songs, and he wrote them all because he listened to the Beatles all the time. It drove me crazy listening to them all the time when we shared an apartment.” Keith Richards eventually left this phase, in which “Ruby Tuesday” and “Let’s Spend the Night Together” were created, behind him. “But yeah, people will say, ‘Keith was the one who liked the blues.’ I still like pop music, listen to it all the time – Keith not so much. And I still like blues, but I also like dance music, and Keith doesn’t really like that,” said Mick Jagger.
That’s why working with Paul McCartney on the new Stones song “Bite My Head Off” was a special moment. “Macca wanted to make it sound dirty, and we thought, ‘OK,’” says Richards. Ronnie Wood recently revealed that Paul McCartney also appears on another song from the new album. Ultimately, this fell victim to the editing process. However, it will be published at a later date. In an interview with NME, he explained about working with the former Beatle: “He was so happy. In fact, he played on two tracks, one of which we have in reserve for later because we recorded about 23 songs and only chose the first 12.”
Ronnie Wood would like to play the entire album live
When asked how many of the new songs will end up on their setlist at Rolling Stones live shows, Ronnie Wood already has a pretty clear answer: “That’s next. Next week we will see how they are implemented live. I have complete trust. We could play the whole album, you know what I mean? But [Mick und Keith] will say, ‘Oh no, Ron, that’s so ambitious.’ We can’t forget the back catalogue. Certain songs like ‘Paint It, Black’ and ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’ need to be played. We’ll only make room for about three to five songs.”