In a recent interview, former Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman recalls a moment in which his bandmate Keith Richards almost got into trouble – in the truest sense of the word.
It wasn’t just the Beatles who had hysterical fans. The Rolling Stones also had to struggle with pushy fans, especially when they were young. Wyman remembered a special situation in an interview with the magazine “Classic rock“ – and this was particularly worrying for Stones guitar legend Keith Richards.
Bill Wyman: “Once, just before Los Angeles”
“Once, just before Los Angeles, we left the stadium after playing in front of five thousand people. The limo driver took the wrong exit and we couldn’t get out. Soon the car was full of teenagers: they climbed onto the trunk, the roof, they banged on the windows, and we had to lie on the floor and hold up the roof with our feet. We couldn’t breathe because we were simply swallowed up. “It was pretty frightening,” Wyman remembers.
Keith Richards was choked
What followed was a police operation – and a Keith Richards who had to contend with overly pushy fans: “Then the police came, brandished their clubs and cleared a path to the helicopter. Keith had a scarf that he always wore and at one point some of the girls were holding one end of it and some were holding the other, then they started pulling and wouldn’t let go. They almost strangled him,” Wyman said.
Apparently the band took such events with humor, despite the danger that existed: “So there were these moments in which the clothes were torn and large parts of the hair were torn out. But it wasn’t scary, frightening or really dangerous. In the end you just had to laugh about it.”