Bruce Springsteen Called Keith Richards the Most ‘Spectrally Beautiful’ Person He’d Ever Seen
In 2012, Bruce Springsteen felt starstruck to be in a room with Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood, and Charlie Watts. He was joining The Rolling Stones in concert in New Jersey, something that would have felt like a dream to his childhood self. Springsteen explained that he found Richards particularly impressive. He’d learned to play his first guitar solo through Richards’ playing. He also thought the guitarist was the most spectrally beautiful person he’d seen.
Bruce Springsteen shared what it’s like to see Keith Richards in person
When Springsteen was growing up, he dreamed of getting onstage and replacing Jagger in concert. Years later, he lived out a version of this dream. In 2012, he joined The Rolling Stones onstage to sing “Tumbling Dice.” He found the experience exhilarating, but he liked the rehearsal even better.
“There are few handlers, no entourage, and I am suddenly transported back to the little dining room I rehearsed in daily with the Castiles, except . . . these are the guys who INVENTED my job!” Springsteen wrote in his book Born to Run. “They have been stamped on my heart since the chunking chords of ‘Not Fade Away’ came ripping off the little 45 I bought at Britt’s Department Store in the first strip mall in our area.”
Richards, in particular, played a role in Springsteen’s development as a musician. He also saw the guitarist as the most “spectrally beautiful” person he’d ever seen.
“I take the right as [Jagger] counts off and Keith, the man whose recorded playing taught me my first guitar solo, slithers into the opening riff of ‘Tumbling Dice.’ I’ve come across many spirit-filled folk in my travels but no one as spectrally beautiful as Keith Richards.”
Bruce Springsteen learned his first guitar solo from The Rolling Stones guitarist
After getting kicked out of his high school band for having a “piece of junk” guitar, Springsteen knuckled down and taught himself to play lead guitar. The song he used to teach himself was The Rolling Stones’ “It’s All Over Now.”
“That night I went home, pulled out the second Rolling Stones album, put it on and taught myself Keith Richards’s simple but great guitar solo to ‘It’s All Over Now,'” Springsteen wrote. “It took me all night but by midnight I had a reasonable facsimile of it down. F*** ’em, I was going to play lead guitar.”
Keith Richards hasn’t always been a fan of Bruce Springsteen’s music
Springsteen has been a fan of The Rolling Stones since long before he was famous. Richards hasn’t always liked Springsteen’s music, though. In a 1988 conversation with Rolling Stone, he called Springsteen’s music “pretentious.”
“I love his attitude. I love what he wants to do,” he said, adding, “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.”
Given that Springsteen went on to perform with him, it seems Richards changed his opinion.
