Elton John Once Said Keith Richards Was Like ‘a Monkey With Arthritis’: ‘I Just Think He’s an A**hole’
In the 1970s, Elton John quickly ran offstage after a dirty look from Keith Richards during a Rolling Stones concert. In the years since then, Richards disparaged John’s music, prompting John to fire back at him. John said he would hate to be like Richards, calling him pathetic. He also compared Richards to a monkey.
Elton John said Keith Richards once scared him off a stage
The Rolling Stones invited John onstage during a concert in Colorado. They intended for him to join them on the keyboard for “Honky Tonk Women,” but John overstayed his welcome.
“If anything, cocaine gave me too much confidence for my own good,” John wrote in his book, Me, per the Daily Mail. “If I hadn’t been coked out of my head when the Rolling Stones turned up in Colorado and asked me to come onstage with them, I might have just performed ‘Honky Tonk Women,’ waved to the crowd and made my exit. Instead, I decided it was going so well, I’d stay on and jam along to the rest of their set, without first taking the precaution of asking the Stones if they wanted an auxiliary keyboard player.”
At first, he thought Richards was looking at him in admiration. Soon, though, he realized that the guitarist was furious.
“For a while, I thought Keith Richards kept staring at me because he was awestruck by the brilliance of my improvised contributions to their oeuvre,” John wrote. “After a few songs, it finally penetrated my brain that the expression on his face wasn’t really suggestive of profound musical appreciation. I quickly scuttled off, noting as I went that Keith was still staring at me in a manner that suggested we’d be discussing this later, and decided it might be best if I didn’t hang around for the after-show party.”
Elton John spoke about his feud with Keith Richards
In the years after the Colorado incident, Richards’ relationship with John did not improve. He publicly criticized his music more than once, calling “Candle in the Wind” “Songs for Dead Blonds.” John had first written the song for Marilyn Monroe, and the 1997 re-release was about Princess Diana.
John fired back at Richards after this.
“I’m glad I’ve given up drugs and alcohol. It would be awful to be like Keith Richards,” John told the New York Daily News in 1997 (via American Songwriter). “He’s pathetic, poor thing. It’s like a monkey with arthritis, trying to go on stage and look young. I have great respect for the Stones but they would have been better if they had thrown Keith out 15 years ago … I just think he’s an a**hole and I have for a long time.”
The ‘Rocket Man’ singer has been involved in other feuds
Richards is not the only celebrity John has feuded with. He had a falling out with his friend Rod Stewart after Stewart criticized his lengthy farewell tour.
“I certainly didn’t feel like I needed a lecture on the feral spirit of rock and roll from someone who’d spent most of the last decade crooning his way through the Great American Songbook and ‘Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas,'” he wrote in his memoir, Me, per Vanity Fair.
John has also publicly feuded with Madonna after he criticized her song “Die Another Day.” He later claimed she lip-synched and said that she doesn’t deserve awards. Eventually, though, they both apologized and put an end to the disagreement.
