Keith Richards Called Bob Dylan a ‘Nasty Little Bugger’ 

TL;DR:

• During a concert, Bob Dylan once flipped off Keith Richards and the Rolling Stones.
• Bob Dylan insulted Keith Richards, leading him to jokingly call the singer “nasty.”
• Keith Richards said he’d always be excited to work with Bob Dylan.

Bob Dylan and Keith Richards have praised each other’s music but haven’t always seen eye to eye. The two artists rose to prominence in the 1960s and released some of the most well-known music of their generation. They’re both highly successful. Still, Dylan felt the need to compare them. Richards shared what Dylan said to make him call him a “nasty little bugger.”

Bob Dylan once flipped off the Rolling Stones during a concert

At a Rolling Stones concert in France, the band welcomed Dylan onstage to join them in a rendition of “Like a Rolling Stone.” The band The Black Crowes was in the audience and recalled watching Dylan step up to the microphone and fail to sing anything.

“They go around to the chorus and then they come up to Bob’s turn,” The Black Crowes frontman Chris Robinson explained, per NME. “Bob goes to the mic and doesn’t sing anything. And you see them look around and they’re like, ‘Okay.’ Cos it’s like you missed a turn at a roundabout and you gotta go all the way back around. So they go all the way around again … and he just leans into the mic and turns away.”

Dylan eventually began singing, but he walked away from the stage before the song was over. Before he exited completely, though, he turned around, flipped off the band, and yelled, “F*** you!” 

It wasn’t clear why Dylan seemed so upset, but, according to Robinson, “It was the best f***ing concert I’ve ever seen in my life.”

Keith Richards once called Bob Dylan ‘nasty’

The band liked Dylan enough to invite him onstage, but he seemed to be fond of insulting them. According to Richards, Dylan once took a swipe at their catalog of music, saying that his own was better.

“Bob’s a nasty little bugger,” Richards once said, per NME. “I remember him saying to me, ‘I could have written ‘Satisfaction,’ but you couldn’t have written ‘Desolation Row.'”

“(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” was on the Stones’ 1965 album, Out of Our Heads, and helped the band breakthrough with an American audience. “Desolation Row” was a lyrically dense song by Dylan from the same year. 

Though Dylan’s words prompted Richards to call him “nasty,” he didn’t necessarily disagree with him.

“I said, ‘Well, you’re right there, Bob,'” he said.

Keith Richards said he’d work with Bob Dylan anytime

Despite the insults Dylan has lobbed his way, Richards said he’ll always be eager to work with the American musician. He was a fan of him as a musician and a person and felt honored whenever he could perform with him.

“I’d work with Bob any[where],” he said, per Rolling Stone. “I’d work with Bob in hell or heaven. I love him.”