Keith Richards Shared How He Finally Learned to Appreciate Mick Jagger
Keith Richards and Mick Jagger consider each other brothers and, in their decades of knowing each other, have fought as only families can. Their relationship suffered in the 1980s, and they’ve hit many bumps in the years since. Still, they manage to work together in The Rolling Stones. This might have something to do with the fact that Richards has learned to appreciate all that Jagger does, even when he’s frustrated with him. He shared how his own solo career helped with this.
Keith Richards said his solo career gave him a new appreciation for Mick Jagger
In 1986, Jagger opted to work on his solo career instead of touring with The Rolling Stones. While this caused a major rift within the band, it also gave Richards an opportunity to pursue a solo career of his own. He formed the group X-Pensive Winos with Steve Jordan. For the first time in his lengthy music career, Richards fronted a band. Despite the responsibilities that came with the role, Richards said he felt relief.
“I wasn’t under the pressure of the Stones,” he told Rolling Stone. “It was a lot looser.”
Forming the X-Pensive Winos had the benefit of allowing Richards to broaden his creativity. It also allowed him to see things from Jagger’s perspective at a particularly fraught time in their relationship.
“I learned a lot about being a frontman,” he said. “I appreciated it a lot more — Mick’s angle on things — onstage especially. It widened my perspective of what everybody has to do in a band. It gave me more respect for the frontman.”
He realized he could never take a step back. He was able to do this in the Stones, but Jagger couldn’t. It added a new layer of responsibility that he learned to respect.
“You realize that you’re it all the time; you don’t stop,” he explained. “With the Stones, I’m in a beautiful position of being able to go forward whenever I feel like it, or just hunker down with the band and the groove. I have choices. The frontman has no choice.”
Keith Richards said his arguments with Mick Jagger will never fully destroy their relationship
Richards reached this level of understanding and appreciation for Jagger during what he described as the “World War III” of their relationship. This showed that no matter how frayed their relationship became, they would always have some level of respect for one another. This is the reason that the band has been able to stay together for decades.
“Mick and I may not be friends — too much wear and tear for that — but we’re the closest of brothers, and that can’t be severed,” Richards wrote in his book Life. “How can you describe a relationship that goes that far back? Best friends are best friends. But brothers fight. I felt a real sense of betrayal. Mick knows how I feel, although he may not have realized my feelings went so deep. But it’s the past I’m writing about; this stuff happened a long time ago. I can say these things; they come from the heart. At the same time, nobody else can say anything against Mick that I can hear. I’ll slit their throat.”
The guitarist didn’t have any similar revelations about his bandmate’s solo career
Though Richards learned to respect Jagger as the lead singer of The Rolling Stones, he didn’t develop any respect for his bandmate’s solo career. He said that he’s barely even listened to his 1985 album.
“Mick’s album was called She’s the Boss, which said it all,” he wrote. “I’ve never listened to the entire thing all the way through. Who has? It’s like Mein Kampf. Everybody has a copy, but nobody listened to it. As to his subsequent titles, carefully worded, Primitive Cool, Goddess in the Doorway, which it was irresistible not to rechristen ‘Dogs*** in the Doorway,’ I rest my case.”
