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TL;DR:

  • Keith Richards said The Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil” has a positive message.
  • He discussed how the song resonated after 9/11.
  • The original “Sympathy for the Devil” was a hit in the United Kingdom, not the United States.
Keith Richards wearing a bow tie The Rolling Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil" era
The Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards | Graham Wiltshire / Contributor

Keith Richards said The Rolling Stones‘ “Sympathy for the Devil” has a positive message. He said he’d had his own interactions with Lucifer. In addition, Richards explained the political context of “Sympathy for the Devil.”

Keith Richards said The Rolling Stones’ ‘Sympathy for the Devil’ is about how you should look the devil in the face

The 2013 book 50 Licks: Myths and Stories from Half a Century of The Rolling Stones, says “Sympathy for the Devil” was inspired by blues music. Despite this, Richards offered a positive interpretation of “Sympathy for the Devil.” “‘Sympathy’ is quite an uplifting song,” he opined. “It’s just a matter of looking [the devil] in the face. He’s there all the time. 

“I’ve had very close contact with Lucifer — I’ve met him several times,” he added. “Evil people tend to bury it and hope it sorts itself out and doesn’t rear its ugly head.”

Keith Richards said The Rolling Stones were responding to a new era of ‘international chaos’ when they recorded the song

Richards discussed the political context of “Sympathy of the Devil.” “‘Sympathy for the Devil’ is just as appropriate now, with 9/11,” he said. “There it is again, big time. When that song was written, it was a time of turmoil. It was the first sort of international chaos since World War II. And confusion is not the ally of peace and love. You want to think the world is perfect. Everybody gets sucked into that.”

Richards discussed how people should react to evil. “You might as well accept the fact that evil is there and deal with it any way you can,” he said. “‘Sympathy for the Devil’ is a song that says, ‘Don’t forget him.’ If you confront him, then he’s out of a job.”

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How ‘Sympathy for the Devil’ performed on the charts in the United States and the United Kingdom

The original version of “Sympathy for the Devil” was not a single in the United States, so it did not chart on the Billboard Hot 100. A group of remixes of the song hit No. 97 on the chart for a single week. The original “Sympathy for the Devil” appeared on the album Beggars Banquet, which hit No. 5 on the Billboard 200 and spent a total of 32 weeks on the chart.

According to The Official Charts Company, “Sympathy for the Devil” was a modest hit in the United Kingdom. There, “Sympathy for the Devil” peaked at No. 14 and stayed on the chart for seven weeks. On the other hand, Beggars Banquet reached No. 3 in the U.K. and remained on the chart for 12 weeks.

“Sympathy for the Devil” is one of The Rolling Stones’ most beloved songs and Richards feels it has a positive message.

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