In their six decades as Rolling Stones, Keith Richards and Mick Jagger have come
a long way together - and at times, have drifted a long way apart. Here's everything
you need to know about Mick Jagger and Keith Richards' turbulent relationship.
Mick Jagger and Keith Richards have known each other for seven decades.
They grew up together in Dartford, a town in the county of Kent, England,
and both attended Wentworth Primary School. Jagger told “Rolling Stone Magazine,”
"I can't remember when I didn't know him. We lived one street away;
his mother knew my mother, and we were at primary school together from [ages] 7 to 11.
We used to play together, and we weren't the closest friends, but we were friends."
Even beyond their primary school days,
Jagger and Richards continued to orbit each other as kids. Jagger said,
"[We] went to different schools when we were 11, but he went to a school which was really near
where I used to live. But I always knew where he lived, because my mother would never lose contact
with anybody, and she knew where they'd moved. I used to see him coming home from his school,
which was less than a mile away from where I lived."
One fateful day in October 1961, Jagger and Richards ran into each other at the train station.
Jagger told “Rolling Stone” it was a fateful moment.
"I had these rhythm and blues records, which were very prized
possessions because they weren't available in England then. And he said, 'Oh, yeah,
these are really interesting.' That kind of did it. That's how it started, really."
Richards actually wrote a letter to his aunt at the time telling her about their encounter.
He wrote that they bonded over their love of Chuck Berry, saying
"I was holding one of Chuck's records when a guy I knew at primary school
7-11 [years] y'know came up to me. He's got every record Chuck Berry ever made
and all his mates have too, they are all rhythm and blues fans, real R&B I mean."
From there, the pair kept in contact,
often meeting to listen to records. Richards began picking up his guitar and playing it for Jagger,
who would sing. That led to collaborations, initially playing music as a pair,
and later with two others in a band called Little Boy Blue and the Blue Boys in clubs around London.
On July 12, 1962, the Rolling Stones — named after a Muddy Waters song — made
their official debut. The lineup included Jagger and Richards, along with guitarist Brian Jones,
keyboardist Ian Stewart, and drummer Mick Avory, who later joined The Kinks.
Richards wrote in a letter to his aunt,
"Mick is the greatest R&B singer this side of the Atlantic and I don't mean maybe.
We practice 2 or 3 nights a week. SWINGIN'."
After a quarter century together, the Rolling Stones went through a phase that Keith Richards
has called "World War III" following the release of their 1986 album "Dirty Work."
Mick Jagger had released a solo album, 1985's "She's the Boss," and was set to release another,
1987's "Primitive Cool." Richards, meanwhile, wanted to go on tour to support "Dirty Work."
The fight nearly broke up the band for good. Richards later said,
"I really believed Mick wouldn't dare tour without the Stones.
It was too hard a slap in the face to deliver us. It was a death sentence."
For his part, Jagger told “Rolling Stone”
at the time that he hoped the band would get back together.
"We've had a lot of ups and downs in the Rolling Stones,
and this is one of them. I, for one, hope we will regroup."
He went on to say that he simply needed some personal and creative space.
"I love the Rolling Stones – I think it's wonderful, I think it's done a lot of wonderful
things for music. But, you know, it cannot be, at my age and after spending all these years,
the only thing in my life [...] And if I want to step outside of it,
in any way I want, I feel I have the right to do so."
With Jagger off doing his solo albums, Richards decided he might as well spend
the free time doing his own solo work as well, which resulted in his 1988 album "Talk is Cheap".
He later told “The Sun” that the experience gave him a new understanding of Jagger, saying
"It was my first time fronting the whole thing. Usually, this is Mick's
job and suddenly I understood a lot more about the dynamics of being a frontman.
I understood the pressure. My feelings towards Mick became, 'Yeah, I get it, man.'"
Still, Richards also used the album to vent via a good old fashioned
diss track. Titled "You Don't Move Me Anymore," the lyrics about Jagger say in part,
"Why do you think you got no friends / You drove
them around the bend/ What makes you so greedy / What makes you so seedy?"
Richards explained to “The New York Times” that,
yes indeed, he was writing about Jagger, although not exclusively.
"I'd written 40 songs for the album and had run out of ideas.
And Steve Jordan said, 'When in doubt, write about Mick.'
But the song is not just about him. It can be about any friend you think is messing up."
Richards also explained that he looked at it as a kind of musical intervention
that only Jagger's closest friends could deliver.
”I think of our differences as a family squabble. If I shout and scream at him, it's because no one
else has the guts to do it or else they're paid not to do it. At the same time I'd hope Mick
realizes that I'm a friend who is just trying to bring him into line and do what needs to be done."
It apparently worked, because The Rolling Stones were back, both in the studio and on the road,
by 1989, when they released "Steel Wheels." Still, the dynamic between Jagger and Richards was
permanently altered. Richards later said that a reunion was inevitable despite the new animosity.
"Mick and I were joined at the hip. There was no way we could survive alone."
Keith Richards published his explosive memoir, "Life," in 2010. The book,
which became a best-seller, did not reflect kindly on Mick Jagger, as
Richards used the book as a way to air all his decades of pent-up grievances. Richards wrote,
"It was the beginning of the '80s when Mick started to become unbearable. Mick got very
big ideas. All lead singers do. It's a known affliction called LVS, lead vocalist syndrome."
Richards added that Jagger had a "swollen head"
and an "inflated ego," and that members of the band would call him "Brenda,
or Her Majesty, or just Madam," to ridicule his high-maintenance ways.
Toward the end of "Life," Richards described how
his relationship with Jagger had changed over the years.
"I used to love to hang with Mick, but I haven't gone to his dressing room in,
I don't think, 20 years. Sometimes I miss my friend. Where the hell did he go?"
According to “The New York Post,” Jagger told music journalist Rich Cohen - author
of "The Sun and the Moon and the Rolling Stones" - his thoughts on Richards' book. Jagger's view:
everything Richards says should be taken with a whole shaker
of salt considering he's an unreliable narrator due to his legendary drug use.
Of all the barbs Keith Richards sent Mick Jagger's way in his autobiography, "Life," one hit below
the belt — quite literally, as Richards made snide comments about the size of Jagger's manhood.
Richards had no choice but to apologize to Jagger shortly thereafter,
as the rift was deep enough that bandmates said an apology was necessary before the band could
continue together. Jagger confirmed to “Rolling Stone” that the apology was mandatory, saying,
"Well, I think it was a good thing he got together with me and said that.
I don't really want to talk about it apart from that, but I think it's good that he said it,
and yes, it was a prerequisite, really."
Richards, on the other hand, essentially withdrew his apology in an interview with “Rolling Stone,”
implying that he wasn't really sorry.
"We resolved it, in our own way, you know.
I said I regret if I caused you any, you know, inconvenience or pain, or something.
I'd say anything to get the band together, you know? I'd lie to my mother."
Mick Jagger became Sir Mick Jagger when he was knighted in 2003. His knighthood
was controversial, with even Queen Elizabeth II herself reportedly declaring the partying rocker
"not suitable" for the honor. And one of the most vocal critics of the spectacle was,
unsurprisingly, Keith Richards.
Richards, who basically has made a second career just trashing Jagger in the press,
told “Uncut Magazine,”
"I thought it was ludicrous to take one of those gongs from the Establishment
when they did their very best to throw us in jail. I don't want to step out
onstage with someone wearing a coronet and sporting the old ermine [...] I told Mick,
'It's a f**king paltry honor' [...] It's not what the Stones is about, is it?"
He added that the honor was never offered to him because,
quote, "they knew I'd tell them where they could put it."
"I thought it was a shoddy award, you know. Anyway,
I wouldn't let that family near me with a sharp stick, let alone a sword."
For his part, Jagger told the BBC that it was just Keith being Keith.
"He's not a happy person!"
In 2015 — five years after "Life" was published — Keith Richards told “The Daily News” that he stood
by the claims in his book, particularly when asked about his portrayal of Mick Jagger as a snob.
"I'll reinforce that. His daughter, Georgia May, was sitting around in my room and she said,
'Oh, you know what Dad's like. He's such a snob.' He can come off that way even to
me and the rest of the band. He comes on the plane and doesn't say, 'Hey mate.'"
Richards also referred to Jagger as a "control freak," adding,
"He likes to know everything that's going on. He lost himself a bit in the details."
On December 8, 2016, a 73-year-old Mick Jagger welcomed a son, Deveraux Octavian Basil Jagger,
with his partner Melanie Hamrick, who is four decades his junior. As of 2021,
Jagger has eight children with five women, as well as five grandchildren and a great-grandchild.
In a 2018 interview with “The Wall Street Journal,”
Keith Richards discussed Jagger's huge brood.
"It's time for the snip — you can't be a father at that age. Those poor kids!"
The quote went viral, and Richards was once again forced to issue personal
and public apologies. He wrote on Twitter,
"I deeply regret the comments I made about Mick in the WSJ which were completely out of line.
I have of course apologised to him in person."
Despite the decades that Richards has spent publicly sniping at Jagger, he says they are
still friends, and these arguments are just part of their whole thing. He told “The Sun,”
"I can praise Mick Jagger 99 percent of the time. Mick knows what I mean and he'll say
the same about me. Things happen between Mick and me because it's just two guys working together.
You only hear about the odd bust-up. I love the man 99 percent of the time."
He elaborated in an interview with “The Daily News,” saying of Jagger,
"He's a hell of a frontman. I still love him dearly. Your friends don't have to be perfect."
In fact, Richards told “The Wall Street Journal” that the
disagreements between him and Jagger are part of what keeps their dynamic strong.
"Mick and I live off of this fire between us."
With both Jagger and Richards approaching the age of 80, you might think the band
would be ready to slow down. But despite the sudden loss of drummer Charlie Watts in 2021,
the band has announced that they still intend to continue touring,
and plans to celebrate the band's 60th anniversary in 2022 are still on the table.
Richards told “Rolling Stone” that has been and always will be their life, saying,
"You might call it a habit. I mean, that's what we do. And also there's that thing between us,
like, 'Who's going to be the first one to get off the bus?' You have to be kicked off or drop off,
right? So it's like that. I really can't imagine doing anything else."
We can't wait to see what the future brings for the world's greatest rock band.
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