For almost six decades, Keith Richards worked with one of the greatest drummers of all time, Charlie Watts. Besides his longtime bandmate, he admires many other drummers, although there are two famous ones he isn’t particularly a fan of. Rock and Roll selected what he said about those artists and his connection with some of them.
2 famous drummers Keith Richards is not a fan of
John Bonham (Led Zeppelin)
Although Keith Richards was never a fan of John Bonham or Led Zeppelin, he did recognize that Bonham had a heavy hand, describing him as an “uncontrolled 18-wheeler”. “I love Jimmy Page, but as a band, no, with John Bonham thundering down the highway in an uncontrolled 18-wheeler. He had cornered the market there. Jimmy is a brilliant player. But I always felt there was something a little hollow about it, you know?” he told Rolling Stone magazine back in 2015.
Until now, every time he talked about Zeppelin, Jimmy Page was the one he praised the most. He went to see Led Zeppelin playing in the 70s but that didn’t change his mind. “As a band I thought they never took off musically. At the same time Jimmy Page is one of the best guitar players ever known and a hell of a powerhouse drummer. I think is kind of heavy-handed, myself, but that’s where the “Led” comes in. But at the same time Plant is exuberant, Robert is exuberant.”
He continued:
“Absolutely an LV (Lead singer), although I think he is very much in that English mood of Elvis, Roger Daltrey. There was the fringes and blah, blah, blah, and the microphone. (He also recalls) Rod Stewart and even Mick Jagger. (There were) there were scenes that copied each other a bit, but to me Led Zeppelin is Jimmy Page. You know, you wanna cut the story short: Jimmy Page, shy boy,” he said on his website in 2004.
Keith never played with John Bonham but Jimmy Page was part of a few Rolling Stones songs. They first collaborated on the track “Scarlet” in 1974, which was only released in 2020 as a part of the reissue of “Goats Head Soup”. 12 years later, in 1986, Page recorded the guitar solo in the Stones song “One Hit (To The Body), part of the album “Dirty Work”.
Keith Moon (The Who)
Keith Richards was also never a fan of Keith Moon and, when he talked about The Who throughout his career, he often praised only Pete Townshend. Once, when talking about Ringo Starr, he mentioned Moon and Bonham as examples of drummers who were inferior to Starr and Charlie Watts.
“Ringo, what a guy, what a steady backbeat, man,” Keith once said and he puts Starr in the same category as Charlie Watts, which in his opinion is quite different and better than John Bonham and Keith Moon’s style. He (Charlie Watts) had feel, he had intelligence. You’re talking to me about people like Bonham and Moon. They just like to hit things (laughs), and that’s the difference (between Charlie and them). (Ringo) is a great drummer, he can read a song. You see, that’s the other thing with your Bonhams and Moonies… I loved Moonie dearly as a person, as a drummer I’d kill him.”
“Because he was no bloody good, you know. He can’t swing, he can’t (do) any of (it). He can only do that (hit the drums). One or two tracks I did cut with him was an absolute disaster. But at the same time I loved the guy. As a drummer no. I mean, all he could do is drum for The Who, which is okay. I mean, as long as you stuck with The Who,” he said in an interview with Howard Stern in 2023 (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage).
The other member of The Who whom Keith Richards has criticized is Roger Daltrey. The guitarist said he thought the vocalist was “all flash”. Daltrey, on the other hand, once called The Rolling Stones a mediocre pub band, although he has praised Mick Jagger and admires him as a frontman.