Keith Richards’ opinion on Keith Moon

During his career, Keith Richards had the chance to work with one of the greatest drummers of all time, Charlie Watts, who was behind the Rolling Stones‘ kit for almost 60 years. He praised the late musician multiple times and always recognized how important he was to the band’s sound.

However, he also had the chance to see many other famous drummers perform and played with some of them on a few occasions. Over the decades, he gave his opinion on many of them, including the late Who drummer Keith Moon.

What is Keith Richards’ opinion on Keith Moon

To Keith Richards, Moon was “an incredible drummer, but only with Pete Townshend”, because in his opinion he couldn’t play with anybody well with anybody else. “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).

Keith had already previously said he wasn’t a fan of Moon and also Roger Daltrey, who he thought was all flash. “I always thought (Roger) Daltrey was all flash. And I love Pete Townshend, but I always thought the Who were a crazy band, anyway. You would say to (Keith) Moon, if you were in a session with him, ‘Just give me a swing,’ and he (couldn’t).”

Keith continued:

“He was an incredible drummer, but only with Pete Townshend. He could play to Pete like nobody else in the world. But if somebody threw him into a session with somebody else, it was a disaster. There’s nothing wrong with that; sometimes you’ve got that one paintbrush, and you rock it.”

“I just was never really interested in that many English rock & roll bands actually, at all. I mean, I usually like guys like Johnny Kidd and the Pirates, and that was before I was even recording. But there was something (about) the Yeses and the Journeys and all them that just left me a bit cold,” Keith Richards told Rolling Stone in 2015.

Charlie Watts and Keith Richards shared the same opinion of Keith Moon

Curiously, the late Rolling Stones drummer, who was a friend of Moon, shared Keith Richards’ opinion of the legendary drummer. “Keith Moon, there was a character. Loved him. There’s only one of him. I miss him a lot. He was a very charming bloke, a lovely guy, really, but quite… But he could be a difficult guy, really. Actually, there wasn’t only one of him. He was more like three people in one.”

“He used to live here in Los Angeles for a while, in some of his madder days. God, I remember being here once with him when he tried to turn me on to chocolate ants; he was walking about with tins of chocolate ants. That’s what I mean. He was not your regular guy, in that way, but he was, in his heart, a nice guy. I always got on well with him.”

“He was an amazing drummer with Pete (Townshend). I don’t know if he was a very good drummer outside of Pete (Laughs). A lot of guys, I don’t think, would have liked playing with him. He didn’t play real time or anything, he wasn’t funky or anything. He was a whole other thing,” he said in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine in 2013.

Richards thinks Pete Townshend was the most important member of The Who

Although he had criticized both Moon and Daltrey, Richards has praised Pete Townshend many times as a great songwriter and guitarist. While he never really liked The Who’s music, he has always acknowledged that the band’s guitarist and primary songwriter is exceptionally talented. “In actual fact, Townshend made better Who records than the Who did together. He used to go there with the album already finished. The rest would come up with some dubs. But his was ten times better than the finished record.”

“It was just a matter of them imitating what Peter had already laid out. Kinda Hitchcockish. After doin’ the storyboards, makin’ the actual movie was a drag for Hitchcock. His role thing was puttin’ it all together. But I think, in a way, I don’t know if this is true, this is my interpretation, Peter is kinda like that. He is the Who. When Moonie was alive, him and Townshend were The Who. Pete knew what he wanted to do and made damned sure they did it. But I think he could possibly done it better himself,” Keith Richards said.

Pete Townshend has always been a huge fan of The Rolling Stones and even inducted them into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Roger Daltrey only praised Mick Jagger, who he thinks is a great frontman. But when it comes to the band, he called them a “mediocre pub band”, in an interview with Coda Collection in 2021.