A fundamental part of The Rolling Stones, Keith Richards helped to form the group back in the early 60s, created some of the greatest guitar riffs of all time and was also Jagger's songwriting partner for the past six decades. His impact as a guitar player is enormous and he influenced countless musicians worldwide since the group released their first record. During his career, the musician talked about a lot of guitar players and gave his real opinion on them and their bands. Rock and Roll Garage selected nine guitarists that Keith Richards likes and praised. 9 Rock guitarists that Keith Richards praised Jimi Hendrix https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rqqaw9iN0Js&pp=ygUbSmltaSBIZW5kcml4IGtlaXRoIHJpY2hhcmRz The first one on the list is Jimi Hendrix, the legendary American guitarist and singer that, according to Keith Richards, "ruined" the guitar for everybody. “One guy can ruin an instrument. Jimi Hendrix, bless his heart – how I wish he was still around – almost inadvertently ruined guitar. Because he was the only cat who could do it like that. Everybody else just screwed it up, and thought wailing away (on the guitar) is the answer. But it ain’t; you’ve got to be a Jimi to do that, you’ve got to be one of the special cats,” he told San Diego Tribune. Hendrix rose to fame after going to England and recording Jimi Hendrix's Experience debut album "Are You Experienced". Keith Richards had the chance to see the guitarist playing live when he was still a sideman for other artists like Curtis Knight, for example. “I first heard him on the road with Curtis Knight. Then I used to see him play at a club called Ondine’s in New York. I thought I was watching someone just about to break. But as far as his being a guitar player, I mean, I was disappointed when the records started comin’ out.” Keith Richards continued: “Although, given the time and that period, and given the fact that he was forced into an 'English psychedelic bag' and then had to live with it because that’s what made him. One of the reasons that he was so down at the period when he died was because he couldn’t find a way out of that. He wanted to just go back and start playing some funky music, and when he did, nobody wanted to know." "Everybody got sort of carried on this tidal wave of success for doing outlandish things, until what they were really known for was the outlandishness of what they were doing, and not really what they were doing. I mean, even with Satanic Majesties, I was never hot on psychedelic music,” Richards told Rolling Stone magazine in 1981. Hendrix was one year older than Keith Richards and tragically passed away in 1970 at the age of 27. Angus Young (AC/DC) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcw7fHmlTb8&pp=ygUaYW5ndXMgeW91bmcga2VpdGggcmljaGFyZHM%3D The second guitarist on the list is Angus Young, someone that many fans might not expect to be among the ones praised by Richards but he is a huge AC/DC fan. As Young told Triple M , Richards' favorite album of the group is "Powerage" (1978). “Yeah, Waddy, I know Waddy from – he was gigging. He did quite a bit of gigging with Keith Richards, with The Stones. So yeah, Waddy is a big guy. He was the guy that actually turned on Keith to what we did." “He played our album at the time. Because he was trying to see what we would really like. He played in that album, and Keith heard it once and then he said, ‘Put it on again.' So it’s an album, he really loves that album. It’s a part of his ritual now that he’s got that album with him everywhere,” Angus Young said. Richards and Angus have been good friends for decades already and had the chance to perform live a couple of times. The most famous jam happened back in 2002 when AC/DC accepted the invitation to be The Rolling Stones opening act. Angus and Malcolm joined them on stage during one of their shows in Australia that year to play the track "Rock Me Baby" (B.B. King) and later on they did the same thing in Canada and Germany when they opened for the Stones. Keith loves AC/DC's "Powerage" In an interview made for their DVD about the tour, called “Four Flicks“, Keith Richards talked about AC/DC. (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage) “There are bands that you can’t tell who is doing what. Angus and Malcolm in a way, you know Angus gonna play the leads but their tightness is always impressive.” “Being a guitar player is one thing, being a guitar player with another guitar player it’s to the power of. It’s not two guitars, it becomes five, six, ten. Doing these gigs together, we all enjoyed each other. I kind of like being taller than another guitar player as well (laughs). Bless their hearts, they are great little bundle of energy,” Keith Richards said. Chuck Berry https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHOiwOanIBM&pp=ygUaQ2h1Y2sgQmVycnkga2VpdGggcmljaGFyZHM%3D It's well known that Keith Richards has always been a huge Chuck Berry fan and even helped the American musician to revive his career in the 80s when they played together on a special occasion. The result of that was the documentary "Chuck Berry: Hail! Hail! Rock ‘n’ Roll" (1987). He was even punched by Berry because he tried to play his guitar without asking him first if he could. Although there were some rough moments in their friendship, they continued to be good friends and Richards praised him many times. It was in an interview with BBC that the Rolling Stones member said that "Wee Wee Hours", a single released by Chuck in 1955 was one of his favorites of all time. It was one of the records he would choose to take with him to a desert island. Another Chuck Berry track that Keith Richards loves is "Let It Rock", released in 1959 on the album "Rockin' at the Hops". He explained in an interview with Planet Rock on the show Blues Power (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage), why he liked that track so much. “You don’t hear this one a lot but it has all the ingredients of Chuck Berry in it. The incredible guitar solos, very innovative drum beat going on behind it. What I learned from Chuck Berry was ‘pick your drummer’, is the most important man. If you’re doing stuff like Chuck Berry and I do, which is rhythm guitar, the drummer can ruin it if he ain’t on. Which is why I have Charlie Watts. To me is really like the epitome of what Rock and Roll should sound. It’s got edge on it, it’s got effortless, there is three guitar solos in there and they’re all beautiful.” Keith Richards continued: “He is almost off the scale, at that time everything just seemed to flow out of him. He is a complex guy once you’ve got to know him, he once gave me a black-eye backstage of a gig of his. Chuck was in his normal by that time mode of the little black bag, got the money and run. He left his guitar out in his dressing room and I just picked it up. He walks in and (says) ‘Nobody touches…’ (and punches Keith Richards). Few months later I get these apologetic ‘Keith, I didn’t know it.’ (And I say) ‘Chuck, you did the right move. I wouldn’t let anybody touch mine either (laughs),” Keith Richards said. Chuck Berry passed away in 2017 at the age of 90 near Wentzville, Missouri, United States. George Harrison (Beatles) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXdcgcTVCH8&pp=ygUoR2VvcmdlIEhhcnJpc29uIChCZWF0bGVzKSBrZWl0aCByaWNoYXJkc9IHCQl-CQGHKiGM7w%3D%3D The late legendary Beatles guitarist George Harrison was also a musician who was praised many times by Keith. The Fab Four helped the Rolling Stones in the beginning of their career and even helped them to have their first hit song. In a special Rolling Stone magazine edition, called “Remembering George", Richards called him a "craftsman". “The thing is, you’ve got your Jimi Hendrix, you’ve got your Eric Clapton, and then you’ve got guys who can play with bands. And George was a band and a team player. To me, that’s way above being some virtuoso flash artist… George was an artist, but he was also a f* craftsman". “When you listen to his songs, you’re aware of how much went into it. He didn’t flip anything off. George crafted his stuff very, very carefully, and it all had its own feel. This was a guy who could come out with a great song or a great record anytime. To me – George was, always will be, above all, a real gentleman, in the full meaning of the word. We both felt we held similar positions in our respective bands, which formed a special, knowing bond between us. Let’s hope he’s jamming with John,” Keith Richards said. Although he admired George's playing, Keith once said in the Q&A session "Ask Keith", on his website, that he didn't like the way the Beatles producer George Martin used to record Harrison's guitar parts. "(Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage) George (Harrison) was another great mate of mine. I think as you say, that George Martin particularly didn’t serve his guitar sound as well as it could have been done.” Keith Richards continued: “But it was early days and they were doing those things, they (would) make an album in one night, you know. Listen to ‘Twist And Shout’, you can hear they barely being able to get there, but great records. Just purely a matter of the recording sound, nothing to do with Geroge, he was a great friend of mine.” “In fact, I’ve met his son, Dhani just two, three weeks ago and there is Dhani Harrison who is the spitting image of George. I kept calling him George (laughs). He was so much like his dad, and George was such a gentle soul. I used to call him ‘farmer George’ because he liked gardening more than anything. (He is) another one sorely missed. I guess the good die young,” Keith Richards said. Pete Townshend (The Who) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfFtACFYULU&pp=ygUdcGV0ZSB0b3duc2hlbmQga2VpdGggcmljaGFyZHM%3D Another guitarist who Richards admires is The Who's Pete Townshend, but Keith never really liked his band and not always had good things to say about them. In an interview with Rolling Stone back in 2015, The Stones guitarist said they were a crazy band and that the vocalist Roger Daltrey 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) … 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.” Keith Richards continued: “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 said. Curiously, it was Pete Townshend who inducted The Rolling Stones into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame. He has always been a huge fan of the group led by Mick and Keith, and always mentioned them as a huge influence. “Keith Richards once told me that I think too much. The truth is that I think that generally I talk to much. But I don’t think first. Faced with injecting the Rolling Stones this evening I realized that thinking is not going to help me very much,” Townshend said in his speech (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage). Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fl0COtEG-TM&pp=ygUhc2NhcmxldCBqaW1teSBwYWdlIGtlaXRoIHJpY2hhcmRz Another guitarist who Richards praised but is not a big fan of the band he was part of was Jimmy Page. He told Rolling Stone in 2015 he prefers Page as a guitarist and not as part of a band like Led Zeppelin, for example. The musician even played with the Rolling Stones in songs like "Scarlet", which was recorded in 1973 but only released decades later. “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 had already criticized Zeppelin in "Ask Keith", the Q&A session of his website back in 2004. “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.” “Absolutely an LZ (Led Zeppelin), 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 copy each other in a bit, but to me Led Zeppelin is Jimmy Page. You know, you wanna cut the story short: Jimmy Page, shy boy,” Keith Richards said. The Rolling Stones guitarist and songwriter was never a big fan of Hard Rock or Heavy Metal music, he already criticized bands like Black Sabbath and Metallica, for example. Steve Marriott (Small Faces, Humble Pie) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNKckhYqNBk&pp=ygUdc3RldmUgbWFycmlvdHQga2VpdGggcmljaGFyZHM%3D The late legendary Small Faces and Humble Pie guitarist/vocalist Stevie Marriott was also a guitar player who Keith admired. In an interview for a project called “Living Legends”, in 2008, he even said that Marriott was one of the greatest musicians of all time. “I always liked Steve Marriott, very much from the English point of view. You know, The Small Faces and then he had Humble Pie. I’m not gonna say like Led Zeppelin, The Who, Black Sabbath, I would only be lying, not my favorites. They are all good, I know them, they are all good players and everything, but as a band no.” Marriott and Richards were very good friends and the late artist even said in the early 80s that Keith was one of the few musicians he used to talk to frequently at that moment.“The only people I keep in touch with are Keith Richards and people like that. ’Cause they’re the only people I want to talk to. He loves me. He’s always been on my side. He got me out of the hole." Keith Richards continued: "So he’ll be around whatever happens (His upcoming album at the time). Whether he plays guitar, whether he pushes knobs, who cares? I’ll write on the back of the album in big black letters, ‘Thank you, Keith, for bailing me out!’ My manager Moe says to me, ‘Ring Keith, ring Keith!’ I said, ‘Fuck it. For once in my life I’d like to ring Keith and just go, ‘How are you?’ Instead of, ‘Keith help me do this. Keith help me do that,’” he said in a 1983 interview reported by Best Classic Bands. Marriott first achieved fame as vocalist and guitarist of the Small Faces from 1965 to 1968. He continued his successful musical career forming Humble Pie in 1969, band that also had Peter Frampton as guitarist. Peter Green and Jeremy Spencer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKRfCkx8KCM&pp=ygUUdGhlIGdyZWVuIG1hbmFsaXNoaV0%3D The two final guitarists on the list are Peter Green and Jeremy Spencer, two influential musicians who were part of Fleetwood Macood Mac's first era. In an interview with The Quietus back in 2015, Richards named 3 guitarists that achieved fame in the 60s and 70s that he liked. After talking about Steve Marriott, he mentioned Green and Spencer. “Jeremy Spencer and Peter Green, you’d wonder where they’d come from. These guys are playing the blues and they really are doing it,” Richards said. Both players were extremely important for Fleetwood Mac and helped the group to shape their Blues influenced sound. Peter Green was part of the group from 1967 to 1970, returning in 1971. During that same period, Jeremy Spencer was also the band’s guitarist and pianist. The two musicians helped to compose classic albums like “Mr. Wonderful” (1968) and “They Play On”. Those records had famous and influential tracks like: “Stop Messin’ Round”, “Oh Well” and “The Green Manalishi (With the Two-Pronged Crown)”.
