Keith Richards
If Keith Richards’ recent interview with GQ is anything to go by, the legendary guitarist treats Mick Jagger’s solo material with about as much disdain as he does rap music.
The musician, who recently released his third solo album, Crosseyed Heart, said that he never considered working outside of the Rolling Stones until Jagger decided to put group on hold to focus on his own career in the 1980s.
“I only did my records because [Jagger] wasn’t working with us,” he told the men’s magazine.
“[Jagger’s solo records] had something to do with ego,” he continues. “He really had nothing to say. What did he have, two albums? She’s the Boss and Primitive Cool?”
“Have you listened to any of those records?” he asks the reporter, who says no.
“Nor have I. I’ll leave it at that.”
Richards then added that his musical motivations were geared towards the art of creativity. “I never thought of making records as a way of being famous or making a statement. I just want to make good records with good musicians, to play with the best and learn.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Richards also discusses the time he snorted some of his late father’s ashes.
“I had him in a box in England. I bought this little oak sapling, my idea being that he was gonna fertilise the tree, but when I pulled the top off of the box, wafts of Dad landed on the table,” the 71-year-old explains. “And my dad knows I’d always liked my cocaine, a snort here and there. So I just … had a line of Dad.”