If there is one guitarist who has taken the foundations of what Chuck Berry laid down and built a god-damn mansion on top, it is Keith Richards.
So, who better to get to pen a tribute to the late great musician? In this month’s (paper) edition of Rolling Stone magazine, Richards does just that, although I’m quite sure editors weren’t expecting him to reminiscence fondly about being punched in the face by Berry.
“We saw him play in New York somewhere”, Richards wrote, “and afterward I was backstage in his dressing room, where his guitar was lying in its case. I wanted to look, out of professional interest, and as I’m just plucking the strings, Chuck walked in and gave me this wallop to the frickin’ left eye.
Overreaction, right? Not according to Richards.
“But I realised I was in the wrong”, he reasons. “If I walked into my dressing room and saw somebody fiddling with my ax, it would be perfectly all right to sock ’em, you know? I just got caught.”
Despite the tussle, Richards always felt a kinship between the pair, even taking his more prickly moments as a sign of respect.
“He would do things like throw me offstage, too. I always took that as a reverse compliment, sort of as a sign of respect – because otherwise he wouldn’t bother with me.
“He was a little prickly, but at the same time there was a very warm guy underneath that he wasn’t that willing to display. There were other times between us when we’re sitting around and rehearsing, and going, ‘Man, you know, between us we got that shit down’ – and there would be a beautiful, different feeling.”
Read more over at Rolling Stone.
