When Bruce Springsteen performed with The Rolling Stones in 2012, He explained that he felt very drawn to Keith Richards when they met.
In 2012, Bruce Springsteen felt starstruck to be in a room with Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood, and Charlie Watts. He was joining The Rolling Stones in concert in New Jersey, something that would have felt like a dream to his childhood self.
Springsteen explained that he found Richards particularly impressive. He’d learned to play his first guitar solo through Richards’ playing. He also thought the guitarist was the most spectrally beautiful person he’d seen.
“There are few handlers, no entourage, and I am suddenly transported back to the little dining room I rehearsed in daily with the Castiles, except . . . these are the guys who INVENTED my job!” Springsteen wrote in his book Born to Run. “They have been stamped on my heart since the chunking chords of ‘Not Fade Away’ came ripping off the little 45 I bought at Britt’s Department Store in the first strip mall in our area.”
“I take the right as [Jagger] counts off and Keith, the man whose recorded playing taught me my first guitar solo, slithers into the opening riff of ‘Tumbling Dice.’ I’ve come across many spirit-filled folk in my travels but no one as spectrally beautiful as Keith Richards.”
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"Also, I found that interesting, when I'm like, 'I can't quite do that any more,' the guitar will show me there's another way of doing it.”
“Some finger will go one space different and a whole new door opens,” the rocker explained. "And so you're always learning. You never finish school, man."
“I’ve met Bruce few times. We’ve had several good chats, usually at some release party or premiere, and we just end up in the corner talking. He’s a sweet guy, a nice guy. Mind you, I think four-hour shows really are way over the top. To me, a great rock & roll act does twenty minutes [laughs]”.
He likes Bruce as a person, his music is a different subject. The Stones guitarist remarked: “Bruce? That’s a tough one, because I like the guy. But the music…I don’t know. I’m the toughest taskmaster of all time. I’m going to annoy a lot of people. But Bruce is the Boss.
