He posted alongside an image of himself grinning while wearing a jacket in the colours of the South African flag: “Thank you for your birthday wishes! Merry Christmas from South Africa.”
Keith’s trip came weeks after it was reported he was planning on jetting off to see wildlife on a safari trip to mark turning 80.
A source told The Sun: “Keith isn’t afraid of wild beasts and loves seeing them roaming in the wild.
“It’s been a dream to do a big holiday with all his family at a luxury resort in Africa and have that once-in-a-lifetime kind of experience all together.
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Keith Richards‘ ability to speak candidly about both his own career and that of his fellow musicians is well known. Below, are three albums he has publicly put down.
The question of which band is better, The Stones or The Beatles, produces the same split answers that questions like “Coke or Pepsi” or “sweet or sour” do. There is no right answer. It’s a matter of opinion. For everyone but Richards that is, as Amricansongwriter reports.
During their heyday, the guitarist wasn’t shy about expressing the perceived shortcomings of his fellow English rockers. He had issues with several things about the foursome, but he had major beef with their 1967 album, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
“I think they got carried away,” Richards once explained. “Why not? If you’re the Beatles in the ’60s, you just get carried away—you forget what it is you wanted to do. You’re starting to do Sgt. Pepper. Some people think it’s a genius album, but I think it’s a mishmash of rubbish, kind of like Satanic Majesties.“
The Rolling Stones and Creedence Clearwater Revival are both steeped in American blues, but they translate those influences in very different ways. Richards once said he was “bored” of their, in his opinion, same-old same-old sound.
“Yeah, I’m into a very weird thing with that band,” Richards told Rolling Stone in 1969. “When I first heard them, I was really knocked out, but I became bored with them very quickly. After a few times, it started to annoy me.”
That comment was a response to Willy and the Poor Boys playing during the interview. We have to assume that the album was an example of the kind of sound he was growing tired of if he decided to throw in his two cents after hearing it.
Richards might have stark opinions, but he isn’t afraid to point that discerning eye at himself either. He once put the Stones’ album Their Satanic Majesties Request on the chopping block. According to the guitarist, the album was made in an effort to ride the coattails of the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Though he wasn’t super impressed by the album himself, it was the sound to follow at the time. Moreover, the band was a little tired of their demanding recording schedule, causing them to more or less phone the album in– at least that’s how Richards sees it.
“None of us wanted to make [Satanic Majesties], but it was time for another Stones album and Sgt. Pepper’s was coming out, so we thought basically we were doing a put-on,” he once explained.
Over the last 60 years, Richards has consistently grumbled about various inner workings of the business, and he blames one specific element for the death of rock ‘n’ roll: modern-day music: It’s a one-way toilet’
'Taylor Swift won't be around in 20 years'. After the interview on The Wall Street Journal
Don’t get me going on modern-day music. Push-button drums and everything synthesised.”
“The only way to cut a band is to put the boys in a room and play, and look in each other’s eyeballs,” he says. “Don’t get me going on modern-day music. Push-button drums and everything synthesised. Digital recording is a one-way toilet.”
Throughout the decades, Richards has continuously claimed that rock music isn’t as vibrant as it was during his day. The genre is incomparable to when the Rolling Stones embarked on their pioneering journey; that’s because music must continuously evolve in order to survive. Very few artists have an interest in recreating songs that have come before – innovation is integral to success, and not every icon of the old school will appreciate the forward advancements.
In Richards’ mind, rock and roll has a clear definition, and anybody who strays too far from the formula is removing its soul. While others believe the genre is fluid, rather than being a strict sound, it’s an attitude which can wear a million different guises.
