Keith Richards Calls 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' "Rubbish"

BY Gregory AdamsPublished Aug 5, 2015

Keith Richards has a new solo album coming out later this year, and you know what? It might be better than the Beatles Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. A new interview with the Rolling Stones riff-slinger has him noting that the Fab Four's landmark and long-celebrated masterpiece was "a mishmash of rubbish."

Speaking with Esquire, Richards waxed on the Beatles experimental period, suggesting that they had pushed things too far by the time they turned into more of a studio project for 1967's Sgt. Pepper's.

"The Beatles sounded great when they were the Beatles," Richards said. "But there's not a lot of roots in that music. I think they got carried away. Why not? If you're the Beatles in the Sixties, 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 – 'Oh, if you can make a load of shit, so can we.'"

It should be noted that while the Stones' Their Satanic Majesties, which was released six months after Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, also doled out psychedelic head trips like "2000 Light Years From Home" and "She's a Rainbow," it's not exactly one of the band's most recognized achievements. They'd soon ditch the technicolor wizard robes and neon flavours in favour of a deliciously dirty blues swagger, and made an especially impressive four-record run from 1968's Beggars Banquet to 1972's epic Exile on Main Street.

Richards also weighed in on the thousands of "screaming chicks" both the Beatles and the Stones faced in the '60s, suggesting that the Beatles' inward period was a response to fan insanity.

"They talk about us, [but with] the Beatles, those chicks wore those guys out," he explained. "They stopped touring in 1966 – they were done already. They were ready to go to India and shit."

The piece also has Richards discussing former bassist Bill Wyman, being blessed with on-stage stamina, the influence of the blues, and his upcoming LP. You'll find the full interview over here

As previously reported, Richards' Crosseyed Heart arrives September 18 through Republic Records. It's his first solo set since 1992.

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