Keith Richards’ three favourite Rolling Stones albums
Asking an artist to choose their favourite album from their discography is surely like asking a parent to pick a favourite child. With the amount of time, effort and care that goes into making a record, it surely feels like their offspring; like something they conceived, birthed and tried their best to raise up into something great. For Keith Richards, a man with so many incredible releases under his belt, it’s a tough question.
It would be hard for any artist to answer, let alone one of the most successful and world-renowned artists of all time, like The Rolling Stones. From their origins in the early 1960s and their self-titled debut album through to their most recent 2023 release, Hackney Diamonds, they’ve kept their crown as the world’s greatest rock and roll band. In total, they’ve released a huge sum of 31 studio albums, providing the world with no end of anthems like ‘Start Me Up’, ‘Gimme Shelter’, ‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash’ and many more.
It would be tough to think of another artist with a discography so packed with gold as the one Richards has played a vital role in creating. So when GQ asked him to pick his favourite Rolling Stones record, it was no easy feat. The response they got captures the guitarist’s reaction in real-time as he combs his way through their releases, seeming to remind himself just how great so many of their records are.
“Always hard to pick favorites,” he said. “In actual fact, I really hate to pick out favorite things because they’ve all got something on them that is special to me,” he added, seeing worth in each and every one of their releases as he remains rightfully proud of it all. He continued, “Quite honestly I love them all, some a little more than others. I think Steel Wheels was damn good, and Voodoo Lounge too. But then, there’s so many. I mean, I can’t do that.”
He struggles to cut his list down, at first offering up five more releases in addition to those two. “I would go anywhere between Beggars Banquet, Sticky Fingers, Let It Bleed, Exile on Main St. And I will go also to Bridges to Babylon, which is, I think, much underrated,” he said.
But then, he cuts it down to just three records, picking out “Sticky Fingers, Beggars Banquet, and Exile on Main Street.”
In particular, he claimed he loved the first two because of their ease. Made in the final years of the 1960s, the Stones were at an all-time high when it came to fame and creativity. They were settled in the UK at their various homes, soaking in the spoils of commercial success. But they also were getting sick of being taxed so highly as the money began rolling in.
Famously, for Exile On Main St, they decamped to France to avoid such heavy tax fees. “I mean, that’s when we were hitting our stuff and it was easy because we were working at home, we were still not thrown out of the country and having to duck and dive,” Richards explained, “So it was easier to work then because we weren’t exiles.” To him, that recording process, with opportunity and comfort at their disposal, lead to some of their best work.
Yet, despite originally painting out Exile On Main St as an album born from a tricky period, the guitar later decides that that’s his ultimate favourite. “I’ll cut it down for you. Exile on Main Street,” he added, decidedly.
The choice makes sense. The 1972 record feels like Richards’ opus within the group, featuring his track ‘Happy’, along with some of the finest offerings from his songwriting partnership with Jagger. Even if their time in France spent recording at their Nellcôte villa didn’t offer them the same comfort, it clearly offered more than enough inspiration.
Keith Richards’ favourite Rolling Stones albums:
- Beggars Banquet (1968)
- Sticky Fingers (1971)
- Exile on Main Street (1972)
