The musician Keith Richards was terrified playing with: “I’m sitting next to one of the greats”
Almost anyone who has ever been within a ten-mile radius of Keith Richards usually knows not to mess with him. Outside of being one of the greatest riff writers of his generation, Keef has still managed to remain the hardened badass of the 1960s that we all know and love, from writing iconic riffs to tracks like ‘Brown Sugar’ to somehow discovering the path to immortality in his older age. That didn’t mean that the icon couldn’t get spooked now and then, and when he came face to face with Merle Haggard, even the guitar god was shaking in his boots.
Then again, country music was always a part of the rock and roll that Richards listened to. No matter how many times he went back to artists like Chuck Berry or Ray Charles, their way of telling a story had the same kind of power that any great Johnny Cash tune had, aiming to put together a lyric that could both break someone’s heart and help them reassemble it within the span of three minutes.
Even with The Stones’ badass reputation, every one of their twang-infused tunes had that same kind of heart. Hanging out with artists like Gram Parsons may have certainly helped a little bit, but there was no denying that both Richards and Mick Jagger put their entire soul somewhere in between the grooves of tracks like ‘Sway’ or ‘Coming Down Again’.
By country standards, though, Haggard couldn’t be touched. Of all the other rock-inclined country artists like Cash or Willie Nelson, but listening to the way that Richards played guitar and constructed a melody, half of it is indebted to Haggard’s back catalogue of lovelorn heartache.
Despite Richards not even technically writing the song, his interpretation of the Robert Johnson classic ‘Love in Vain’ is ripped straight out of the same old country playbook that Haggard used. It’s one thing to have a few common sounds, but when playing in front of him, Richards wasn’t ready to shake Haggard’s hand when he first laid eyes on him.
When rehearsing songs alongside rock pioneer Jerry Lee Lewis, Richards remembered being mortified when he realised that Haggard was playing next to him, saying, “He’s wearing one of those straw Stetsons and a grizzled beard, and he looks at me and gives me a grin and I give him a grin. I get through two more bars of the song, and I suddenly realize it’s Merle Haggard. I almost lost it there. I’m sitting next to one of the greats. He turns ‘round and gives me a nod and we carry on. I managed to get through the song.”
As funny as it is to imagine Richards becoming a full-on music geek, it wasn’t without justification. For all of the great country music that The Stones created, having the person who influenced every note of it has to be mortifying, both not knowing what he thinks about you and whether or not he’s jealous to see songs like ‘Dead Flowers’ do so well.
Then again, the language of music is probably the best way that anyone could be introduced to their heroes. Words can only do so much in describing how someone feels about art, so being able to make something out of nothing with one of your idols is probably a better insight into seeing what makes them tick.
