Who was the first musician to refuse a knighthood?
Like many accreditations in the arts, achieving a knighthood is one of the most respected. The title also makes some of our favourite culture leaders seem high and mighty, from Sir Paul McCartney to Sir Elton John.
But it’s not that rock ‘n’ roll, is it?
According to Mick Jagger’s longtime partner in crime, Keith Richards, having a cup of tea in a pub is more rock ‘n’ roll than accepting a knighthood from the very thing rock ‘n’ roll seeks out to oppose. “I went fucking berserk when I heard,” Richards said in 2003 after Jagger became a Sir. “I thought it was ludicrous to take one of those gongs from the establishment when they did their very best to throw us in jail and kill us at one time,” he added.
Richards isn’t alone in his claim. While the reasons for others opposing such an honour vary, most of them follow a similar theme, from valuing the principles of artistic identity to the more on-the-nose criticisms about associations with the monarchy. In 1965, all members of the Beatles were honoured with MBEs. In 2000, George Harrison was offered an upgrade to an OBE, but he refused.
Nobody knows why, exactly. Especially given the fact that his former bandmate, Macca, embraced the title wholeheartedly. But given his statements about the state of England, it doesn’t take an expert to hazard a guess. It’s probably similar to the reasons John Lennon came to oppose it, who, four years after receiving it, returned it with wishes to not be associated anymore due to “Britain’s involvement in the Nigeria-Biafra thing”.
So, who was the first musician to reject a knighthood?
However, while Lennon was an earlier opponent of the honour, he wasn’t the first to flat-out refuse at the first stage of offering. In 2000, David Bowie refused a CBE. He then refused a knighthood in 2003, plainly explaining his reasoning as his inability to understand what it’s even for. He even mentioned Jagger, though he made it clear it’s none of his business why the punk-rock Rolling Stone chose to accept.
“I would never have any intention of accepting anything like that,” The Starman told The Sun. “I seriously don’t know what it’s for. It’s not what I spent my life working for,” he continued. “It’s not my place to make a judgment on Jagger, it’s his decision. But it’s just not for me.”
His viewpoint seems pretty diplomatic, considering the emphatic outburst of Richards. But he was also living in New York at the time, seemingly disconnected from the entire concept of being anything resembling patriotic.
Beyond that, though, Bowie’s reasoning probably reflected many of the same shared by Paul Weller after he rejected his in 2007. Their statements even come across with the same level of unbothered conviction, Weller saying, “I’m not really into it. It’s not my sort of thing. I don’t like the Royal Family, I don’t like the establishment, I don’t like the civil service.”
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