The musician Keith Richards curiously called one of his favourite “bands”
Keith Richards has been a devoted member of The Rolling Stones since he was 19. His whole adult life has been housed within perhaps the most visceral and enduring rock ‘n’ roll bands the world has ever seen. Thus, it comes as hardly any surprise that he has a very singular and unflinching worldview. This extends to his peculiar music takes.
In Richards’ eyes, a rock ‘n’ roll band doesn’t have to be a collection of members. Just one person with enough talent and attitude can constitute a band on their own. So, when he was asked to champion his favourite groups of all time, the Stones man simply slurred, “I always like Steve Marriott.”
The Essex-born singer, songwriter, and guitarist, who passed away in 1991 at the age of 44, was the co-founder of the classic rock ‘n’ roll acts Small Faces and Humble Pie. And, in fairness to Keef, he did bring two giant facets to the fold as opposed to just one, with Ozzy Osbourne ranking him among the top five greatest singers of all time, and that’s before you get onto his shredding guitar power.
Richards was clearly a fan of everything he created. “You know, The Small Faces and then he had Humble Pie,” he said. “I’m not going to say like Led Zeppelin, The Who, Black Sabbath, I would only be lying, not my favourites. They are all good, I know them, they are all good players and everything,” before curiously adding, “but as a band, no.” When you ponder that for a moment, it is perhaps the highest praise anyone has ever afforded Marriott—in essence, he is saying that he alone is more of a band than Led Zeppelin.
Despite his tragically brief life, Marriott was not unaware of the impact he had on Richards either. “He loves me. He’s always been on my side. He got me out of the hole,” Marriott said in a 1983 interview. “The only people I keep in touch with are Keith Richards and people like that ’cause they’re the only people I want to talk to.”
In his time of despair, Richards helped him out, ushering him towards sobriety, which enabled him to create a few more albums before he died as the result of a house fire. This was believed to be caused after he lit a cigarette in bed while drunk, jet-lagged and fell asleep. Despite this untimely end, he still remains one of the genre’s greats.
And he very nearly ended up being a member of The Rolling Stones in 1974. He had been Richards’ first choice before Ronnie Wood, but it all went pear-shaped at his audition. “Steve told me, ‘I was good and stood at the back for a while, but then Keith would hit this lick, and I just couldn’t keep my mouth shut’,” Pam Marriott told the biography All Too Beautiful.
Continuing: “Keith wanted him in, but there was no way that once Steve opened his mouth, Mick would have him in the band. He knew Steve would never stay in the background. They were the one band in the world that Steve would have loved to have been in. He just wanted to work with Keith.” Seemingly, Keith would’ve been delighted to work with him, too.
