The legendary musician Keith Richards didn’t rate: “I don’t see much substance in anything he does”
Supporting The Rolling Stones in a giant stadium is the dream ticket for most artists who are on an upwards trajectory, but not everyone has grabbed the opportunity with both hands.
Over the years, everyone from Tina Turner to the Eagles to Phoebe Bridgers has acted as an opener for The Rolling Stones, which is somewhat of a right of passage for any artist that is on the cusp of superstardom.
For an artist, it also provides a vital opportunity to see how The Rolling Stones conduct an arena or stadium-sized crowd and have them eating out of the palm of their hands for two hours. However, one artist who reluctantly accepted the gig was Prince in 1981, which kicked off a lengthy feud with Keith Richards.
Mick Jagger personally invited Prince to support The Rolling Stones for two shows at the LA Coliseum, which saw the legendary English rock band play to 90,000 people at each concert.
Nevertheless, despite Prince being well on his way to greatness, The Rolling Stones crowd couldn’t care less about him. Additionally, the knuckle-headed portion of fans was also appalled by his gender-defying outfit, comprising a see-through jacket, thigh-high boots, and black bikini briefs.
In addition to jeering him, it was also alleged that a minority subjected him to racial abuse, all of which prompted Prince to fly back to Minnesota before the second show. His reaction was understandable, and most would have done the same in his position, but Jagger showed his compassionate side, persuading Prince to return to Los Angeles for round two.
While Prince still faced a hostile reaction during the second show courtesy of the idiots in attendance, he didn’t let the neanderthals break him down. Nevertheless, Richards didn’t react kindly to Prince calling Stones fans “tasteless in music and mentally retarded”.
After hearing these comments, Richards leapt to the defence and later said of the diminutive rocker in his 2010 autobiography, Life: “An overrated midget… Prince has to find out what it means to be a prince. That’s the trouble with conferring a title on yourself before you’ve proved it.”
Richards added in his book: “His attitude when he opened for us… was insulting to our audience. You don’t try to knock off the headline like that when you’re playing a Stones crowd. He’s a prince who thinks he’s a king already. Good luck to him.”
There are two sides to every story, and according to the late Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts, Richards was already against Prince before they crossed paths in Los Angeles.
During a 2016 interview, he shed some light on the two nights at the Coliseum, telling The Guardian: “Mick and I loved Prince’s 1980 album Dirty Mind – Keith hated it – and we got him on our show. Of course, Prince being Prince, he went out in his knickers and our audience booed him off, which didn’t deter me from liking him.”
While Watts and Jagger still adored Prince, on the other hand, Richards only grew more hostile towards the guitarist. In 1988, he scathingly told the Los Angeles Times: “I think he’s very clever at manipulating the music business and the entertainment business. I think he’s more into that than making music. I don’t see much substance in anything he does.”
Even Richards, who is known for holding a grudge, did have a change of heart and expressed his adoration for Prince’s talent following his death in 2016, posting on social media, “A unique talent. A true original. So sad, so sudden and, I will add, a great guitar player. We are all going to miss him.”
As much as the debacle in 1981 was the start of a one-way feud, Prince’s talent was impossible to deny. In this case, Richards was right to backtrack on his previous remarks and admit that he was wrong to dismiss ‘The Purple One’ as a pretender.
