The Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards rarely praises other artists, preferring instead to bring a band back down to earth with a cutting remark. In 1988, Guns N’ Roses were one of the most prominent groups on the planet following the success of their debut, Appetite For Destruction, but Richards wasn’t convinced.
Despite his opinion of the band, The Rolling Stones were pivotal in musical upbringing of Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash. During an appearance on Jonesy’s Jukebox with former Sex Pistols punk Steve Jones, he said the band’s back catalogue made up “pretty much his favourite music of all time”. Slash also named their LPs Beggars Banquet and Let It Bleed among his all-time favourite albums. “The Stones were definitely the background music to my existence for a long time – and still are. My parents were really into the Stones, too,” he said on the programme.
Additionally, Slash covered ‘Sympathy For The Devil’ with Guns N’ Roses for the Interview With the Vampire soundtrack. While Richards didn’t have any significant complaints to make about their sound – and even praised them for making it to the top of the mountain – he still felt they needed tips in the wardrobe department.
When asked for his thoughts on the group during an interview with Rolling Stone, Richards replied: “Not much. I admire the fact that they’ve made it despite certain resistance from the radio biz. I admire their guts. But too much posing. Their look – it’s like there’s one out of this band, one looks like Jimmy, one looks like Ronnie. Too much copycat, too much posing for me. I haven’t listened to a whole album to be able to talk about the music.”
With more than a hint of self-awareness, Richards added: “I’m a very hard taskmaster. I know that everybody’s gonna say, ‘Oh, he’s putting everybody down.’”
Years later, Richards intervened to keep Guns N’ Roses together when Slash was struggling. Although he eventually quit the group, the advice from Keith kept him in the outfit for longer than he had planned.
“The Stones were recording Voodoo Lounge… Keith asked me about what I was doing with Guns, and I told him the situation with Axl. Keith said, ‘You never quit,’” he told Mojo in 2009. “I thought a lot about what he said. Keith is one of the few people I look up to. (He gave me) the wherewithal to go back to rehearsal with a fresh attitude.” He added: “It kept me in there for as long as humanly possible. (Unfortunately) I was dealing with somebody who didn’t want to do anything but drag the ship down.”
Although Richards wasn’t immediately enamoured with the band, he evidently respected Guns N’ Roses. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have advised Slash to stay with the group when he was on the brink of exiting. However, advice from his guitarist hero still wasn’t enough to stop him from departing the sinking ship in 1996.
