When it comes to classic rock bands, few names carry the same weight as The Rolling Stones. As the 1960s bowed out, the world lamented the prospect of a Beatles-free decade; meanwhile, the Stones took the mantle as the biggest band in the world, knocking a couple of balls out of the park with Sticky Fingers and Keith Richards’ magnum opus, Exile on Main St.
Throughout the 1960s, the Stones gradually migrated from their initial sound rooted in classic rhythm and blues music. While taking on a more pop-orientated approach, much to Brian Jones’ consternation, the Rolling Stones never fully lost touch with their roots. Crucially, Richards maintained a style packed with traditional blues riffs and embellishments.
As British rock’s quintessential guitarist, Richards has been influenced by several key players over the past seven decades, but it all started with Chuck Berry. “When I started, all I wanted to do was play like Chuck,” Richards once said of his early idol. “I thought if I could do that, I’d be the happiest man in the world.”
Speaking to Rolling Stone, Richards remembered seeing Berry in his 1959 movie Jazz on a Summer’s Day. “When I saw Chuck Berry in Jazz on a Summer’s Day as a teenager, what struck me was how he was playing against the grain with a bunch of jazz guys,” he recalled. “They were brilliant — guys like Jo Jones on drums and Jack Teagarden on trombone — but they had that jazz attitude cats put on sometimes: ‘Ooh… this rock and roll…’ With ‘Sweet Little Sixteen,’ Chuck took them all by storm and played against their animosity.”
“To me, that’s blues,” the Stone added passionately. “That’s the attitude and the guts it takes. That’s what I wanted to be.”
Elsewhere in the same interview, Richards also mentioned several other key guitarists he said he got “it” from. “I listened to every lick he played and picked it up. Chuck got it from T-Bone Walker, and I got it from Chuck, Muddy Waters [whom Keith has played with], Elmore James and B.B. King. We’re all part of this family that goes back thousands of years. Really, we’re all passing it on.”
Besides these blues innovators, Richards also regards Elvis Presley’s guitarist Scotty Moore as one of his more unsung heroes. “Scotty Moore was my hero,” Richards told Rolling Stone after Moore’s death in 2016. “There’s a little jazz in his playing, some great country licks and a grounding in the blues as well. It’s never been duplicated. I can’t copy it.”
“He was a gentle, unassuming guy,” the Stones’ guitarist added in memoriam. “He liked his scotch – they didn’t call him Scotty for nothing. In 1996, I went up to Woodstock to do a session at Levon Helm’s barn with Levon, Scotty and Elvis’ drummer D.J. Fontana.”
“I’ve gotten used to playing with my heroes,” he continued. “I played with Little Richard in his dressing room when I was 19, thinking, ‘This’ll do!’ but this was the crème de la crème. It was a session of good old boys. There was plenty of whiskey that day. There will never be another Scotty Moore.”
