Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones recently shared an old video clip explaining why he rarely uses guitar pedals in his songs. The British guitarist and occasional lead singer formed the rock band with his long-time pal Mick Jagger. Together, they changed rock ‘n roll when they developed a loud, gritty sound with a touch of the blues, now known as hard rock.
Keith Richards prefers his guitar to sound natural
While many musicians use guitar pedals to add special effects to their songs, Richards chose to create his sound without them throughout most of his career. Shared initially to YouTube in 2017 as part of his Ask Keith Richards series, the musician revealed that he prefers to create a more authentic sound and doesn’t have a sufficient number of feet to deal with pedals on stage.
“I aim to get the sound that I want coming straight out of my amplifier,” Richards began. “I’m aware … that I was the bugger that started the foot pedal with ‘Satisfaction,’ to me, that was a one-off effect.”
He continued, delivering his fans hilarious imagery that could only come from someone of his generation.
Richards wrapped up his statement with a jestful comment declaring, “I need my feet to stand up.”
Richards loves to reminisce on Twitter
As one of the biggest rock stars in the music industry, Richards has many famous friends in the entertainment business. He often takes to Twitter to wish his celebrity friends happy birthdays, reminisce about old times, and share some classic photos from the height of his career.
The rock star gave shoutouts to Little Richard, Tina Turner, bandmate Bill Wyman, Chuck Berry, and Jerry Lee Lewis these last few months. He adorably signs off on each of his birthday wishes with, “One love, Keith.”
Richards went viral on Twitter for being ‘immortal’
A recent viral Tweet led to a slew of memes about Richards’ immortality. The post showed a 3D model of a man resembling The Rolling Stones singer with the caption, “Scientists at Princeton University have reconstructed this 3D model of how Adam, the first human being created by God, might have looked.”
Of course, none of this was true. According to Big Issue, a student named Natalia Barbosa created and shared the image on her website to demonstrate her artistic process. However, she wasn’t constructing a depiction of Adam but of the music icon Keith Richards.
Despite the misunderstanding, the Tweet made Richards go viral, worrying some fans that he had died. Fortunately, that wasn’t the case, and instead, the internet was blessed with a ton of hilarious memes comparing Richards’ likeness to the first human being. People began referring to the musician as immortal, but as we all know, you can’t believe everything you read on the internet!