Keith Richards, the iconic guitarist of The Rolling Stones, is a man of distinct tastes and habits. One of his peculiar routines is his pre-show meal: a shepherd’s pie.
No matter where the band performs, from Madrid to Milan, Richards refuses to indulge in local delicacies. He insists on his beloved shepherd’s pie, a nod to his English upbringing.
“It’s now famous, my rule on the road. Nobody touches the shepherd’s pie till I’ve been in there. Don’t bust my crust, baby,” he humorously shared in his autobiography, Life.
Richards’ culinary preferences mirror his approach to music. He’s uninterested in straying from the familiar sounds that shaped his youth.
He has carved a successful path without diversifying his musical interests, which primarily revolve around blues, reggae, jazz, and soul.
While he enjoys sharing his thoughts on what he loves and dislikes, Richards has been particularly vocal about his disdain for heavy metal.
Growing up, Richards idolized legends like Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters, whose blues style sharply contrasts with modern heavy metal.
The genre didn’t even exist when The Rolling Stones rose to fame; it only emerged in the late 1960s with bands like Led Zeppelin. Richards has never hidden his aversion to heavy metal, criticizing its heavy sound even in its infancy.
In a 1969 interview with Rolling Stone, he remarked on Led Zeppelin’s lead singer, saying, “The guy’s voice started to get on my nerves.
I don’t know why; maybe he’s a little too acrobatic.”
Years later, Richards reiterated his thoughts on Led Zeppelin, acknowledging his admiration for Jimmy Page but expressing disdain for the band’s overall sound.
“I love Jimmy Page, but as a band, no. John Bonham was thundering down the highway in an uncontrolled 18-wheeler.
He had cornered the market there. I always felt there was something a little hollow about it,” he stated in 2015.
Richards’ criticism extends beyond Led Zeppelin to heavy metal as a whole. In 2015, he described the genre as sounding “like a dull thud to me.”
He believed that many metal bands struggled to achieve the necessary syncopation, resulting in a repetitive sound without any bounce or lift.
He even characterized popular bands like Metallica and Black Sabbath as “great jokes” in his eyes.
In 2010, Richards offered an alternative definition of heavy metal, encouraging listeners to appreciate the blues instead: “If you want heavy metal, listen to John Lee Hooker, listen to that motherfucker play. That’s heavy metal. That’s armor.”
This statement captures Richards’ view of music: his deep love for rhythm and blues renders it difficult for him to understand the appeal of heavy metal bands when artists like John Lee Hooker are available.
To Richards, music is not subjective; it’s a matter of personal connection. Since heavy metal didn’t exist during his formative years, he never felt a bond with the genre.
For him, music is meant to nourish the soul, as exemplified by the emotive voices of Aretha Franklin or the sharp guitar riffs of Chuck Berry.
In contrast, he views the heavy sounds of bands like Metallica and Black Sabbath as contrary to everything he desires in music.
