Keith Richards recently addressed the Rolling Stones and The Beatles manipulation. The guitarist appeared on The Tonight Show to discuss their recent release, ‘Hackney Diamonds.’
During the chat about one of the band’s new songs, guesting Paul McCartney as the bassist, Richards revealed that the two bands don’t have a feud and have a good relationship instead. He said:
“Our relationship with John and Paul and with the Beatles goes back to ’62, ’63.”
When the host, Jimmy Fallon, asked the rocker if the two bands hated each other, he explained:
“No. We’d play up to that. I think, you know, there was, like, a ‘Beatles versus Stones’ thing and that.”
The two bands didn’t hate each other; in fact, they cooperated so that their dates of music releases wouldn’t clash:
“Meanwhile we’re working together saying, ‘Is your single ready?’ And, ‘We have a couple of weeks to go.’ ‘Okay. You go first.’ So we tried not to clash with our stuff. They gave us songs. Also, Paul and John are on a track called ‘We Love You’ in the middle ’60s. And another track, ‘Dandelion,’ that John and Paul came by to sing, because they liked the Stones too.”
The rumors of bad blood eventually appeared to be true with the compilations made by several sources. Appearing to start in the late 1960s, the feuds extend to 2021 with John Lennon thinking the Stones ripped them off, Richards calling ‘Sgt. Pepper’ ‘rubbish,’ and more, until recently, Richards denied the rumors.
Right before the conversation took place, the rocker also explained that this wasn’t the first time the two bands came together for a new song and revealed that The Beatles gave them their first hit, ‘I Wanna Be Your Man.’
You can see the interview below.
