Rolling Stones guitarist, Keith Richards admitted he could appreciate the professional relationship he had with Mick Jagger after working with his ‘80s band the X-Pensive Winos.
Keith Richards started collaborating with the Winos when the friendship between Jagger and himself deteriorated leading to the Stones taking an extended break with doubt over the possibility of the pair every performing again together.
With little hope of reconciling at the time, Richards went ahead and made a debut album with the Winos called, Talk Is Cheap, released n 1988, and a follow-up Main Offender which was released in 1992, both were marketed as Richards solo albums.
Richards was speaking to Rolling Stone via UCR where he reflected on working as a frontman for the Winos,
“What I was happy about was that I could step out of the Stones and just as easily step back in, but I learned a lot about being a frontman. I appreciated it a lot more – Mick’s angle on things – onstage especially. It widened my perspective of what everybody has to do in a band. It gave me more respect for the frontman.”
He continued: “You realize that you’re it all the time; you don’t stop. With the Stones, I’m in a beautiful position of being able to go forward whenever I feel like it, or just hunker down with the band and the groove. I have choices. The frontman has no choice”
Richards never intended to front the X- Pensive winos for so long but things were quiet with the Stones in the ’80s. Reflecting on the Rolling stones eventual come back with the release of Steel Wheels, which wasn’t a bad album, he sees their differences as having a positive outcome.
Keith can admit now that the pressures associated with the Stones at the time have gone, but people are still curious and always want to know the facts, he said it was very difficult to put into words because people want to talk about storms in teacups.
The guitarist describes his long term collaboration with Jagger as the same overall: “The way I look at it basically now is, that’s the way Mick and I are. That’s the little grit that makes the pearl in the oyster. It’s that little irritation occasionally that produces the pearl, you know.”
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