Keith Richards has slammed the Beatles’ landmark 1967 album Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band as a “mishmash of rubbish.”
And he says the Rolling Stones’ Their Satanic Majesties Request, released later the same year, is just as bad.
Rolling Stone named Sgt Pepper the Greatest Album Of All Time in 2003 and it’s often considered to be a key moment in the development of prog rock, art rock and using production techniques as an art form.
But Richards tells Esquire: “The Beatles sounded great when they were the Beatles. But there’s not a lot of roots in that music. I think they got carried away. Why not?
“If you’re the Beatles in the 60s, you just get carried away – you forget what it is you wanted to do. You’re starting to do Sgt Pepper.
“Some people think it’s a genius album – but I think it’s a mishmash of rubbish, kind of like Satanic Majesties. ‘Oh, if you can make a load of shit, so can we.’”
The guitarist has also compared the bands’ experiences with performing live. He says: “A whole roomful of chicks yelling at you is not so shabby – because the year before, nobody would look at you. But they talk about us? The Beatles, those chicks wore those guys out.
“They stopped touring in 1966 – they were done already. They were ready to go to India and shit.”
Richards is preparing to release Crosseyed Heart on September 18 – his first solo effort in over two decades. That same day, a documentary about his life will premiere on Netflix. He recently revealed his desire to record with Mick Jagger and co again.
