3 Bands That Were Awful Live, According to Keith Richards

Keith Richards feels a band is measured by the strength of their live show–at least his comments about other musicians seem to point to that fact. He has knocked down several of his contemporaries and their performance chops. Find three bands Richards thought were awful live, below.

[RELATED: 3 Times Keith Richards Hurled Some Serious Insults at Other English Musicians]

3 Bands That Were Awful Live, According to Keith Richards

1. The Band

While to some, a band sounding exactly like they do on their record might be something to praise, for Richards, that notion was a demerit. According to the Stones guitarist, The Band was a group guilty of playing too by the book. After seeing a gig of theirs, he spoke about how the band was too rigid.

“I saw them at the Dylan gig on the Isle of Wight and I was disappointed,” Richards once said. “Dylan was beautiful, especially when he did the songs by himself. He has a unique rhythm which only seems to come off when he’s performing solo.”

“The Band were just too strict,” he continued. “They’ve been playing together for a long, long time, and what I couldn’t understand was their lack of spontaneity. They sounded note for note like their records.”

2. The Beatles

The Beatles retired from touring long before they actually decided to part ways. They managed to carve out the remainder of their career despite not giving their fans the opportunity to hear their songs live. In Richards’ mind, playing live was never a strong suit of the Beatles. Because of this, their decision to quit touring didn’t hold much weight for Richards.

“Musically, The Beatles had a lovely sound and great songs,” Richards once said. “But the live thing? They were never quite there.”

3. Prince

While not a band per say, Richards deeply objected to Prince’s live show. The guitarist’s issue with Prince’s act was taken from personal experience. After Prince was tapped to open for the group–which ended in the crowd turning on him–Richards felt called upon to bash the younger artist in the press. Richards felt Prince was all style and very little substance.

“That’s the trouble with conferring a title on yourself before you’ve proved it,” Richards once said. “His attitude when he opened for us… was insulting to our audience. You don’t try to knock off the headline like that when you’re playing a Stones crowd. He’s a prince who thinks he’s a king already. Good luck to him.”

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