The problem that drove Mick Jagger and Keith Richards apart: “I can’t live like that”

It’s impossible to expect the best bands in the world to be the best of friends at every single juncture. Everyone gets fed up with even their best mates sooner or later, and there comes a point where people need a break to see what else is out in the world. And while fans never had the misfortune of seeing The Rolling Stones break up, Keith Richards remembered times when he and Mick Jagger weren’t on the same musical wavelength.

Then again, it’s hard to think of them having too many problems when they are joined at the hip in The Stones. Both of them had known each other since they were kids, and looking through every one of their early albums, it’s clear that they had an inherent love of the blues that bled through in nearly every single song they wrote. That was fine, but when The Beatles arrived, it was clear that wouldn’t be enough.

The entire band kicked into high gear when the British invasion started, and when Keef started penning tunes with his old mate, it was clear they were modelling themselves on what the Fab Four were doing. Not everything was exactly the same, but ‘You Can’t Always Get What You Want’ had that same kind of sing-along mentality that made a track like ‘Hey Jude’ so special when it first came out.

It’s not like Richards wasn’t able to bend some of the time, either. After combing through the record collection he built up while touring in America, the guitarist listened to old country music and fell in love with everything he heard, whether that was listening to an old Hank Williams or busting out the acoustics with his buddy Gram Parsons during the making of Exile On Main St.

But the problems came when Jagger started incorporating influences he had no business working with. It was fine to be able to make rock and roll classics like ‘Tumbling Dice’, but as soon as they went disco in the late 1970s, it was clear Richards didn’t have the final say in what the band wanted to do anymore. When someone disagrees, though, they show a different side of themselves, and Richards wasn’t happy with Jagger always picking at him.

Since Jagger always wanted to read Richards at every turn, the guitarist felt that it was time to take a break, saying, “Mick likes to protect himself from everything. He’s always looking for an angle on people. I can’t live like that. I’d rather take someone at face value until they screw up, and it makes it difficult for me to get through to Mick because I know he wants to know what my angle is. So that’s where we hit the crunch.”

And while Jagger was the first one to put out a solo album, Richards was always hesitant to walk away from The Stones. He would occasionally do his own thing when the band wasn’t working, but looking at the odd times when the band would get back together for a new record, Richards always wanted to make sure they were getting together for the right reasons, like when they returned to their roots on the album Voodoo Lounge.

Are they all on the same page now? Hardly, but that doesn’t mean that they can’t still work themselves out whenever it’s time for them to get back into the studio. After all, Richards has described The Stones as an almost tribal brotherhood, and while he and Jagger may fight like brothers, there’s always going to be something that keeps both of them coming back into the fray.