Keith Richards always knew where to hit Mick Jagger where it hurt but it seems his less than kind words about the Stones singer's manhood nearly derailed the band's plans for their new tour.
The Human Riff made the comments in his best-selling 2010 memoir Life and they were known to have wounded rock `n' roll Lothario Mick. Now Jagger has revealed that he demanded an apology from his old mate and fellow Rolling Stone before he would agree to take the Stones out on the road again.
In a new interview, 69-year-old Jagger, said of Keith’s apology: “Well, I think it was a good thing he got together with me and said that. I don’t really want to talk about it apart from that, but I think it’s good that he said it, and yes, it was a prerequisite, really. You have to put those things to one side, you can’t leave them unspoken."
However, in a separate interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Richards claims that he only apologised in a bid to stop the band falling apart before their 50th anniversary.
“I know what he’s like. At the same time, I was going to tell the story. As I told Mick, ‘You should have seen what I left out.’ I did also say to Mick, ‘I know exactly what you did. You got the book, you went straight to the index . . . Jagger, M, and that’s what you read. You didn’t take it in context. You didn’t.’
"So, yeah, we had a bit of a doo-dah about that, but I was expecting it. We resolved it, in our own way, you know. I said I regret if I caused you any, you know, inconvenience or pain, or something. I’d say anything to get the band together, you know? I’d lie to my mother.”
Keith had infuriated Mick by declaring in his autobiography: “Marianne Faithfull had no fun with his tiny todger."
The Rolling Stones will headline Glastonbury next month.
