Rolling Stones' guitarist Keith Richards has described The Beatles' landmark album Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band as `a mishmash of rubbish' and says that The Beatles were burnt out by 1966.
In a new interview with Esquire magazine ahead of the September release of Crosseyed Heart, his first solo album in 23 years, Richards said: "Sgt Pepper's . . . Some people think it's a genius album, but I think it's a mishmash of rubbish, kind of like [Rolling Stones album] Satanic Majesties . . . If you can make a load of shit, so can we."
71-year-old Richards also looked back on the Stones and the Beatles' careers and he discussed the respective band's handle on fame and wild success.
"A whole roomful of chicks yelling at you is not so shabby," Richards said. "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."
He added: "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."
