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(Credits: Far Out \/ Alamy)<\/p>\n
Sun 14 September 2025 15:00, UK <\/p>\n
When Keith Richards<\/a> first started, there was no road map for what a long-lasting rock band was supposed to be. <\/p>\n Many people had tried to become superstars, but when looking at the careers of everyone from Chuck Berry to Little Richard, there was no telling whether an actual rock and roll band was going to last more than a few months or continue playing for the rest of their lives. While Richards is definitely grateful to have been going on for so long, he knew that part of the appeal was chasing after what his idols did.<\/p>\n But when talking about the biggest heroes in Richards\u2019s record collection, there are more than a few avenues to go down. After all, he first met Mick Jagger after becoming infatuated with his blues records, and when listening to some of The Stones\u2019 best work in the 1970s, a lot of it comes from them trying to emulate their heroes. An album like Sticky Fingers is fantastic, but chances are it wouldn\u2019t have sounded nearly as good had Richards not heard Robert Johnson first.<\/p>\n That\u2019s before even getting into the country phase that he had as well. The blues was always about telling the truth, but country-rock embraced that heartache that anyone could relate to. It may have started with people like The Everly Brothers, but Richards knew that the true magic was hearing what people like Gram Parsons could do when interpreting people like George Jones and Hank Williams.<\/p>\n No matter what he put on the turntable back in the day, though, Richards was a rocker, and the ones that set his world on fire were the ones who contributed to the \u2018Big Bang\u2019 of the genre. Bill Haley and the Comets might get credit for getting the ball rolling, and Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley were among the first straight ahead rock artists, but in terms of what Richards wanted to do, it all traced back to Buddy Holly.<\/p>\n While a mild-mannered kid from Lubbock, Texas with wire-rimmed glasses wasn\u2019t the first thing most people thought of as a rock star, that didn\u2019t matter. Holly was going to become a star thanks to the quality of his songs, and when\u00a0\u2018Peggy Sue\u2019 came on the radio, he lit a fire under every British rocker that wanted a chance to pen their own tunes.<\/p>\n Sure, Chuck Berry could write his own tunes, but Richards couldn\u2019t think anyone could even hope to capture the magic that Holly did on his signature tune, saying<\/a>, \u201cThis is the template. Ask Paul McCartney. Ask John Lennon if you could. The cat writes them, produces them, plays them, sings them. In other words, [he\u2019s] the whole package in one. And yet I don\u2019t know anyone who\u2019s dared to cover \u2018Peggy Sue\u2019 even now. Some people do it onstage. But [they\u2019re] those iconic records.\u201d<\/p>\n