{"id":715623,"date":"2026-07-28T15:43:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T15:43:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/715623\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T15:43:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T15:43:15","slug":"keith-richards-response-to-his-band-watching-the-beatles-on-tv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/715623\/","title":{"rendered":"Keith Richards\u2019 response to his band watching the Beatles\u00a0on TV"},"content":{"rendered":"

The British Invasion was reaching its height when the Rolling Stones made their first tour of America in 1965. Session guitar ace Waddy Wachtel cut school to see them perform at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on May 1. Although the Stones were typically greeted by throngs of screaming fans wherever they appeared, the Brooklyn crowd gave them an atypically cool reception.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople were there to see the Tokens, this vocal group from New York who were opening for them,\u201d the guitarist recalls. \u201cThey left when the Stones came on.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe place was almost empty, and there\u2019s the Stones coming out, starting with \u2018Not Fade Away.\u2019 It was so fantastic. It just took you away.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"The\n<\/p>\n

The Rolling Stones at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, May 1, 1965. Waddy Wachtel says most attendees came for the opening act, the Tokens, and left afterward. (Image credit: Michael Ochs Archives\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Wachtel would go on to become a top-tier guitarist himself<\/a>, performing with the likes of Linda Ronstadt, Stevie Nicks, Warren Zevon, Bob Dylan, and many others. Given his r\u00e9sum\u00e9, it\u2019s no surprise he eventually crossed paths with Richards. The first time came while Wachtel was on tour with Ronstadt\u2019s band.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we were on tour in England back in the mid \u201970s, Keith came to the show and we spent a lot of quality time together,\u201d he remembers<\/p>\n

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It must have been time well spent, because Richards had Wachtel in mind when he formed his backing group, the X-Pensive Winos, for his 1988 debut solo album, Talk Is Cheap.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got a call from an English attorney saying Keith was trying to find me. I went, \u2018Well, you found me \u2014 why don\u2019t you give him my number?\u2019 The guy said, \u2018Listen, he\u2019s at Larrabee Studios.\u2019<\/p>\n

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\u201cThey were working on the Hail! Hail! Rock \u2019n\u2019 Roll movie<\/a>,\u201d he says, referring to the 1987 Chuck Berry<\/a> biopic for which Richards served as guitarist and bandleader.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe says, \u2018Give him a call.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I called Keith up, and he says, \u2018Waddy, I\u2019m putting a band together, and you\u2019re the other guitar player.\u2019 I went, \u2018Really?!\u2019 He says, \u2018Really. No auditions for this band. You\u2019re it,\u2019 which knocked me out of the park.\u201d<\/p>\n

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I go, \u2018Well, this is my first electric guitar!\u2019 Keith goes, \u2018Yeah, that\u2019s the \u2018Tumbling Dice\u2019 guitar.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 Waddy Wachtel<\/p>\n

When Wachtel joined Richards and drummer Steve Jordan for rehearsals in New York City, he learned Keith had even picked out the guitar he wanted him to play.<\/p>\n

\u201cKeith goes, \u2018You don\u2019t need to bring a guitar.\u2019 So I get there and open up this case he had for me.\u201d Inside was a Gibson Les Paul<\/a> TV model, the same instrument that had been Wachtel\u2019s first electric guitar<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI open it up and there it is. I go, \u2018Well, this is my first electric guitar!\u2019 He goes, \u2018Yeah, that\u2019s the \u2018Tumbling Dice<\/a>\u2019 guitar.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"British\n<\/p>\n

Waddy Wachtel and Richards perform with the X-Pensive Winos on the Main Offender tour in early 1993. (Image credit: Paul Natkin\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Wachtel went on to play on all three of Richards\u2019 solo albums with the Winos and co-produce the second, 1992\u2019s Main Offender. He says Richards was a joy to work with through all of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019d be times where things would bog down \u2014 you know how it is in the studio. Things break down, and you can\u2019t get the right setup. I\u2019d look at him and go, \u2018Keith, I\u2019m sorry it\u2019s taking so long.\u2019 He\u2019d say, \u2018No worries, mate, no worries. I\u2019ve been here before. It\u2019s no biggie.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Portrait\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Paul Natkin\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

One memory, in particular, sums up Richards\u2019 history and his effortless cool. It comes from when they were tracking Main Offender at the Site in San Rafael, California.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne day we were in this living room area \u2014 Keith\u2019s bedroom was above it. We were taking a break, late afternoon, and he went upstairs to lie down for a bit. We were watching TV, and all of a sudden this Beatles concert comes on \u2014 at Shea Stadium or something like that. It was just monstrous screaming \u2014 girls losing their minds.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s that Rolling Stone who was screamed at for the first five years. They never heard anything they were playing onstage.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 Waddy Wachtel<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re sitting there watching this, and all of a sudden Keith comes walking down the stairs. He looks at the TV from across the room and just goes, \u2018Done that.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cSteve and I looked at each other and went, \u2018Yeah, right. It\u2019s that guy.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s such a lovely guy \u2014 so warm and personable and beautiful. But he\u2019s that guy \u2014 he\u2019s that Rolling Stone who was screamed at for the first five years. They never heard anything they were playing onstage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unless, of course, you count that first Rolling Stones show Wachtel caught years earlier in Brooklyn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The British Invasion was reaching its height when the Rolling Stones made their first tour of America in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":715624,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[96,128,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-715623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=715623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/715624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=715623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=715623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=715623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}