During a 1981 Rolling Stones concert in Hampton, Virginia, Keith Richards had an unexpected confrontation with a fan on stage while the band played their final song, “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.” As Richards recalled in a Kerrang! interview, he saw a fan running toward him and Mick Jagger.
“I don’t know what this guy’s doing,” Richards explained. “He’s managed to avoid the security. You know, ‘This one’s pretty sharp – hello, we’ve got one here!’ He’s on my turf, he’s going for Mick, and I don’t know what he’s gonna do.”
Richards, concerned for Jagger’s safety, said, “I’m just taking care of my buddy – and he [Jagger] can’t see because he’s working, you know? This guy’s gotta go. He doesn’t belong on the stage. I don’t know what his intentions are. It could be just to say, ‘Mick I love you.’ Or he could put a knife in his back.”
Without hesitation, Richards removed his guitar and swung it at the fan’s head. “It was a good shot. I caught him with that Telecaster. Wallop! And what really impressed me was that the guitar didn’t go out of tune!” Richards remembered.
He added, “He kissed Charlie’s drums a little, too. I got him out of jail. I bailed him out later that night. He wasn’t the first. Just the first captured on film.”
Richards explained his quick action in a separate interview: “The only reason I did it was because the security was not there — They were two steps behind. I am watching Mick’s back. I don’t know where this guy is gonna go… You know it’s a kind of automatic, instinctive thing… I just watched my man’s back.”
Reflecting on the moment with humor, he joked, “Did I push him too far off to Charlie’s drums, so I would screw up the drumming? But I didn’t, and the guitar was still in tune. I bailed him out afterwards. He didn’t spend the night in jail… He still owes me 200 bucks.”
The show was the final performance of the Rolling Stones’ Tattoo You tour in America, held at the Coliseum in Hampton, Virginia. It was also Richards’ 38th birthday.
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