Keith Richards and Paul McCartney got to know each other in the 1960s. They were each key members in two of the biggest bands in the world, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. While rumors swirled of a feud between the two bands, they were mostly friendly with each other. Decades after they first met, McCartney and Richards bonded while both were on vacation. Richards said McCartney seemed like he needed someone to talk to at the time.
Keith Richards and Paul McCartney spent time together on vacation
Both Richards and McCartney were staying in Parrot Cay, an island in Turks and Caicos. Richards said the place became a sanctuary for himself and his family, and he was surprised to see McCartney. They ran into each other on the beach.
“It was certainly the strangest place for us to meet after all the years, but certainly the best, because we both had time to talk, maybe for the first time since those earliest days when they were flogging songs before we were writing them,” Richards wrote in his book Life. “He just turned up, said he’d found out where I lived from my neighbor Bruce Willis. He said, ‘Oh, I just came down. I hope it’s OK. Sorry I didn’t ring.’ And since I don’t answer the phone anyway, it was the only way he could do it.”
Richards said it was nice to reconnect, particularly because McCartney seemed like he needed someone to talk to. He was married to Heather Mills at the time, and their split was acrimonious. Richards wondered if McCartney was looking for an escape because of trouble in the relationship.
“I sensed with Paul that he really was looking for some time off,” he wrote. “That beach is long, and of course these things come in hindsight: there was something wrong there already. His breakup with Heather Mills, who was with him on that trip, was not long coming.”
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Keith Richards and Paul McCartney’s friendship is proof The Beatles’ feud with The Rolling Stones is mostly fabrication
Rumors of a feud between The Beatles and The Rolling Stones were present during the 1960s. They’ve continued on to this day, with members of both bands trading jabs in the media. Richards’ anecdote about McCartney proves that this feud was mostly fabricated.
McCartney dropped by every day and sought comfort in Richards’ presence. They discussed their shared history, but they also played music together and laughed at inside jokes. If they were truly involved in a feud, they wouldn’t have been able to enjoy each others’ presence like this.
The fact that McCartney is friendly with Richards is also particularly telling. He is the most caustic and biting member of The Rolling Stones and would have no qualms about insulting McCartney.
The Beatle reached out to the band after he seemed to them in an interview
Even when the bands do insult each other, they don’t stew in animosity. In an interview, McCartney referred to the Stones as a blues cover band. He later privately reached out to the band to apologize.
“He said [to the New Yorker], ‘That’s what I thought when I first heard them,’” Richards said on the podcast Rolling Stone Music Now, per Variety. “Because Paul and I know each other pretty well. And so when I first read it, I said, ‘Ahhh, there’s been a lot of deleting and editing going on here.’ And the next day I got a message from Paul saying, ‘If you’ve read this s***, it’s all out of context, believe me, boys.’”
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