Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards has a reputation for his, er, abrasive opinions on other people, but no one can say he can’t empathize with a friend who took a tumble from grace. For the band’s long-time saxophonist Bobby Keys, that career-altering, friendship-breaking snafu came about during The Stones’ 1973 European tour.
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By that point, Keys was more than a hired hand. He was incredibly close with frontman Mick Jagger, even serving as the best man at his wedding. But even a career rock ‘n’ roller like Jagger has his limits, and apparently, his limit looks like a bathtub of Dom Perignon.
Keys has only confirmed the story passively. When asked about the debacle, Keys once said, “That’s what they tell me. It was reflected in my paycheck, so I guess it’s true.” Bandmate recollections and financial records confirmed that Keys had filled an entire bathtub with the expensive champagne and spent the day soaking in it, French groupie by his side, instead of attending a band assembly.
When Jagger found out what Keys was doing while shirking his band duties, he was livid. Jagger kicked Keys off the tour, and the saxophonist was relegated to one-off appearances and studio work. “Mick was implacable, and rightly so,” Richards wrote in his memoir, Life. “Mick can be merciless in that way. I couldn’t answer for Bobby. All I could do was help him get clean, and I did.”
How Keith Richards Snuck Bobby Keys Back Into the Lineup
As a founding member and guitarist of The Rolling Stones, Keith Richards didn’t necessarily have to answer for the actions of his saxophonist. But he did more than help Bobby Keys get clean. When the band—which nearly broke up in the late 1980s—reunited for the gargantuan, record-breaking “Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle” tour, Richards decided to take up the cause for his old friend.
The decision wasn’t entirely personal. As Richards explained in his memoir, he wasn’t pleased with the horn section for the 1989 tour. Richards knew Keys was up to the task. But asking Mick Jagger for his approval would be impossible. Easy solution there: Richards just didn’t ask.
“I didn’t tell anyone at first,” Richards wrote of Keys’ return. “We were rehearsing for the new tour at the Nassau Coliseum. We were getting to the dress rehearsals, and I wasn’t too happy with the horns. So, I rang Bobby and said, ‘Get on a plane, and hide yourself when you get here.’ I just told Bobby, when we play ‘Brown Sugar’, come in on the solo. So, it was solo time, and Mick looked round at me and said, ‘What the f***?’ I just said, ‘See what I mean?’”
“When it was over, Mick looked at me like, ‘Well, you can’t argue with that.’ I mean, baby, that is rock and roll. But it took me years to grease Bobby back into the band. As I said, some of my friends can really f*** up, but so can I, and so can Mick, so can anybody. If you can’t f*** up, where’s your halo? My life is full of broken halos. Mick didn’t speak one word to Bobby for the whole tour. But he stayed.”
Photo by Ian Dickson/Redferns
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