Keith Richards recalls time guitar legend Chuck Berry ‘gave him a black eye’

An encounter between guitar legends Chuck Berry and Keith Richards left the latter man with a black eye.

The Rolling Stones guitarist recalled receiving a black eye from the Roll Over Beethoven hitmaker in a tribute made after Berry’s death. Richards would jokingly call this Berry’s “greatest hit” in an article where he shared details of how he received the shiner. Richards was keen to admit he was “in the wrong” and deserved the punch, but at the time thought nothing of it as he was acting on “professional interest”. Berry thought otherwise and landed a blow to Richards. It wasn’t the only foul interaction between the pair, with Richards sometimes thrown off stage by the Go, Johnny Go! hitmaker, which Richards believed was a “sign of respect”.

Richards wrote: “Chuck Berry once gave me a black eye, which I later called his greatest hit. We saw him play in New York somewhere, and afterward I was backstage in his dressing room, where his guitar was lying in its case.

“I wanted to look, out of professional interest, and as I’m just plucking the strings, Chuck walked in and gave me this wallop to the frickin’ left eye. But I realised I was in the wrong. If I walked into my dressing room and saw somebody fiddling with my ax, it would be perfectly all right to sock ’em, you know? I just got caught.

“He would do things like throw me offstage, too. I always took that as a reverse compliment, sort of as a sign of respect – because otherwise he wouldn’t bother with me.

“He was a little prickly, but at the same time there was a very warm guy underneath that he wasn’t that willing to display. There were other times between us when we’re sitting around and rehearsing, and going, ‘Man, you know, between us we got that shit down’ – and there would be a beautiful, different feeling.”

Richards is not the only veteran musician to have been influenced by Berry, who died in 2017. The Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson says it was Berry’s influential guitar work that inspired him to write about cars, surfing, and pop music in general.

He said: “He taught me how to write rock & roll melodies, the way the vocals should go. His lyrics were very, very good. They were unusually good lyrics. I liked Johnny B. Goode, all about a young, little kid who played his guitar.

“He inspired me as a lyricist. He made me want to write about cars and surfing. I liked the lyrics to Roll Over Beethoven. It felt like what he was doing was new.”

Wilson also noted Berry’s Sweet Little Sixteen as the influence to one of The Beach Boys biggest hits. The songwriter said that “the melody and the chord pattern inspired me to write Surfin’ U.S.A.” Other influences in Wilson’s life would be The Beatles, particularly Paul McCartney.