The Rolling Stones once delayed a show so Keith Richards had time to finish eating his pie.
Though it’s not quite the hotel room ruining rock and roll style of The Who, it’s still an odd moment which would see fans waiting a little longer to hear The Rolling Stones. The Mick Jagger-fronted group once delayed a show so Richards could finish his dinner, and it’s now his “rule for the road”. Writing in his autobiography, Life, Richards confirmed the story that a show on the Steel Wheels tour was delayed so he could finish his plate of shepherd’s pie. The band would tour for more than a year on the Steel Wheels show, eight years since their last show. Though the shows went off without much trouble, one dater in Toronto at the CNE Stadium was delayed by the band as Richards had wanted to finish his pie.
Richards wrote: “It’s now famous, my rule on the road. Nobody touches the shepherd’s pie till I’ve been in there. Don’t bust my crust, baby.” But Richards’ rule for receiving the first slice of shepherd’s pie was broken at the CNE Stadium, as he found someone had already eaten the serving.
Richards refused to go on stage until he was served up another pie by the venue, according to Far Out Magazine. He also insisted on having a traditional English pub set up on every stop of the show, kitted out with a jukebox, cricket bats and traditional pub grub. But the night of The Rolling Stones’ show in Toronto, it appeared someone helped themselves to Richards’ preferred pre-show dish.
It’s not the wildest moment from Richards’ life, with the notorious guitarist once allegedly snorting his father’s ashes. Speaking to the NME in 2007, Richards would claim the strangest thing he had tried to snort was his dad. He said: “My father. I snorted my father.”
Richards says the reason he did this was that his father, Herbert Richards, simply “wouldn’t have cared”. The veteran rockstar allegedly ground up part of his father’s ashes into “a little bit of blow” and took a snort.
He claimed: “He was cremated and I couldn’t resist grinding him up with a little bit of blow. My dad wouldn’t have cared, he didn’t give a shit. It went down pretty well, and I’m still alive.” In later interviews, Richards would say his initial quotes were “lost in the usual slanting” and that he actually buried the box of his father’s ashes at a “sturdy English Oak.”
He shared: “The truth of the matter is that I planted a sturdy English Oak. I took the… ashes [and sprinkled them beneath the tree], and he is now growing oak trees and he would love me for it!”
But years later he would backtrack on his claim of burying his father’s ashes, and reverted back to his original story of snorting the ashes. In 2016, Richards would claim that instead of choosing to mix his father’s ashes with cocaine, he had intended to pour the ashes on an oak tree. But when the ashes wafted onto the table, he couldn’t resist a quick snort.
He shared: “I had him in a box in England. I bought this little oak sapling, my idea being that he was gonna fertilise the tree, but when I pulled the top off of the box, wafts of Dad landed on the table. And my dad knows I’d always liked my cocaine, a snort here and there. So I just (mimes snorting) and had a line of dad.”
