Keith Richards shares the song that changed his life forever the first time he heard it

A song changed the life of veteran guitarist Keith Richards forever, the very first time he heard it.

The Rolling Stones‘ guitarist would cite a rock legend as the musician behind the influential first listen. Speaking about the first time he heard it, Richards recalled being thirteen when he listened to the influential song for the first time. Listening to Radio Luxembourg, Richards says he dared to risk walking around the room while his parents were asleep to listen to the song. Richards would share his love of the Elvis Presley hit, Heartbreak Hotel, during an interview where he explained that the King of Rock and Roll was a massive influence on not just his work, but that of the rock and roll genre on the whole.

Speaking to Guitar World at the time, Richards said: “You didn’t hear a lot of rock before Elvis came along. I remember being thirteen or something and listening to the radio under the bedsheets when I was supposed dot be asleep. Heartbreak Hotel came on [European radio station] Radio Luxembourg, and I kept losing the signal. I remember actually daring to get out from under the blanket and walk around the room trying to get it back without waking up the parents.”

Richards would also break down the musicians he had the worst experiences working with. One would be his long-time bandmate, Mick Jagger, though the decades of working together was no doubt strained at times.

Richards said: “I’m used to working with difficult people, I worked with Mick Jagger and Chuck Berry. I have more experience working with difficult people than most.

“And also I thought well if I can handle that, then only the idea of making God’s first album would be maybe more difficult.” Fans of Richards praised his dedication to in-studio work, but caught out The Rolling Stones’ guitarist, who got the riffs to a Berry track wrong.

Richards would also share the perfect instrument for any budding guitar player to get their start with. He explained: “I would say that the acoustic guitar is the most important thing for a guitar player to start with. Learn the feel and the touch of that string, and what it does against a fret. Learn that and then you can add the effects later on y’ know.

“If you want to be a guitar player, you have to have your grounding it’s like anywhere else. Being an astronaut doesn’t start in space, somebodies got to build a rocket.” Richards would comment in a separate interview that he had wanted to play with veteran musician Chuck Berry in his early years.

He said: “When I started, all I wanted to do was play like Chuck [Berry]. I thought if I could do that, I’d be the happiest man in the world. Then, when I found out I could do it, I thought, well maybe there is another aim in life.

“But when I started I’d dream of playing with Muddy Waters, but the only way I’d imagine it happening would be ‘if I make it to heaven—and he makes it there—then we can play together’.”