During a 1981 Rolling Stones concert in Hampton, Virginia, Keith Richards confronted a fan on stage.
The band was playing their last song, ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,’ when Keith saw a fan running towards him and Mick Jagger. “I don’t know what this guy’s doing,” the guitarist told Kerrang!
He continued, “He’s managed to avoid the security. You know, ‘This one’s pretty sharp – hello, we’ve got one here!’ He’s on my turf, he’s going for Mick, and I don’t know what he’s gonna do.”
“I’m just taking care of my buddy – and he [Jagger] can’t see cos he’s working, you know? This guy’s gotta go. He doesn’t belong on the stage. I don’t know what his intentions are. It could be just to say, ‘Mick I love you.’ Or he could put a knife in his back,” Richards added.
Keith quickly took off his guitar and swung it at the fan’s head. The rocker further recalled, “It was a good shot. I caught him with that Telecaster. Wallop! And what really impressed me was that the guitar didn’t go out of tune!”
“He kissed Charlie’s drums a little, too. I got him out of jail. I bailed him out later that night. He wasn’t the first. Just the first captured on film,” the musician noted.
“The only reason I did it was because the security was not there — They were two steps behind. I am watching Mick’s back. I don’t know where this guy is gonna go… You know it’s a kind of automatic, instinctive thing… I just watched my man’s back,” Richards also said about the incident in a separate interview.
He went on, “Did I push him too far off to Charlie’s drums, so I would screw up the drumming. But I didn’t and the guitar was still in tune. I bailed him out afterwards. He didn’t spend the night in jail…He still owes me 200 bucks.”
It was the last show of the Rolling Stones in America for the Tattoo You tour at the Coliseum in Hampton, Virginia. It was also Richards’ 38th birthday.