One legendary guitarist was completely wrong about Prince

Keith Richards often talks out the side of his mouth but does not have any idea what he is actually talking about. That is his right. He has been one of the two most important parts of the greatness that is the Rolling Stones for seven decades. He has earned the right to be wrong. He mostly was when it came to Prince.

The Stones and Prince do have a connection, albeit not a successful one, so Richards might have gotten to know Prince just a bit. Prince opened for the Rolling Stones for a couple of days in 1981. The two musical artists could not have been much different, though they still had a lot more in common than they could have realized in the early 1980s.

The Stones always fancied themselves a blues-rock group, and rightfully so. Unlike the Beatles poppier sound, the Rolling Stones borrowed heavily from the Black music of the American South. The Beatles and Stones sounded differently.

Keith Richards clearly did not understand the greatness of Prince

Prince was from Minnesota, but his sound was also rooted in the same kind of music the Stones loved. Prince borrowed from gospel and funk, but he could do so much more with his sound than the Stones could. That is because he was a pure solo artist who was inspired by all different kinds of sounds and chose to turn them into different-sounding tunes. He just wasn't ready to become fully musically mature until a couple of years after he opened for the Rolling Stones.

To be sure, for every "Let's Go Crazy," Prince has a "Rasberry Beret." Those are two completely different tracks.

Keith Richards obviously did not choose to truly listen to Prince, however. He said in his 2010 memoir, Life, that Prince was an "overrated midget." (Mind you, while Richards was an excellent guitarist, he pales in comparison to Prince's talent.)

Richards also told the now-defunct Musician magazine that Prince was "trying to be Stevie Wonder." That statement would imply that Richards had no real knowledge of the music of Stevie Wonder or Prince, as the two musical artists sound hardly anything alike. That is a loss for Richards.

The truth is that the Rolling Stones and Prince are both worthy of being listened to for the rest of your life. That either would have said anything negative about the other only hurts the artist making the accusations. Richards was simply wrong - and ignorant - about Prince.

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