The one song that changed Keith Richards forever: “When I woke up the next day I was a different guy”
(Credits: Far Out / Alamy)
Wed 31 December 2025 13:25, UK
Keith Richards was born to play in a rock ‘n’ roll band. His showmanship and natural talent, paired with his extracurricular activities, have made him an archetypal figure, which he puts down to unexpectedly hearing one life-changing song on the radio.
Before Richards started playing the guitar and began performing in bands as a teenager, his mother, Doris, had already instilled a love of jazz in him. The radio was like an extended member of the family for Richards, who was serenaded by the sweet sounds of Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald, which continue to make up ample space in his record collection.
However, as much as Richards holds those jazz and R&B records dear, it wasn’t until he discovered music on his own accord that a fuse was lit within him that changed the course of his life.
From this moment on, Richards wanted to seek a career as a professional musician, whether this was playing to half-filled bars in a pub rock band or stadiums. As long as he was playing music, nothing else mattered. Playing the guitar was more than a hobby for him; it was his calling.
When Richards was growing up, rock ‘n’ roll had yet to infiltrate the mainstream, and therefore, it wasn’t easily accessible. The growth of the pirate radio station Radio Luxembourg was crucial for Richards and gave him a glimpse, on a nightly basis, into another world. He would happily lose hours of sleep if it meant that he discovered one song which gave him a rush of blood to the head.
Elvis Presley and Scott Moore. (Credit: Alamy)
Writing in his memoir, Life, Richards cast his mind back to this special period of his life when music was all that mattered: “I think the first record I bought was Little Richard’s ‘Long Tall Sally’. Fantastic record, even to this day. Good records just get better with age.”
He then recalled the precise moment when, thanks to Elvis Presley, his outlook on life changed forever, adding, “But the one that really turned me on, like an explosion one night, listening to Radio Luxembourg on my little radio when I was supposed to be in bed and asleep, was ‘Heartbreak Hotel’. That was the stunner.”
For Richards, it was as if he’d been transported to a new world that was beyond his wildest dreams, adding, “I’d never heard it before or anything like it. I’d never heard of Elvis before. It was almost as if I’d been waiting for it to happen. When I woke up the next day I was a different guy.”
As soon as the song ended, Richards wanted to press repeat on the song until sunrise, which wasn’t a choice available to him with the guitarist agonisingly revealing, “It was the first time I’d heard something so stark. Then I had to go back to what this cat had done before. Luckily I caught his name. The Radio Luxembourg signal came back in. ‘That was Elvis Presley, with ‘Heartbreak Hotel’. Shit!”
While Presley’s voice contributed to Richards’ love affair with rock ‘n’ roll, he was more endeared by guitarist Scotty Moore’s work. Following Moore’s death in 2016, Richards poignantly said of the musician: “When I heard ‘Heartbreak Hotel’, I knew what I wanted to do in life. It was as plain as day. All I wanted to do in the world was to be able to play and sound like the way Scotty Moore did. Everyone wanted to be Elvis, I wanted to be Scotty.”
After the vital discovery, Richards would listen religiously to Radio Luxembourg underneath the covers of his bed on a nightly basis whenever the signal permitted. Although it wasn’t a tradition musical education, it worked a charm on him and made his entire personality revolve around his penchant for rock ‘n’ roll.
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