Keith Richards has described Amy Winehouse as “one of the best to come out of England” while reflecting on the late singer’s influence following The Rolling Stones’ cover of You Know I’m No Good on their new album, Foreign Tongues.
Speaking to Billboard, the guitarist said Winehouse’s death in 2011 was a tragic loss for music and that she had “so much more potential”.
Keith Richards says Amy Winehouse had ‘so much more potential’
The Rolling Stones have recorded a new version of Winehouse’s 2006 hit You Know I’m No Good for Foreign Tongues, their latest studio album.
Richards explained why the band chose the song.
“Loved the song. Always thought that Amy was a sad story in many ways, but she was one of the best to come out of England, and probably had so much more potential.
“I’m not sure who kicked the idea off, whether it was Mick or Andrew [Watt, producer], but we said, ‘Well, you know, we used to, we started off, we were a cover band, basically, so if there’s one you wanted to cover now, what would it be?’ And Amy came out on top.”
Mick Jagger explains why The Stones chose the song
Frontman Mick Jagger said the band wanted to include a song by a more contemporary female artist rather than revisiting an older classic.
“We were looking for a good song to cover from a female vocalist, and we were thinking of early people, and then we said, ‘Let’s do something a bit more recent.’
“We alighted on that song. I always liked that song. I could have written it, you know what I mean? Almost. I felt that I could have written that song, because it’s like a minor-key harmonica lead. I just copied the horn lead and played it on harmonica, so it felt very organic.”
The Rolling Stones previously shared the stage with Amy Winehouse
The collaboration is not the first connection between The Rolling Stones and Winehouse.
In 2007, the band performed The Temptations’ Ain’t Too Proud to Beg with Winehouse during their appearance at the Isle of Wight Festival, one of the standout guest performances of her career.
Amy Winehouse’s lasting legacy
Winehouse died on 23 July 2011 at her home in Camden, north London, aged 27.
An inquest later recorded a verdict of misadventure, concluding that she died from alcohol poisoning after voluntarily consuming a fatal amount of alcohol following a period of abstinence.
According to evidence presented at the inquest, her blood alcohol concentration was 416mg per 100ml, a level capable of causing coma and respiratory failure.
