Richards slams Sir Mick

He’s the grand old rocker of British pop and, as such, Mick Jagger’s name may still raise a few fusty eyebrows among other knights of the realm.

But that’s nothing compared to the tongue-lashing he’s had over the matter from his oldest pal and Rolling Stones colleague Keith Richards. Jagger agreed to go under the sword in June but has turned the Queen down 20 times since — apparently because of his busy work schedule.

But insiders say the real reason is a secret dilemma about being honoured and now, in an astonishing diatribe, Richards has hit out at Jagger’s decision to go to the Palace next Friday along with his father Joe.

Richards says he 'went f***ing berserk' when he heard about the 'f***ing paltry honour', saying it was just 'not what the Stones are about'.

He tells Uncut magazine: 'I thought it was ludicrous to take one of those gongs from the Establishment when they did their very best to throw us in jail. Just as we were about to start a new tour, I thought it sent out the wrong message. It’s not what the Stones is about, is it?

'I don’t want to step out on stage with someone wearing a f***ing coronet and sporting the old ermine. I told Mick, ‘It’s a f***king paltry honour’.

'He defended himself by saying that Tony Blair insisted that he took the knighthood. Like that’s an excuse. Like you can’t turn down anything. Like it doesn’t depend how you feel about it.'

Perhaps at the back of Mick’s mind was the possibility that if he’d kept the Queen hanging on a little longer, he would have got a little more. Or in Richards’s words: 'If you’re into this s***, hang on for the peerage. Don’t settle for a little badge.'

By way of response, Jagger wades into Richards over such band loyalty.
He said it was 'endearing' but Richards carried it to extreme and sometimes it’s 'over and beyond reason, and that can be very irritating'.

Their friendship, he added, was 'amazingly long-lived, although I still don’t really pretend to understand it'.