Keith Richards calls America “a bit of a disappointment”

Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards has never been one to hold his tongue. The rock legend aired his frustrations with America in a recent Sunday Times interview marking the nation’s semiquincentennial. Richards discussed “Ringing Hollow,” a country-tinged song from the band’s forthcoming album, Foreign Tongues, that harks back to the group’s early days in the U.S. The song explores the divide between what the paper called “The United States of Jagger” and today’s sociopolitical climate, prompting some critics to interpret it as a critique against the Trump administration. “I wouldn’t say it’s only about that, it’s about America generally and your own experiences of it,” Jagger said. 

Richards, who has lived in Connecticut since 1985 with his wife Patti Hansen and their daughters, described the song as “a nostalgic love affair with America.” But he also labeled the country “a bit of a disappointment at the moment,” adding, “All you hear is the moaning about the price of gas. This is where it hurts people.” Jagger himself has similarly framed the song as a response to “the decline of the American empire.” In an interview with MOJO, he asked, “Is the Iran war America’s Suez moment?” before answering his own question: “Well, it’s not the same at all. But there are a lot of questions about imperial overreach and the lobbying system.”

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