Rolling Stones Jagger & Richards Remember Stage Crasher from ’81 Concert
Henry S. Dziekan III, Getty Images
When you’ve toured as much as the Rolling Stones, it can be really hard to differentiate one show from another. But the band’s gig on Dec. 18, 1981, in Hampton, Virginia — now available as ‘Hampton Coliseum (Live 1981),’ the second official Stones concert bootleg — was certainly memorable for Keith Richards and Mick Jagger.
The way Richards describes it, that’s the one “where the guy ran onstage” as the Stones were closing out the concert with ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.’
“Security was a bit slow, and I saw some guy heading straight for Mick,” Richards says in a recent video interview. “I saw nobody between him and Mick … I have no idea what this guy is gonna do. … All I know is that he’s trying to get his hands on Mick, and this I have to prevent, and I do have a weapon in my hands.”
Richards removed his black Fender Telecaster and took a swing at the man, hitting him on top of his left shoulder, the guitarist recalls. Once security intervened, Richards went back to using the Tele for its primary purpose.
“The damn thing stayed in tune, and this is the greatest [advertisement] for Fender that I can give you,” Richards says with a laugh.
Jagger remembers the show’s custom stage with its “enormously long” walkways, which, in retrospect probably weren’t worth the money: “I think I went up there once,” he says.
