Art isn’t a race to see who’s the best. It’s about sharing what’s in your heart, not trying to beat everyone else. But Keith Richards, a famous guitar player from The Rolling Stones, once said there was one blues guitarist who could have been the greatest of all if he hadn’t died so young.
Keith’s way of playing guitar is super special. He uses a trick called open-G tuning, which makes his music sound different from other rock stars. He learned a lot from blues heroes like B.B. King and Muddy Waters. When he plays with his drummer, Charlie Watts, you can hear how much he loves those old blues rhythms, mixed into his own cool style.
Keith grew up loving certain musicians. While most people enjoyed singers like Frank Sinatra, Keith was all about Chuck Berry’s guitar riffs and the neat sounds from Elvis Presley’s guitarist, Scotty Moore. But for Keith, Robert Johnson was the best. He thought Johnson had something extra special that helped create the wild energy of rock ‘n’ roll.
Long before rock stars were a thing, Robert Johnson was setting the bar high. He played with so much feeling and a bit of danger. Johnson lived a wild life—partying hard and getting into messy love stories. Sadly, one of those stories ended with him being poisoned after a show, making him a legend who died too soon. Keith didn’t just see the crazy stories, though; he heard a guy whose music felt almost magical.
Keith once told Guitar Player magazine, “Robert Johnson would have been better than all of us! If he’d been nicer to the girls he loved and knew how to treat them better, he might have been as big as Muddy Waters. I think he could have played with a band. I’ve heard he might have had one before he died. I’m not sure if that’s true, but I like to believe it.”
We don’t have great recordings of Johnson’s music—just some scratchy old ones—but his mark on rock is huge. Without him, The Rolling Stones might not have made songs like “Wild Horses” or “Gimme Shelter,” which feel so deep and spooky. Johnson sang about tough stuff in life, and that opened the door for other musicians to share their real feelings too.
Johnson didn’t set out to be famous. He just played what he felt inside. By being so honest, he taught every rock star after him that the best music comes from the heart, not from following rules. For Keith Richards, Johnson’s magic was all about being real—a lesson that true art is about showing who you really are.
