14 DAY TRIAL // Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards showed his wild side in a recent interview with a Swedish journalist from Aftonbladets, hitting him in the head and threatening him, Spinner reports.
Richards and Markus Larsson, the journalist who reportedly got injured during the interview, go a long way back, since, in August 2007, Larsson published a scathing review of the Stones’ concert, branding them “amateurs.”
The rocker was furious at the time the 2-star (of 5 in total) review came out, even calling out on Larsson to issue a public apology – which, clearly, never came.
While in Paris promoting his biography “Life,” Richards sat down with Larsson for an interview, with the former not realizing who the latter was, Spinner says.
When he did, though, all hell broke loose, confirming that, if anything, Richards is not a man who easily forgets an offense.
“The meeting ended with the rock star threatening Markus Larsson and hitting him in the head, the article said, with Larsson adding that Richards hissed, ‘You’re lucky to get out of here alive’ prior to leaving,” Spinner says.
The incident occurred 10 minutes after the 30-minute interview had started, when Richards realized the man he was speaking to, Larsson, was actually his “nemesis.”
“The mood of the rock star quickly changed,” Aftonbladets writes, as cited by Spinner. “His eyes got black and he was absolutely furious,” Larsson recalls for the magazine.
“He stood up and asked if we would put out the lights and settle the disagreement straight away. At first I was just surprised, I thought he was pulling my leg, but then I realized he was serious and then I felt uncomfortable and I just wanted to get out of there pretty fast,” the journalist adds.
Contacted for comment on the alleged assault, a publicist for Richards said that the entire thing was just a misunderstanding, since it never took place – the rocker did not hit the journalist in the head, he merely “tapped” him as a joke.
“At the conclusion of the 20 minute interview Keith Richards jokingly tapped the journalist on the head after his questions got a bit silly. From the people in the room during the interview they would suggest that the writer has allowed his imagination to get the better of him,” the publicist said in a statement to the media.