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Keith Richards about the Beatles touring, or not (1969)
“I think it’s impossible for them to do a tour. Mick has said it before, but it’s worth repeating . . . the Beatles are primarily a recording group. Even though they drew the biggest crowds of their era in North America, I think the Beatles had passed their performing peak even before they were famous. They are a recording band, while our scene is the concerts and many of our records were roughly made, on purpose…
…Our sort of scene is to have a really good time with the audience. It’s always been the Stones’ thing to get up on stage and kick the crap out of everything. We had three years of that before we made it, and we were only just getting it together when we became famous. We still had plenty to do on stage and I think we still have. That’s why the tour should be such a groove for us.”
Ah yes, 1969, when The Beatles were definitely not touring. By this point, you’d think the band would be busy filling stadiums and having entire countries shut down for them. But nope, in true Beatles fashion, they decided, “Who needs it?” The idea of a massive world tour was totally off their radar—probably because they were too busy falling apart to worry about playing live shows.
In 1969, the band was in the middle of their messy breakup. They’d pretty much stopped performing live altogether by the time Abbey Road came around. Remember those unforgettable Beatles concerts where fans screamed so loudly you couldn’t hear the music? Yeah, that wasn’t happening anymore. Instead, we got an album filled with a mix of genius and turmoil, recorded in studios rather than on stage. Not touring? More like not even leaving the studio.
If you look at the state of the band that year, they were practically allergic to the idea of touring. John was off doing his thing with Yoko, Paul was becoming Mr. McCartney the solo artist, and George was probably busy with his own spiritual journey. And Ringo? Well, Ringo was Ringo, bouncing between sessions and trying to keep things from completely falling apart.
The last real Beatles tour ended in 1966, and by 1969, the idea of them taking the stage together was so far-fetched it might as well have been a joke. It wasn’t that they didn’t have the fanbase or the music—it’s just that they didn’t care about touring. They’d been there, done that, and clearly, they were done with the whole circus.
So, no touring in 1969. Instead, we got a legendary band that was slowly unraveling in front of the world.
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