Keith Richards Slams Beatles' 'Sgt. Pepper' Album

— -- Keith Richards is never one to mince words.

So, during an interview with Esquire magazine, when the Beatles came up in conversation, he didn't shy away from slamming one of the iconic band's most celebrated albums, "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band."

The Rolling Stones legend said, "The Beatles sounded great when they were the Beatles."

"But there's not a lot of roots in that music," he added about the band's music from the late 1960s.

He continued, "I think they got carried away. Why not? If you're the Beatles in the '60s, you just get carried away — you forget what it is you wanted to do. You're starting to do 'Sgt. Pepper.' Some people think it's a genius album, but I think it's a mishmash of rubbish, kind of like 'Satanic Majesties,'" he commented about his own band's 1967 album.

Then comparing the two albums, he said, "'Oh, if you can make a load of s---, so can we.'"

To be fair, Richards, 71, had slammed the album as rubbish when the reporter brought up classics like "Let It Bleed," and looped in "Sgt. Pepper" into that mix.

Aside from the Beatles talk, Richards also opened up about his past and the difference between Keith Richards the musician and the rock star.

"I'm probably more well-known because of my image rather than the music. I got used to it—he's like a ball and chain you drag around and it's some guy you maybe were 25 years ago. But he's always there," he said.