"Among other things, Chuck Berry is known for showing up to each of his concerts without a band. He had the promoter put the band together. Every rock band in the world knew the three chords from his songs. So he thought: Why hire his own band? He played a show at the Palladium in Hollywood and his band consisted of Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones on guitar, Jim Gordon on drums and Carl Radle on bass, both from Eric Clapton's band "Derek and the Dominos".

"I was standing on the side of the stage and after about a song and a half, Chuck stopped playing, and of course the whole band stopped. He looks around, walks over to Keith, and says something in his ear. Keith unplugs his guitar and leaves the stage. Chuck Berry literally threw Keith Richard off the stage. He probably didn't even know who it was, he just thought whoever it was, he was playing too loud. So Chuck Berry decided: I'm going to kick out the guy in the hat! The irony is that Chuck Berry made a lot of money from the Rolling Stones playing his songs. He was also one of Keith's great idols. You can see from Keith's face that he senses that something is in the bush. But he doesn't know yet that he's about to leave the stage."

"That's a pretty famous story, and I think I was the only one who took photos there. At least I've never seen any other photos from that evening." - NEAL

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The Story behind the Picture – by Neal Preston