Maneskin recall hanging out with The Rolling Stones: “Keith Richards said, 'I don’t know who the f**k you are, but they tell me you’re good'”

Maneskin with Mick Jagger — (Image credit: NBC)

Fast-rising Italian rockers Måneskin made their second appearance on popular US talk show The Tonight Show on January 26, performing recent single Gossip with Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello and telling host Jimmy Fallon about their experiences hanging out with the Rolling Stones in Las Vegas in 2021.

In the wake of their 2021 Eurovision triumph, the Roman rockers received a personal invitation from Mick Jagger to open for the Stones at their November 6 show at Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium: the group later posted a photo with Jagger on Instagram, with the caption “What a night, thanks @therollingstones – best memory of all time”.

Revisiting the experience in conversation with Jimmy Fallon, who asks what it was like to receive the call from the Stones’ frontman, bassist Victoria De Angelis shrugs and jokes that her reaction was “Whatever… maybe we can do it” while frontman Damiano David adds, “Just another day in the music business.”

“It was, like, our first stadium [show] so it was crazy,” De Angelis says, more seriously. “And also it was iconic because we got the chance to talk with him [Mick Jagger] and he was so nice, and knew a lot of our music and stuff. And then we met Keith Richards, and he was like - affects gruff English accent - ‘I don’t know who the fuck you are, but they tell me you’re good, so…’ and we were like, [laughs] Okay!”

“He said, ‘You play real instruments, so keep going’,” David recalls. “And then he vanished.”

Watch the interview, and Måneskin’s performance of Gossip alongside Tom Morello below.

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A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne's private jet, played Angus Young's Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.