The Rolling Stones’ guitarist and co-founder Keith Richards revealed the story behind their biggest hit song ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’ during a recent interview with Guitar World, and apparently, it was the demo version that became a huge hit.

As many of you know, when it first released in 1965, ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’ became one of the greatest songs of all time and of The Rolling Stones. Keith Richards’ guitar riff, which was originally ‌intended to be replaced by horns, ‌opens and drives the song, making it an iconic work of art.

The track peaked at every chart it was on and it is often seen as one of the world’s most popular songs with its second place on Rolling Stone‘s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list. It was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998, and it is the 10th best-ranked song on critics’ all-time lists according to Acclaimed Music.

During a recent interview, Keith Richards opened up about their monumental song and revealed that he did not think of the iconic riff of the song to be the main riff of the song, instead Richards planned to replace it with a horn riff once a new Fuzz-Tone pedal arrived in their studio.

Here is what Keith Richards stated about the guitar riff in ‘Satisfaction’:

“When I wrote the song, I didn’t think of that particular riff as the big guitar riff. That all fell into place at RCA when Gibson dumped on me one of those first Fuzz-Tone pedals. I actually thought of that guitar line as a horn riff. The way Otis Redding ended up doing it is probably closer to my original conception for the song. It’s an obvious horn riff.

And when this new Fuzz-Tone pedal arrived in the studio from the local dealership or something, I said, ‘Oh, this is good. It’s got a bit of sustain, so I can use it to sketch out the horn line.‘”

Later on, Keith Richards revealed that he heard the song ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’ on the radio with the unintentional guitar riff of his while The Rolling Stones was on the road for a tour. Richards’ reaction was priceless as he thought it was an incomplete song, however, it was the greatest hit of their career.

Here’s what Richards added:

“So we left the track and went back out on the road. And two weeks later I hear it on the radio. I said, ‘No, that was just a demo!’ They said, ‘No, it’s a hit.’ At least Otis got it right. Our version was a demo for Otis.”

You can click here to check out the source.