In his Uncut interview, Keith Richards claimed that "Exile On Main St." was the first grunge record. Probably, this was his reaction when he first heard the grunge music in the 90s. He must have thought that they had already done that as early as the Exile days. The guitar works and the music themes of that album seemed to reflect what the Stones were experiencing, musically and otherwise. They were literally in exile. Nonetheless, they accomplished something they never knew would become a masterpiece- a music revolution during the post-Beatles era. This was also recorded when many music critics thought that the days of rock n roll was gone.
Although some forefronts of the grunge scene attributed the music influence to hardcore and punk, it can never be denied that indeed, the Stones, the Who, Bowie, Stooges, Velvet U and those who made rock (n roll) breakthrough during and after the Beatles era made a lot of impact to grunge. Nirvana recorded "The Man Who Sold the World" in their unplugged album retaining the original arrangements by David Bowie. Kurt Cobain loved to sing Beatles songs. He was in fact strumming "Julia" just before the unplugged album was made. He even sounded like John Lennon in "About A Girl." Pearl Jam also recorded with Neil Young. The reason is simple: their music gave birth to grunge. The music did not just popped up. From time to time, it was shaped until it turned out to be that way.
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