How Keith Richards' 'Main Offender' Stacked Up Against 'Talk Is Cheap' — and Why 'Eileen' Stands Apart

By 1992, Keith Richards had already proven he could carry a solo album with Talk Is Cheap (1988), which went gold in the U.S. and hit No. 24 on the Billboard 200. Main Offender followed four years later, but it didn’t match that commercial peak — it stalled at No. 99 and sold maybe a third as many copies. Critics were kinder to the debut, too, calling it sharper and more urgent. Main Offender is looser, more groove-based, and feels like a band having fun in the studio rather than a statement. The core difference: Talk Is Cheap was Keith shaking off the Mick Jagger feud; Main Offender was Keith relaxed, playing with his X-Pensive Winos again.

The track “Eileen” is the closest thing to a love letter in Keith’s catalog. Written for his wife Patti Hansen (full name Patti Eileen Hansen), it’s a slow, swampy ballad with a sweet, repeat-your-name chorus. Lyrically it’s unguarded — “Eileen, you’re my queen” — a rare spot of domestic tenderness from a guy who usually sings about drugs and trouble. It didn’t get released as a single and didn’t chart, but it became a live staple for the Winos. The song matters because it shows Keith the husband, not just Keith the riff machine, and it holds up as a sincere piece of roots-rock that the Stones would never have made.