Completely erasing whatever bad-ass goodwill he may have recently generated by smoking on stage–and then eating a cigarette on stage, which is just foolish, as any first-year smoker who’s gotten a little tobacco from a broken cigarette in their mouth knows–Keith Richards has penned a nasty note to a Swedish newspaper after one of them uppity European critics shrugged that a recent Stones performance was sub-par and daring to imply that Richards may have in fact been (the hell you say) “superdrunk”:

“This is a first!” the 63-year-old rock star wrote in a letter published by Stockholm daily Dagens Nyheter. “Never before have I risen to the bait of a bad review.

“But this time … I have to stand up … for our fans all over Sweden … to say that you owe them, and us, an apology.”

Dagens Nyheter said it received the letter from concert organizer EMA Telstar. Company head Thomas Johansson told The Associated Press that Richards wrote the letter and gave it to him after reading translations of the Swedish reviews.

“There were 56,000 people in Ullevi stadium who bought a ticket to our concert — and experienced a completely different show than the one you ‘reviewed,’” the letter said.

“How dare you cheapen the experience for them — and for the hundreds of thousands of other people across Sweden who weren’t at Ullevi and have only your ‘review’ to go on.

“Write the truth. It was a good show.”

WTF? When did Keith Richards turn into the singer from a mid-level indie rock band writing a bitchy blog riposte to a bad Pitchfork review? Is he getting soft in his doddering years? Man up and take it already, Keith.

Keith Richards Fumes Over Poor Reviews [Yahoo via AP]