Former member of Wet Leg claims he "should get recognised" for his contributions to the band

Wet Leg rose to fame in 2021 when they released their first single, "Chaise Longue". Since then, they've won multiple Grammy and Brit awards, opened for Harry Styles at Wembley Stadium, and gained millions of streams online.

After witnessing Wet Leg's successes over the past couple of years, Richards has decided to air the "dirty laundry", and correct the band's narrative which he alleges has erased his existence.

Chambers and Teasdale have previously claimed two different origin stories of the band name in interviews. Sometimes they say that the name Wet Leg came from them playing around with different combinations of emojis, and other times explaining that it is an old Isle of Wight saying, whilst Richards disputes this, saying that he was the one who came up with the name.

Claiming that the name came from a conversation he and his brother Jamie had while all of them were in the garden of his father’s house on the Isle of Wight, he says: “For years me and a couple of friends had lists of stupid band names. Anytime you’d think of a funny combination of words you’d just write it down. One of them was Wet Book. My brother misheard me and said, ‘Oh you should call it Wet Leg’," he explains, adding that Teasdale didn't seem sold on the name at the time.

Richards also goes on to say, during his conversation with The Times, that he co-wrote two songs from Wet Leg's self-titled debut album – "Oh No" and "Too Late Now". He was never given any credit for his contributions, and now believes that he deserves that.

“I feel frightened to try and approach that subject,” he says. “But I did write [on those songs] and they are on the record. So I probably should get recognised."

In 2020, following their seven year relationship, Richards and Teasdale broke-up, and shortly afterwards, he asked him to leave the band. Reflecting on this, he said: “I was really upset actually. I had the sense of it maybe being quite successful. I also felt like I helped create it.”

“It’s just been completely surreal, watching them get massive,” he says. “I keep thinking, ‘Why does it have to be the No 1 album? Could it not just be No 4 or something?’”