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Keith Richards: Amy is only singer I rate, but she won't be around for long unless she cleans up her act
By JAMES TAPPER
Last updated at 01:15am on 16th March 2008
Rolling Stone Keith Richards has revealed the only modern pop star he rates is troubled Amy Winehouse.
But the guitarist - famous for his huge consumption of illegal drugs - warned that Amy, who was pictured recently smoking crack, "wouldn't be around for long" unless she cleaned up her act.
The Stones' lead singer Mick Jagger also said Winehouse's music would suffer because of the time she spent dealing with the authorities over drugs.
High praise: Richards says that Amy Winehouse is the only current singer he rates, but added that he didn't think she'd 'be around for long' unless she cleaned up her act
In an exclusive interview for The Mail on Sunday's Live magazine, 'Keef' spoke frankly of his own drug-taking.
The guitarist - who inspired Johnny Depp's character Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates Of The Caribbean - said he still listens to his old blues heroes such as Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry and Jimmy Reed.
Asked which modern artists he rated, he said: "There's only one person. That girl Amy.
Amy Winehouse and Keith's bandmate Mick Jagger perform together at the 2007 Isle of Wight festival
"Mind you, that girl isn't going to be around long unless she sorts herself out pretty quick. Amy's got to get smart."
Richards, 64, said he did not expect her to listen.
He said: "I'm not a preacher. But I've been there and you have to pass it on."
The former heroin addict admitted he still "smokes weed all the damn time" and said he was once so high on drugs he let a firework burn his finger to the bone.
'I'm not a preacher': Keith, pictured with bandmate Ronnie Wood (left), has spoken frankly on his drug-taking in an interview with the The Mail on Sunday's Live magazine
He said: "When this band started, I never gave it more than two years. Forty-odd years later, I now think we're just about getting it tight.
"I don't see the problem of performing when you are 80. Chuck Berry can do it."
Jagger, also 64, spoke of the band's trouble with the police over drugs in the Seventies.
He said: "It completely took over our lives creatively and we couldn't do this and couldn't do that.
"You had to spend all your time trying to deal with the police. The same thing has happened to Amy Winehouse."
The pair were speaking ahead of next month's premiere of the Stones film Shine A Light.
Jagger added: "Performing is like sex, an addiction. But to do it well, you can't do it all the time."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/showbiz/showbiznews.html?in_article_id=535148&in_page_id=1773
[Edited by Gazza] |
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| mrhipfl |
quote:
I don't see the problem of performing when you are 80. Chuck Berry can do it.
well that's debatable... |
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| Gazza |
The Rolling Stones shine on and on in Scorsese's latest
By LOUISE GANNON
Last updated at 18:39pm on 14th March 2008
How often do the Stones do interviews? About as often as they do movies.Happily, they've just shot one – a defining live show captured by Martin Scorsese. Louise Gannon spent three days in Berlin with Mick and Keith's rock circus talking napalm, sex, drugs, guitars...
We're in a brightly lit corridor in Berlin's Regent Hotel.
A six-figure-salaried movie executive is having a coronary over the non-arrival of tomato ketchup as requested by Keith Richards a couple of minutes earlier.
A sense of panic crackles in the atmosphere.
Mick Jagger photographed mid-show in NYC. There are more myths about the Rolling Stones than any other band
In fact, in a suite a few feet away, Richards, wearing a flowing turquoise shirt and bead-draped trilby complete with bullet hole ("I shot this hat myself… har-har"), is happily tucking into his chips.
There is no red-sauce tension in the room, just giant posters of Martin Scorsese's new Stones movie, Shine A Light, and Richards – vodka and orange in one hand, cigarette in the other (the smoking ban has passed him by) – is off on a random riff about his favourite subject, guitars.
"The Stones guitar sound is special.
"I take a string off my guitar to give it that jangly edge," he says in his soft, growly voice.
"For me, playing a guitar is like the ancient art of weaving. It's about more than one player. At best, me and Ronnie [Wood] make the Bayeux Tapestry on stage."
Outside, it's all unravelling.
Ketchupgate is kicking off. Minions are sent scurrying off to kitchens and 19 nervous breakdowns are in full swing as film executives envisage heads rolling and jobs iced all because a star is about to "go nuclear" over a condiment.
You see, this is what happens in Hollywood. A starlet's snagged nail can cause a multimillion-dollar deal to tank.
A sauce shortfall could spell movie meltdown.
But the film people have got it all wrong.
Oscar-winning director Martin Scorsese has turned his lens to document the Stones in Shine A Light. He has known Jagger since 1972
The Stones may be superstars but they are definitely not Hollywood-flavour prima donnas. They are strictly rock 'n' roll.
They may do drugs, they may do sex, they may do fights and they have definitely in their time done TV-throwing from hotel balconies.
But they don't do diva tantrums over ketchup.
What they do best is simply being the Rolling Stones.
"Actually," says Mick Jagger in his trademark London drawl, "I'd say the defining thing about the Rolling Stones is that we're very British. It's very British rock 'n' roll."
They are, in fact, so British and so rock 'n' roll that they adhere to the old establishment adage: "Never complain, never explain."
There must be more myths about the Stones than any other band.
They rarely do interviews, hardly ever pass comment – so this opportunity is rare indeed.
Jagger is too shrewd, Richards too unconcerned, Wood and Charlie Watts too protective of the band.
"Myths, legends and the Rolling Stones…" muses Jagger. "There are so many. The dangerous thing is if you start believing in them. That way lies madness.
"My favourite myth, the greatest Stones myth" – he starts laughing, rolling his head – "is the one about Keith having his blood changed every year."
Legend has it that former heroin addict Keith would have regular blood transfusions to clean all the drugs out of his system.
"I've always loved that because it's got that great, dark, vampire feel about it."
Keith Richards, 64, refines his Pirates of the Caribbean look. The rocker is rumoured to be one of the few rock stars to have refused Kate Moss's advances
Richards, now aged 64, nods slowly. "I started that myth. I was standing in Heathrow, on my way to a Swiss clinic – this was in the days before the word rehab had ever been used. But that was the gig.
"I was going to sort myself out. These guys in raincoats [journalists] wanted to know what I was doing.
"I just threw the words out: “I'm gonna get my blood changed.” It stuck. It became real. I never had my blood changed, I just got myself clean."
The reason why Richards and Jagger are giving me their time is, of course, purely business.
Next month, the band are the focus of a feature-length movie, Shine A Light.
It's a beautifully shot docu-concert, if there is such a term, for cinema release. It's a gig, the making of a gig, and the making-of-a-gig-made-for-a-movie, with special guests and a full suite of backstage tensions.
Martin Scorsese, whose job it was to capture the essence of the Stones on celluloid, does not underplay the anxiety of the project.
"You're not dealing with actors.
"You're dealing with the most famous band in the world," he says, as he sips an espresso in the hotel suite.
"How do you capture that? I'm a huge fan. I guess my dream, like that of any other guy my age, was to be a Rolling Stone.
"Don't we all feel like that? The aim was to show what it is like to be a Rolling Stone – but to show that in terms of a performance."
Christina Aguilera joins Jagger on stage
Scorsese has known Jagger since 1972. He describes the Stones' repertoire as "movies in music."
In his first big hit film, Mean Streets, he spent almost half the budget on getting the rights to use Jumpin' Jack Flash. Gimme Shelter was used in GoodFellas, The Departed and Casino.
"We didn't play that song this time," says Jagger with a grin.
"Shine A Light is probably the only Scorsese movie without Gimme Shelter." You can see immediately who had the upper hand.
For the first few minutes of the movie, the great Scorsese is more like Woody Allen as he attempts to exercise some control over the Stones.
Even more surreal is the Clinton family (complete with Hillary's aged mother) meeting the band.
It's a perfect moment of awkwardness and starriness. "Ah yes, Hillary Clinton…" says Richards, schoolboy humour intact, "or my groupie, as I call her now." The movie content is taken from two October 2006 shows at New York's Beacon Theatre.
It is, in essence, a gig recording, intercut with old footage.
Refusing to conform to type: On stage Mick is a Rolling Stone; off stage he is Mick Jagger
Jagger, who famously gave back a £2 million advance for his autobiography, was never going to agree to forensic interviews or fly-on-the-wall revelations.
"Oh, I hate those confessionals," he says. "I never read autobiographies – although I've just finished Noël Coward's letters, which were pretty interesting.
"I hate the whole thing about looking back. It's just dull. I'd always rather look forward. What we are is what you see. We're here, we're doing it. It's not about why, it's about “This is it."
Richards ponders his life as a Rolling Stone with the help of another vodka and orange.
When he speaks it is part Austin Powers, part Pirates Of The Caribbean, part 1969 ashram.
The soundtrack to his utterances is ice clunking against glass, the long inhalation and exhalation of smoke, a dangerous, dirty laugh punctuating his sentences and a large, ironic pinch of salt.
His face, lined by decades of excess, is mesmerising.
"You know what, baby," he drawls (everyone is either "baby" or "cat" to Richards), stretching out every syllable in every word, "I've always known, right from the start, that I was the luckiest cat, because I've always got to do what I wanted to do.
"I got to play my guitar with the best band in the world.
"I've had times when I've been looking death right in the eye – and I mean right in the eye, baby.
"I've even had times where I've heard I was dead. But there's always been something in me that knows I'm gonna be fine. The band's gonna be fine. The music's gonna get better and better.
"I've definitely had dark times, a lot of twisted times. But I don't think I've ever had really unhappy times because – well hell, I'm a Rolling Stone. "Ask me if I'm satisfied. I've always been satisfied.
I wrote that song [(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction] because I was thinking about what life would be like if you weren't in the Rolling Stones."
The man has a point. Forty-five years on from their first chart single (the Chuck Berry-written Come On, released in June 1963), the Stones remain the biggest rock 'n' roll band in the world.
No group has accumulated more UK or US top ten albums, more gold and platinum albums or grossed more income from touring.
The lads that Sixties society found so terrifyingly rebellious, with their collar-length hair, sullen scowls and licentious behaviour – newspaper headlines famously warned "Lock Up Your Daughters" when they hit town – subsequently turned international playboys, serious drug addicts (both Richards and Watts were at some point addicted to heroin), shrewd and successful businessmen (cannily, the Stones were the first major band to jump ship from EMI earlier this year) and even a knight of the realm – Jagger became Sir Michael in December 2002.
On a musical level they are responsible for some of the greatest standards in rock.
Bands from Aerosmith to U2 to the White Stripes (Jack White appears alongside Jagger in Shine A Light, along with Christina Aguilera and Chicago blues legend Buddy Guy) admit they would never have existed were it not for the influence of the Stones.
Yet 15 years ago the Rolling Stones seemed to have become something of a joke.
It didn't seem right that a bunch of fiftysomethings were still prancing and strutting on stage.
Another decade-and-a-half on, they have gone beyond that, busting relentlessly through the age pain barrier and gatecrashing the realm of living music legends. When Jagger – also now 64 – shakes his stuff on stage, men 20 years his junior gape in wonder. What once looked slightly laughable has become iconic.
From the back they still look like teenagers (both Wood, 60, and Jagger have retained their 28in waists). From the front they look like Francis Bacon paintings come to life.
On the red carpet outside Berlin's Cinemax premiere theatre, they manage to make sixtysomething look not just sexy but strangely edgy.
Jagger's skinny scarf and tight-fitting jacket look fashionable, Richards's battered trilby and twisted hair knotted with silver trinkets is the look Johnny Depp copied for Pirates, while Wood's gypsy-meets-Paul Smith balances between street and smart. Watts's elegant Savile Row bespoke suit is – like the man himself – a timeless classic.
One of the more amazing things about the Stones is not just the music or the fact that they're still doing it but also that they have survived success, fashion, fame and near-death, from Watts's recent throat cancer to Richards's serious head injury after falling out of a palm tree in Fiji ("You better believe it, baby").
In conversation, Wood is the most chatty, Watts is charmingly modest ("I'm just a drummer in a band") and Richards is totally unpredictable ("I hate phones. I have nothing to do with them. I don't even have a mobile").
Jagger is the hardest to pin down.
He refuses to conform to type.
On stage he is a Rolling Stone; off stage he is Mick Jagger. "I refer to the Rolling Stones in the third person.
"I think that keeps me a bit more sane."
He is focused, smart and strangely relaxed in the knowledge that no one can get anything past him.
There is no question he has not been asked and very few answers he is prepared to give.
He arrives at all interviews on time, speaks fluent French for French television, changes his shirt to avoid image repetition and knows everyone's names.
Like Jeremy Paxman, he can spot where a question is leading minutes before it hits.
And yet the most surprising thing about him is his sense of humour.
Ask him if it's true whether Tina Turner taught him to dance and he laughs: "I don't dance like Tina, because she's a woman and I'm a man.
"Maybe I'm the closest a man can get to Tina. And maybe she did show me a few moves."
What Scorsese captures in the movie is how, for Jagger, being out there in the spotlight is the greatest buzz imaginable.
"Performing is like sex," he says.
"It is an addiction. It is why we are out there doing it.
"But you do have to be careful. To do it well, you can't do it all the time. It has to be the right time.
"It's like when you are young you think you should be having sex all the time. If you're reading a book, all you are thinking is, “Why am I reading a book – why aren't I having sex? I'm wasting my time if I'm not having sex!”
"It is the most amazing feeling. But to do it right you have to prepare for it. You go up and perform and you get into this zone.
"People are always saying, “Where does the energy come from?” but you get that energy on stage.
"I do a bit of training for a few months before we go on tour, but nothing special.
"I think my fitness levels are down to being a war child. That diet was meant to be the best – hardly any fat, hardly any sweets. That all stands you in good stead."
In the film, Scorsese cuts in vintage footage of a young Jagger being asked if he'll still be performing at the age of 60.
"I guess so," he drawls.
How did he feel when the band was mocked a decade ago for being too old for rock 'n' roll?
"I never take any notice of what people write. For the band it's about the audience.
"If we go on tour and no one buys our tickets then that says something. There's never been a time when people stopped coming to see us."
Today, he says, "No one has done what we do.
"Maybe U2 will keep going; Coldplay possibly. I'd never say how long we'll keep going. It's not going to be forever. All things must come to an end – that's a universal truth."
Richards has another perspective: "When this band started I never gave it more than two years. Forty-odd years later, I now think we're just about getting tight.
I don't see the problem of performing when you are 80. Chuck Berry can do it. On stage there is no age, there is no colour, there is nothing but the music, man. That's what it is about."
Of all musicians, Richards is a living legend.
Kate Moss is allegedly obsessed with him (rumour has it that he is one of the few rock stars to have refused her advances) and is said to have a limited-edition collection of rare photos of him on her bedroom wall.
In the Seventies, Stones tours were notorious for the drugs consumption on and off stage, but Jagger says they were targeted.
"The police used to plant you. They still do, I should think. It wasn't very good because it completely took over our lives creatively and we couldn't do this and couldn't do that.
"You had to spend all your time trying to deal with all the police and you didn't have time to do anything else.
"The same thing has happened to Amy Winehouse today. She couldn't go to the US to do the Grammys. That's the same problem we were having."
Keith and Ronnie Wood in lighthearted mood at their hotel
According to music legend, tables in the wings used to be laid out with cocaine and heroin but today Jagger is wry about such excesses: "I think drug taking is perhaps overrated as a creative help."
Richards, perhaps predictably, is more open. "Those were the days," he growls.
"People thought I was going to die. I never did – as you can see. The drugs? Oh yeah, they were great.
"Drugs now… it's a very dodgy subject. I smoke my head off. I smoke weed all the damn time.
"There, you've got it. But that's my benign weed. That's all I take, that's all I do. But I do smoke – and I've got some really good hash.
"And this worldwide smoking ban is draconian, socially, politically-correct bullshit. They'll get over it. It's like Prohibition – they tried to stop booze once. Ha! Look what happened. It ruined America."
Back in his most frazzled phase, Richards occasionally fell asleep on stage, mid-song.
He laughs. "Yeah, but I never missed a show. The worst time was during the Start Me Up tour [1981–'82]. We had all these pyrotechnics.
"I remember going round to everyone warning them about the pyros, saying everyone had to be careful.
"Then I ran out, first night, and ran straight into the pyros as they were going off.
"A flick of napalm landed on my finger. I couldn't rub it, because that stuff spreads, and there was no way I was going to go off stage, so I just watched it burn through my finger, right through to the bone as I played. It was kinda interesting." How did he put up with the pain?
"I guess it was a chemical thing, baby."
His record of staying up without rest runs to nine days.
"That's how I broke my nose," he says. "On the ninth day I was putting a tape into a tape deck. In 0.3 of a second I fell asleep and crashed head-first into a JVC speaker, smashing my nose apart." So what did he do?
"I just lay there and let it bleed," he says. Again, how did he cope with the pain? Once more, "It was a chemical thing, baby," this time accompanied by a wink.
Looking at Richards, you couldn't swear that these days he is entirely clean (two years ago he claimed he'd stopped taking drugs because they weren't strong enough any more).
But what is indisputable is that he has an enviable life.
Married to ex-model Patti Hansen (mother of Theodora and Alexandra), he also has two children, Marlon and Angela Dandelion, by his former partner Anita Pallenberg.
Money for Richards means he can do what he wants.
What he wants is to play the guitar, hang out in his library at his principal home in Connecticut and spend time with his children and grandchildren.
He is entertaining company and, like Jagger, as sharp as one of the tiny silver daggers that hang from his hair.
On the subject of Pirates Of The Caribbean, he explains, "My son Marlon had been friends with Johnny [Depp] for years.
"I had no idea what Johnny did for a living – I just thought he was a nice guy and Marlon's friend.
"I didn't know he'd modelled his character on me.
"I ended up agreeing to do it [Richards had a cameo role in the third film, At World's End] largely because I thought it was a huge laugh that Keith Richards got to be in a Disney film. Who would have thought that?"
Unlike Jagger, who regularly checks out contemporary acts, Richards prefers his old heroes such as Chuck Berry, Robert Johnson, Jimmy Reed and Muddy Waters.
Ask him who he rates now and he shrugs, "There's only one person." A pause.
"That girl Amy." Another pause and he turns suddenly serious: "Mind you, that girl isn't going to be around long unless she sorts herself out pretty quick."
It seems a strange remark from someone so notoriously associated with drugs – heroin in particular.
He shakes his head: "I keep my ears open. I know what's going down. Amy's got to get smart."
But would Amy listen to Richards? He shakes his head again. "I wouldn't do that. I'm not a preacher. But I've been there and you have to pass it on."
One of the most fascinating strands of the Stones mythology concerns the relationship between Jagger and Richards – the so-called Glimmer Twins.
Marianne Faithfull was once reported as saying, "Of all of Mick's relationships, the only one that really means anything to him is with Keith."
One of the most touching moments in Scorsese's film comes halfway through, when Richards hugs Jagger mid-song.
It is not a big showy, showbiz gesture but a small, almost awkward embrace that seems to surprise even Jagger. "Yes," nods Jagger later. "It is a very English moment, isn't it? We're not good at showing our feelings – but then that makes it more real."
Richards is more expansive. "If we hated each other we wouldn't be doing this, would we? I just stick with my man here and we make this row together.
"If I get bored, I spit at him. Of course we've had fights. That's what happens in a family. But we've got through it.
"Mick is my brother. We're here. We're good. We're the Rolling Stones."
• 'Shine A Light' opens on April 11. The Rolling Stones will be in London's Leicester Square on April 2 as 'Shine A Light' premieres simultaneously there and at another 99 cinemas across the country via live satellite. Tickets are on sale now. Visit shinealightmovie.co.uk
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/live/live.html?in_article_id=533908&in_page_id=1889
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| PartyDoll MEG |
Thanks for the update, Gazza! |
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| mrhipfl |
those quotes are classic. Thanks so much for posting Gazza. |
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| GotToRollMe |
Thanks, Gaz, great read. I love those crisp black-and-white photos too, and the sepia/red one of Keith and Ronnie. Very nice.
Thanks to somebody for starting it up!
[Edited by GotToRollMe] |
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| Gazza |
Thanks to Lisa (somebody) for finding the piece to begin with. I wouldnt have seen the accompanying longer piece otherwise
The interview is in the Mail on Sunday's magazine. Nice front cover too..will try and scan it later if its not too large.
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| open-g |
Well then thanks to both of you - it's a good read.
Once again it just goes to show when those guys in raincoats "write" a story.
Keith's quote was out a bit earlier, and it sounded more like bashing Amy.
in this context he praises her highly before he lifts the index finger and mentioning that she won't be listening - and he wouldn't anyway. |
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| Gazza |
Here's the front cover of the magazine :
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| open-g |
Heck, that's a great pic.
thanx
[Edited by open-g]
[Edited by open-g] |
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| fireontheplatter |
those were fun reads. thanks somebody and gazza. |
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| Linda |
Thanks!!!  |
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| somebody |
Gazza, its mighty nice of you to post the full picture of the link..mwah. ((how do you do that btw??}} |
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| GotToRollMe |
quote:
Gazza wrote:
Here's the front cover of the magazine :
Beautiful.
Ah, I don't want it to ever end. |
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| stonedinaustralia |
"I smoke weed all the damn time"
well that certainly makes me feel a whole lot better about my, ongoing,cannabis consumption
and nice to see keith giving some-one contemporary some (deserved)praise - i would have started to question whether keith was listening with his ears or his prejudices he had not given Wino some kind of acknowledgement (of course that's just MY opinion) |
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| gotdablouse |
Isn't that an old pic from an ABB promo ? |
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| SweetVirginia |
It is an old pic. I guess they didn't want to do a new photo shoot. |
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| Gazza |
quote:
somebody wrote:
Gazza, its mighty nice of you to post the full picture of the link..mwah. ((how do you do that btw??}}
You're very welcome.
I just copied and pasted the article that you'd linked into your post
For the photos, you just right click on them to get the URL and upload it as instructed here :
http://novogate.com/boards/faq.php?show=code
[Edited by Gazza] |
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| somebody |
quote:
Gazza wrote:
You're very welcome.
I just copied and pasted the article that you'd linked into your post
For the photos, you just right click on them to get the URL and upload it as instructed here :
http://novogate.com/boards/faq.php?show=code
[Edited by Gazza]
a lot of work on behalf of amy daily winehouse and so thank you for your effort. |
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| FotiniD |
Great read indeed, thanks.
Especially this part:
"If we hated each other we wouldn't be doing this, would we? I just stick with my man here and we make this row together. If I get bored, I spit at him. Of course we've had fights. That's what happens in a family. But we've got through it. Mick is my brother. We're here. We're good. We're the Rolling Stones."
 I love these people.
And I never knew we share the same taste and bedroom decoration with Kate Moss, lol  |
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| corgi37 |
"we're here, we're good, we're the Rolling Stones".
Quote of the frigging year! |
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| GotToRollMe |
quote:
SweetVirginia wrote:
It is an old pic. I guess they didn't want to do a new photo shoot.
I knew I recognized it from somewhere. Keith is doing his "two hats" routine. He's since moved on to the "bulletproof" look. |
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| Some Guy |
got to be one more critically acclaimed materpiece up in there somewhere, bust a move. |
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| Some Guy |
amazon.com has Some Girls video from SAL! |
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| glencar |
2 1/2 weeks! |
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| Fabio Hot Stuff |
Look At it!
Here's an interview (by phone ) bout Mick of an italian newspaper:
http://www.repubblica.it/2008/03/se...ick-jagger.html
A very curious thing he said is that when he decided to play "CON LE MIE LACRIME COSI'" (as tears go by) he obviously DON'T remember the italian words, so he had to find and DOWNLOADED on internet!!!
I'm wondering of WHAT site he found it!!!
Maybe KENO's page??????
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| axl79 |
Thanks Gazza, Great reading and great photo!
"I smoke weed all the damn time" - well I can imagine...
He should not go to Vegas , you get 20 years for that, isn't that an exageration ?
[Edited by axl79] |
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| somebody |
there's the GQ interview that was posted first by Justin:
I meet Keith Richards at his office.
Yes, the guy has an office.
You don’t picture Keef having an office, like the kind of place with a receptionist and FedEx supplies and an intercom. But he does. Probably for tax reasons or something. It’s on the eleventh floor of an old building in SoHo, in New York City, overlooking Broadway and guys cooking food on the street.
I was told to show up at four in the afternoon. I ended up sitting for an hour in the waiting room, which looked sweetly tacky—less like Keith Richards’s waiting room and more like some suburban dude’s rec-room Stones shrine. There were some tattered old People mags on a black metal TV-less TV stand, an empty pair of Moroccan candleholders, and a bunch of framed album covers (Steel Wheels, Voodoo Lounge) and photos. One wall had a poster for the movie Chuck Berry Hail! Hail! Rock ’n’ Roll. (Tagline: “The whole world knows the music. Nobody knows the man.”) There was even a dusty Ronnie Wood bobblehead doll. It all felt very eBay-ready.
meet Keith Richards at his office.
Yes, the guy has an office.
You don’t picture Keef having an office, like the kind of place with a receptionist and FedEx supplies and an intercom. But he does. Probably for tax reasons or something. It’s on the eleventh floor of an old building in SoHo, in New York City, overlooking Broadway and guys cooking food on the street.
I was told to show up at four in the afternoon. I ended up sitting for an hour in the waiting room, which looked sweetly tacky—less like Keith Richards’s waiting room and more like some suburban dude’s rec-room Stones shrine. There were some tattered old People mags on a black metal TV-less TV stand, an empty pair of Moroccan candleholders, and a bunch of framed album covers (Steel Wheels, Voodoo Lounge) and photos. One wall had a poster for the movie Chuck Berry Hail! Hail! Rock ’n’ Roll. (Tagline: “The whole world knows the music. Nobody knows the man.”) There was even a dusty Ronnie Wood bobblehead doll. It all felt very eBay-ready.
At one point an employee, a little fluffy white dog trailing at her heels, walked through and headed into the kitchen that was next to the waiting room. She apologized—not for my having to wait but for interrupting my waiting—and explained, “I need to prepare something for Mr. Richards.”
She opened the freezer, cracked some ice cubes into one of those red plastic Solo cups, and filled it to the brim with Ketel One.
More minutes went by. Maybe fifteen. At which point, the employee returned and told me Keith was ready. I was led back to his office. Keith was standing there, holding that red Solo cup, a cigarette dangling from his lips like only Keith Richards can make a cigarette dangle from his lips. He was wearing a green leather motorcycle jacket over a green velvet vest over a green T-shirt. He had on black jeans. And on his feet, purple Uggs.
“Howya doin’, mate? Sorry I’m late,” he said. And then he plopped onto the green velvet love seat and kind of folded in on himself, like an unstaked scarecrow. He patted the cushion next to him. “Have a seat, mate.”
*****
How long have you had this place?
I have no idea. [laughs] We were up in Broadway by Carnegie Hall for many, many years, and then the lease ran out.
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And you couldn’t afford it, right?
[laughs] I very rarely come to the office.
That’s a shocker.
Yeah, that’s me. A real nine-to-fiver.
(Excuse me, reader, but I’d be remiss if I did not interrupt here to tell you briefly about how Keith speaks. It’s not speaking, actually. Or at least not what you think of as speaking. It’s more of a slur-mumble. Words run together and then get coated in cigarette smoke and that thick accent. It makes you wish he provided his own subtitles. I mean, when I transcribed the tapes from this interview, I had to listen to each sentence maybe three times to decode it. Further complicating matters was the incessant ambient noise: the clatter of the ice cubes as he swirled his drink between sips. And then there’s the way he loops out his answers in, well, let’s say a uniquely…Keith way. You’ll see what I mean.)
So, I just saw the new movie—the concert movie by Scorsese. And it got me thinking about the Stones’ history with documentary-film makers.…
You’re talking Robert Frank here. Cocksucker Blues—
Yeah.
[big laugh]
After that movie—and all the controversy with it and everything it caught on film, the groupies, the drugs—I’m surprised you ever let another filmmaker in. Was there trepidation about letting Scorsese in?
I think it was the fact that it was Martin. We’ve got enough on our hands. We’ve got a show to do. And usually when he’s filming, you look around on the stage and think, Who of us is aware he’s making a movie and who of us just wants to put on a good show for people? But you’ve got, you know, Mick, the prima donna: “Oh no, we shouldn’t do it.” [laughs] I have to tell him, “Get that outta your head, boy! We’re just gonna do a show, and Martin’s gonna capture it.” And that’s the whole point. I just wanted to see what Martin Scorsese could make out of the Stones. I really didn’t want to interfere. I said, “I’m gonna do my bit, Martin. You do yours.” The first time we met, he was like: [affects Scorsese’s hurried voice] “I just wanna shoot a show.” [laughs] Charlie Watts is brilliant [makes praying sign with his hands and looks toward heaven] as usual for just going on and playing. He’s like, “If he can make a movie out of that, good luck!”
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Between Martin and Mick, you have to deal with two control freaks.
Exactly. Which is why I was not gonna put my aura in. I was just gonna give Martin what it was he wanted, which is a damned good Rolling Stones film. That’s the gig.
When was the last time you watched one of the old Stones documentaries?
Not very often, I must say. When Cocksucker Blues turns up, I do.
You don’t own a copy?
No, I don’t. I mean, I guess I do, but it’s probably buried. Hell, I’m not a big one for watching myself.
What are your memories of working with Jean-Luc Godard on Sympathy for the Devil?
[conspiratorially] Like working with a French bank clerk. [laughs] I mean, he was out of his depth in England. Just like William the Conqueror! He might’ve taken the place over, but he was out of his depth. I mean, I knew Godard’s movies from before, and I was like, “Oh, Jean-Luc Godard!” And I realized he must have hit a middle-aged crisis or… What he was trying to make of England, in England, was, uh… Did you ever get the drift of that movie? It’s like some Marxist students got ahold of him. And this is a guy who’s made some incredible movies. And you wonder, you know, where the stupidity creeps in. He should have stayed with French novels.
Could the Rolling Stones of the ’60s have survived this paparazzi tabloid culture? Or would you have been crushed by it?
It’s very interesting, because the Stones, along with [Stones manager] Andrew Oldham, that demon, we went out in order to manipulate the press. You know, “Would you let your daughter marry a Stone?” Andrew realized that perception is more important than what actually is. I mean, all you really have is two guitar players, a bass player, and a singer. And they’re quite normal chaps. But…I will say this about the Stones, just as an aside: Given the circumstances, we’re probably four of the most straight-up, moral guys you could actually meet.
How do you mean that?
We’re guys who’ve not really taken advantage of what we could have. Or what we could have done. It’s always been that it’s just too obvious. [laughs] I mean, the odd groupie here and there. Which we actually used to look upon as, uh, gas stations.… “Uh, we’re in Cincinnati, so…we need to fill ’er up a little.” And the other thing about groupies, it wasn’t just boinky-boinky. They used to take care of you. They used to rub Vicks on your chest if you had a cold. Sometimes you’d never do anything. Sometimes they were just…nasty. [laughs] Get my drift? [laughs]
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Do you miss them?
I don’t miss them.
Everyone has their fiction of what it was like, is like, to be a Stone, and…
This is one of those things I’ll never know, which is other people’s perceptions of it. But it depends on who you are talking to when you ask, “What does the Stones mean?” I mean, you could ask a bunch of 12-year-old guitar players, and they’d say one thing. And then there’s the aura, the rock ’n’ roll sexual aura. And also, it just keeps changing. I mean, the weird thing is—is that holding a band this long together… Actually, they won’t leave me. [laughs] But what I’m trying to say about this is, this band, man…it’s nonsensical, in a way. Because now I realize this band is what I always thought it was. This is Count Basie. This is Duke Ellington. I mean, guys that keep bands together that long, there’s a meaning. I’m just looking for the meaning.
Let’s talk about women. Specifically, you and Brian and Anita Pallenberg in Morocco, when you stole her from Brian.
I had no intention of stealing his woman. I was trying to heal certain things that had been going on, on the road with Brian. To me, somebody in the band needed to deck him. But, um, that whole area gets into… I’m hanging with Brian and Anita and having a good time, and then I thought, Eventually, I’ve got to get her out of here before she kills him. I’m trying to save my band here, and she’s so much tougher than him. And he’s asking for trouble. Look, every time they had a fight, I called up for bandages, and it turns out I’d have to send them round to Brian. [laughs] Actually, what I guess I’m saying is that there was a conflict there that had to be broken. And I broke it. I said, “C’mon, girl, get out of here. This is no fun.” Now, that didn’t help my chances with making up with Brian.
Yet you did make up.
Yes, in a way. The real break came because Brian just insisted on keeping on being Brian. You feel it when you’re out in the middle of the Midwest, playing Tulsa or somewhere, and your other guitar player ain’t there. He’s sacked out in a hospital in Chicago because he got too stoned. When you’ve been on the road for 350 days a year—it might seem like a minor thing now, as I speak to it—but when you’ve been on the road and you’ve got to cover for him, things get a little antsy, you knowwwww? [growls]
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Where do you think Mick Jagger would be if he’d never met you?
Nowhere! [big laugh] He’d be just another wannabe. And so would I. There is an incredible chemistry with the Stones. I don’t want to analyze it. I don’t want to dickle in it. To me, Charlie Watts is the foundation of it all, because that’s what I work off of, and we’ve been doing it all our lives. [Rolling Stones founder] Ian Stewart—I must give my man Ian, and I think Charlie would agree, on a good day—it’s Ian Stewart’s band. We’re just keeping it together for him. It was his vision. It all comes from purity, you know? Which sounds really weird coming from me, right?
You mention morality. Let’s talk about you as family men. The image of you guys in the South of France in a château, doing drugs, guzzling wine, creating Exile—and yet the whole family is there. Wives. Kids. It wasn’t exactly Parenting 101.
I suppose my kids will tell you they were raised by a father who was a bit of a nomad, and there were times when we’d all be together, and there are times when you aren’t. It’s a bit of Herman Melville, you know. “Off to whaling. See you in three years!” Or not. And I don’t think any of us have found it that difficult. If you check out the record of the Stones’ kids—my kids, Mick’s kids—they’re pretty stable cats.
What advice have you given them?
None at all. If they’ve got problems, get in touch with me. Or if not, just come and see me anytime. If I’m in Australia and you’re having a problem, come on over. I mean, I’ve never gone that far.… My kids came to me when I bashed my head stupidly in Fiji, and it’s the worst place in the world to have brain damage. And almost before I was transferred to New Zealand, my kids were there. Because there’s love. And that’s what I teach. Love. You know, you can fuck up and…well, look at Dad! [laughs]
Obviously, your daughters have brought guys home to meet you.
I know loads of their ex-boyfriends.
I’d think a guy would get pretty psyched out, having to come and meet you.
I’d hope so!
Do you go out of your way to break their balls?
I always threaten to chop ’em off! [laughs] But what dad doesn’t, eh? “You want to keep that, kid?” Whack!
Didn’t Mick screw around with Anita?
Possibly yes. Probably during the making of that movie [Performance].
How did you and Mick get past that?
At the time, I didn’t know and I didn’t really care.
You didn’t?
No. I mean, Anita and I, it was never like we were ever married. And, uh, you don’t try and ride a bitch like that, baby, without thinking that they’re not gonna—you know. Had it. Been there. It’s a load of crap, you know? I mean, I’ve done Mick’s chicks, too.
How many chicks do you think you guys have in common?
After Marianne [Faithfull], it’s a stable. [laughs]
More than five?
No. I don’t want to mention other bitches’ names, because I’ve stolen quite a few off of him and, uh, he’s nudged his way into my lot, but not significantly. After the Anita thing, I made a point of stealing every bitch he had. [laughs]
But not his current one?
[whispers] I wouldn’t take that one on!
At Mick’s gayest, how gay was he?
It was camp.
Camp?
Yeah. It was all… I really have no idea if anyone ever shoved it up the shitter.
Not even Bowie?
No. I mean, dickering and dangling… I’m not there watching it every day. You know what I mean, mate? But there was, at the time, a load of excruciatingly painful campness that went on.
Did you want to smack him?
No. I mean, it was limp-wristed sort of… [affects Truman Capote–ish mumbling] But I mean, how does a bunch of guys stay together this long without letting certain things just wash over? We wouldn’t be here if we weren’t doin’ what we gotta do. Which is having to come up with great records and songs and play to people. The reason you’re here is because, above and beyond anything, you want to get out there and turn people on. Including yourself, of course. [laughs]
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Most guys I know consider you the soul of the band. And you talk about a moral center—
Well, I have one! [laughs]
But everyone thinks you’re the dark, tortured soul.
There’s a lotta soul in the band. I mean, it’s a matter of how much you wanna bury it. I guess that’s my declension. I’m—
[At this point, Richards, as he is talking, absentmindedly reaches his hand to his side and draws his shirt and jacket back to scratch himself near his hip bone. It’s then that I notice that wedged against his hip and the top of his trousers is something that looks like the handle of a revolver. “That’s not a gun you’re carrying, is it?” I ask. Keith pauses. “This?” he says, reaching for the handle. “Nah, this is a knife.” At which point he pulls it from his waistband, flips it open, and reveals a shiny blade five inches long. Richards considers the blade for a moment, in silence, then snaps the knife closed and tucks it back into his waistband and explains, “I use it to keep me pants up, because I’ve been losing weight, baby.” Richards has also had a few health problems over the past couple of years, most notably when he fell off a tree branch while vacationing in Fiji in April 2007 and hit his head on the root of the tree, which was incorrectly reported as falling out of a coconut tree. Richards suffered swelling, and fluid built up in his skull, requiring surgery.]
Let’s talk about Fiji. You had to be trepanned—you had a hole drilled into your skull.
Yeah, yeah.
So what was that like?
It was a trifle weird, lying on a gurney on Vicodin, and I’d been there like ten days by then, and they were going through the motions, and by this time I’d got to know this doctor pretty well. He said, “Now you’re stabilized; you can now fly to Manhattan or London, because you’re gonna need an operation. That stuff needs to be drained out of your head.” And I said, “I ain’t goin’ nowhere! We’re doing it now! Here. I ain’t goin’ through all of that and traveling and flying.” But I said to the anesthetist, “Listen, it’s pretty hard to put me out.” [laughs]
Did you have strange dreams after?
The first six months, I was a little off-balance…a little less patience with some of my friends. [laughs] But basically, no. It was like going in for a broken rib. I’ve done all the ribs. I’ve done the head. There’s nothing else left to break. [laughs] Doctors all over the world want my body when it finally goes.
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You should sell your body on eBay.
Yeah, I think so. Apparently, I do have an incredible immune system. I had hepatitis C and cured it by myself.
How?
Just by being me.
The legendary blood transfusions?
That’s all bullshit. Bullshit. I put that out because I was gonna have to clean up from all the dope. There’s nothing like legend.
Like your immune system—legendary.
It’s above average, yes.
That’s a fact of medical science?
Yes. They want it so they can study it and figure out how to make other people much better. [laughs] I mean, I eat everything wrong. I shove terrible things inside me.
Yet you won’t eat cheese.
No! Cheese is very wrong.
Why’s that?
Look at everybody. [makes bloated face]
Do you have any other phobias?
As far as bodily, no. Cheese is a no-no for me. Everybody else, go eat it. Just take a look at yourself. Fermented milk is not the ideal choice for everyday eating, that’s all. [laughs]
Is there one moment in your life that you will always remember above all others?
The Marlborough Street thing, when the judge’s gavel hit the table and “Ten pounds for the charge!” [In 1973 he and Anita Pallenberg were busted at their London home for drug possession.] That was a seminal moment when I thought I was going to jail. You try saying “Guilty” twenty-five times. I could get very spiritual here, but I’ll never forget walking out for lunch that day.
Where’d you go?
Somewhere where the cops weren’t going. I never saw myself being a target for the system. And suddenly you realize you are. It never occurred to me that just because I did a little of this [he pretends he’s injecting his arm] or took a little of that [he mimes a toke], that I was gonna get this heat, you know? And then I realized I’d been targeted. And then your mind takes on other things. I still look out the window to see if there are any unmarked cars. [laughs] It puts fear in you. Suddenly, you feel like a criminal.
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Did you ever talk with John Lennon about that?
Yes. He felt he was hunted. That it was high-profile hunting. And then you realize that it doesn’t really matter if you’re doing it or not. They’ll shove it in your pocket. And you think, It’s not a game now. This isn’t just rock ’n’ roll. They’re afraid of you. And that was the thing that intrigued me. They’re actually frightened. I mean, I grew up in the British Empire and bop-bop-bop God Save the Queen, and you realize this whole edifice actually thinks you’re a threat to it? And you realize how paranoid they must be that if they get rid of a guitar player or two, everything’s gonna be cool in the empire? All they did was illustrate their fragility.
Did you ever steal any fashion tips from your wife, Patti?
I steal women’s clothes. Charlie Watts got really pissed at me a few years ago. There was some page in Vogue, and I was a fashion icon. I was actually wearing Anita’s clothes. And Charlie, who spends half his time on Savile Row, said, “You? A fashion icon?” I’m the kind of guy, when I wake up I’m not aware of anything for half an hour. I pick up whatever’s around and put it on. I don’t think about it. I mean, I said to Charlie, “Look at that picture in Vogue and you’ll see the buttons are on the wrong side of the shirt. All I did was put on Anita’s clothes.”
Do you regret not moisturizing your face?
No. I leave that up to other people.
Ever think about getting Botox?
No one’s ever talked me into doing that. You’re lucky if you walk out of there alive. God bless you.
Are you still cutting your own hair? You’ve done that all your life, right?
Yes. I did this bit here yesterday. [holds up a few strands on the side of his head] Also, I’m letting the dye grow out, since I’m not on the road. If the wife likes it, I’ll keep it.
She has to like everything, huh?
Yeah.
What’s the key to a good marriage?
Depends on the woman. Given that, I think children. I mean, outside of getting enormously successful…to watch the kids grow is the greatest pleasure. Grandkids are even a better thing, because you can hand them back! It’s a continuity of life. When I was younger, I said, “If I live to 30, I’ll shoot myself.” You reach 30 and put the gun away. It’s a fascinating process, just growing up. And it doesn’t matter—anyone who’s 15 today, in thirty, forty years…it’s gonna take ’em a bit of luck to hit 65. It’s how you deal with that process. Unfortunately, our lives are sometimes bombarded with, you know, decay…and what it comes down to is, it just depends on your relationship with other people, including your own family. Hey, you can screw up. I have. Life doesn’t get any easier as you get older. It just becomes more complex. At the same time, one starts to discern certain threads which are important to follow.
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Which threads did you discern as you got older? I mean, you’re speaking of wisdom, right?
I’m not calling myself wise. I refuse to grow up. But there are certain threads. Whether you connect the threads together, well… And really, there’s nothing quite like having your kids or your grandkids or the people you know and love still say you’re okay, because quite honestly I don’t know if I am or not. I mean, I’m just gonna do what I’ve got to do, and I’ve gotta live with the consequences, which I have quite often—including, you know, people like Brian dying—and thinking, you know, Did I cause that? Because I’ve never killed a man. Yet. Knowingly. And I don’t wanna… I mean, I’m getting to retirement, whether I want it or not. Do you know that I actually have a bus pass? In England? I’ve reached the age where I am given a free bus pass. [laughs] I feel like going to England right now and riding every bus I can get! [pause] There’s a certain thing about growing old, which is I’m still getting used to it. It’s a whole new experience.
How do you feel you’re growing old?
Because you are. I mean, it’s like how to deal with it. You know, you say to yourself, do you want to do this in private or do you want to do it in public?
And what do you think?
[pause] I’ll do it in public. What I do, I’m nowhere without a crowd. And every crowd has a silver lining. [laughs]
Is there anything you’d tell your grandkids about growing old?
Yeah. Go for it. Yeah. Don’t try and stay young. Don’t try and rush it. I was there. I mean, I still remember the idea of being 25 was horrendous.
You were never an angry young man, were you?
Yeah, I was, but I had no target. If I was, I think, coming from my generation, I was angry that things were still the same in the late ’50s. When I was growing up and 13, 14 years old and nothing changed. Especially in postwar Britain. They didn’t clear the rubble for a long time. And you got used to growing up in this kind of moonscape. What I gotta do right now is take a pee.
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[Richards gets up from the love seat and shuffles to the corner of the room, where a large white wee-wee pad is laid out for the little fluffy dog that roams the office. Richards stares at it for a moment, then mutters, “I could just do it there, I suppose.” He laughs and leaves. I sit alone in the room, staring at the walls, just about every inch of which is covered with more memorabilia: a photo of him with Lennon, a photo of the Beatles circa 1965, a photo of Muddy Waters. Tucked into a corner is an unboxed Wii Guitar Hero. After maybe five minutes, Richards wanders back into the room, laughing. “Sorry, mate,” he says. “I got lost. I don’t come here often!”]
Why do you think some people live and some die?
Lack of breath?
But there’s that line between recklessness and stupidity, and you—
No, you bring up a good point, which is very hard for me to answer, because I’ve probably crossed that line more times than most. Um, I’d say you have to know yourself. To yourself, you’re not crossing the line. Anybody else? Whoa, you gone way over the top, boy. If you don’t know yourself, then you get into this terrible position of “Well, I made it over there,” and now you’re expecting to—you know, you think you’re Evel Knievel. And that’s not what it’s about. I think it’s about a little bit of introspection and having a sort of physical contact with the mind and the brain. Having some connection. And not one running things or the other running things. I don’t know what you’d call it. Call it religion? [laughs] Or just call it lucky?
You seem like a man with incredible self-knowledge.
Yeah.
So you’d admit that?
Yeah.
Despite your persona.
Yeah. I think most people should check in with what’s in here [points to heart] and then see how you can deal with what’s out there [points outward]. If I’ve come to any conclusion after many, many years of not knowing what the hell I’m doing, it’s to just do it. You know, people say, “What the hell are you doing here?” because I’ve done everything that should have had you in an early grave. But—not to me. What dangers I thought I was in…how much I was pushing things to the edge…see, to me the edge was always a little further. I mean, if I was wrong, bollocks, right? Fine. I’ve never had inner turmoil about all this. I’m not some sort of Kurt Cobain. [Richards leans back and sticks an imaginary shotgun barrel in his mouth and pulls the trigger.] Boom. I’ve never had death wishes. I do feel wished to death, at times. [laughs] I was number one on the list for years, of people who were supposed to die. But, um, I didn’t really take any notice of it. I didn’t say, “Oh, I’m wished to death, therefore I will not die.” Because it’s not in your hands. I do think a certain amount of self-knowledge would help people, rather than being always distracted by exteriors. You find a lot of people these days who cannot stand to be alone. And boredom? To me, that’s an illness. You could lock me up in solitary for weeks on end and I’d keep myself amused. All these gadgets now—it’s all about anything to defy the interior, to defy dealing with yourself. I’ve had to deal with it so much I hate his guts. [laughs]
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[Richards gets up from the love seat and shuffles to the corner of the room, where a large white wee-wee pad is laid out for the little fluffy dog that roams the office. Richards stares at it for a moment, then mutters, “I could just do it there, I suppose.” He laughs and leaves. I sit alone in the room, staring at the walls, just about every inch of which is covered with more memorabilia: a photo of him with Lennon, a photo of the Beatles circa 1965, a photo of Muddy Waters. Tucked into a corner is an unboxed Wii Guitar Hero. After maybe five minutes, Richards wanders back into the room, laughing. “Sorry, mate,” he says. “I got lost. I don’t come here often!”]
Why do you think some people live and some die?
Lack of breath?
But there’s that line between recklessness and stupidity, and you—
No, you bring up a good point, which is very hard for me to answer, because I’ve probably crossed that line more times than most. Um, I’d say you have to know yourself. To yourself, you’re not crossing the line. Anybody else? Whoa, you gone way over the top, boy. If you don’t know yourself, then you get into this terrible position of “Well, I made it over there,” and now you’re expecting to—you know, you think you’re Evel Knievel. And that’s not what it’s about. I think it’s about a little bit of introspection and having a sort of physical contact with the mind and the brain. Having some connection. And not one running things or the other running things. I don’t know what you’d call it. Call it religion? [laughs] Or just call it lucky?
You seem like a man with incredible self-knowledge.
Yeah.
So you’d admit that?
Yeah.
Despite your persona.
Yeah. I think most people should check in with what’s in here [points to heart] and then see how you can deal with what’s out there [points outward]. If I’ve come to any conclusion after many, many years of not knowing what the hell I’m doing, it’s to just do it. You know, people say, “What the hell are you doing here?” because I’ve done everything that should have had you in an early grave. But—not to me. What dangers I thought I was in…how much I was pushing things to the edge…see, to me the edge was always a little further. I mean, if I was wrong, bollocks, right? Fine. I’ve never had inner turmoil about all this. I’m not some sort of Kurt Cobain. [Richards leans back and sticks an imaginary shotgun barrel in his mouth and pulls the trigger.] Boom. I’ve never had death wishes. I do feel wished to death, at times. [laughs] I was number one on the list for years, of people who were supposed to die. But, um, I didn’t really take any notice of it. I didn’t say, “Oh, I’m wished to death, therefore I will not die.” Because it’s not in your hands. I do think a certain amount of self-knowledge would help people, rather than being always distracted by exteriors. You find a lot of people these days who cannot stand to be alone. And boredom? To me, that’s an illness. You could lock me up in solitary for weeks on end and I’d keep myself amused. All these gadgets now—it’s all about anything to defy the interior, to defy dealing with yourself. I’ve had to deal with it so much I hate his guts. [laughs]
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In moments like that—moments when you are in a dark place, moments when you are at the edge—who is your one phone call? Who do you call in that moment?
I’d say Patti. Yeah. [pause] I mean, I woulda said me mum until last year, but dammit, she croaked on me.
You—Keith Richards—would call your mother in those dark moments?
If it was bad, I would, yeah. Just to let her know. But unfortunately she didn’t live. [pause] Me mum, that’s another thing, man. [Gets choked up] I went… I went… We knew me mum was going, and so my daughter Angela says, “Dad, take the guitar out. Play to her. Go into her room.” So I went up there and sat on the hospital bed and played my best. And she’s out on morphine, anyway, unconscious. And I played the old songs, the old dance-hall songs. The next morning, she came out of her sleep for a moment, and my daughter was there and asked her, “Did you hear Daddy play for you last night?” And me mum says, “Yeah, he was out of tune.” [laughs] So let’s put it that way—my family is… There’s never a giving moment.
Always taking the piss out.
Yeah, all the way. Yeah. The last thing I said to me pa was “Save a seat for me at the bar, mate.” I had to see him off, too. [sighs] It’s rough. But then, it’s normal. I mean, the last thing my dad said to me before he went was “At least things are going in their natural order.”
Of course. It’s terrible to bury a child.
Yeah, I’ve done that. [sighs…silence] The things they throw at you. [Pallenberg and Richards lost their third child weeks after he was born, in 1976.]
What’s been the hardest thing they throw at you?
Tomorrow. [laughs]
What’s your best love song?
I haven’t written it yet.
Which one do you play for the ladies? I mean, since so many guys have scored to Stones songs, what do you score to?
You can say “Angie,” but that’s kind of… “Sleep Tonight.” That’s one. Oh, “Thief in the Night.”
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Wild Horses”?
I would go there, too.
Is there a Stones song you feel is the best articulation of your philosophy?
It’s hard to put it into a two-and-a-half-minute song. But I think “Tumbling Dice.”
Will you have them play that at your funeral?
I hope so. Just as long as I’m not there. [laughs]
MICHAEL HAINEY is the deputy editor of GQ.
Photograph by Jim Marshall. Courtesy of Fahey/Klein Gallery, Los Angeles
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Thanks, can't wait for the movie. |
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