| August 19th, 2005 07:45 AM |
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| Gazza |
...And with a new CD in the wings, Keith is ready to roll
By Larry Katz
Friday, August 19, 2005
Keith Richards may not be the coolest man on the planet, but you wouldn't know that from talking to the unflappable 61-year-old Rolling Stones guitarist.
As the international press descends on Boston to cover the start of the band's A Bigger Bang tour, Richards approaches the big debut with the calm of a bloke heading out for another day at the office - even if it's the same office usually occupied by Manny Ramirez, David Ortiz and Johnny Damon.
Herald: For Bostonians, the fact that the Rolling Stones are playing Fenway Park is special. Is it special for you, too?
Richards: You're always aware when you're playing on hallowed ground, heh, heh. You're made aware. I know Boston. I'm not a stranger. I know (Fenway's) significance. It's like playing Wembley or Twickenham, the rugby hallowed ground in London. So, respect. We hope to leave it as we found it, heh, heh.
Herald: Ever been to a ballgame there?
Richards: No. I've been to very few. I can't really remember where. People would drag me to a ballgame somewhere in the middle of Texas.
Herald: Living in Connecticut makes you a New Englander. Happy to be opening the tour close to home?
Richards: Yeah, we've always had a good time in Boston, even when the riots were on and we got arrested, heh, heh. It's always memorable, let's put it that way. And we've got good friends there, Peter Wolf especially. And, yeah, it's not too far from my house.
Herald: Any chance you'll sneak into a club here and play a warmup performance?
Richards: There is always a chance. I'm not ruling it out, but being the first gig on the tour, it's kind of frantic at the beginning. I don't know if there's time. But anywhere we go the possibility is, well, possible.
Herald: You did multiple shows here on the last tour and changed the set list for every one. What will fans hear this time around?
Richards: We always try to vary the show. In fact we always keep the set list from the last time we appear in every place to see what we did there and shift it around. But the main point with this one is we have new ammo. We have a new record and that's the center of anticipation for the band. It's always nice to have a fresh magazine. And nearly all of these new songs are eminently translatable to stage. You don't have to make any great changes in order to play them live.
So we're looking forward to that. Because the last tour was `Forty Licks,' a retro thing basically. So everybody's looking forward to playing some fresh stuff.
Herald: With ``A Bigger Bang,'' were you looking to create something with the flavor of a classic Stones record?
Richards: No, we don't work like that. Nobody says, `What kind of album are we trying to make?' We just sit down and check out riffs and songs and ideas that we've got. In a strange kind of way, albums can take on their own personality. This one said to us, `Don't put on the violins. Forget the marzipan and candles and icing and just leave me alone.' Heh, heh. And for once we obeyed.
Herald: Mick plays a lot of guitar on the new album. How did you feel about that?
Richards: Yeah, he's finally tamed the electric beast. I let him play. Ha! A lot of it is due to timing. As Mick and I were starting to put the thing together, we had the news about Charlie having to go for treatment for cancer. Mick and I said, `What are we going to do? Wait for Charlie and put it on hold?' And we looked at each other and said, `No, Charlie would hate that. He'd hate the idea that he was the one.' So I put Mick on drums and I played bass and we fed Charlie some ideas while he was recuperating and he came back with a bang.
Herald: He came back to play on a long, 16-track album and now he's heading out on a world tour. What drives you guys to keep doing this?
Richards: I've heard that question many times and my answer is always, `Why not?' If I'm going to play Fenway Park and it's full of people and they want to hear what I do and I want to play for them, that's the reason. It's as simple as that.
[Edited by Gazza] |
| August 19th, 2005 07:50 AM |
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| Ten Thousand Motels |
I'm not a sentimentalist sap but all this activity is starting to make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. |
| August 19th, 2005 07:52 AM |
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| exile |
quote:
Gazza wrote:
"I've heard that question many times and my answer is always, `Why not?' If I'm going to play Fenway Park and it's full of people and they want to hear what I do and I want to play for them, that's the reason. It's as simple as that."
WOT a absolute LEGEND! |
| August 20th, 2005 01:03 AM |
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| corgi37 |
Nothing will ever stand in my way of love for this band. |
| August 20th, 2005 01:10 AM |
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| glencar |
There's no chance of a club gig at this point! |
| August 20th, 2005 06:18 AM |
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| Poplar |
keith ... my man
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| August 20th, 2005 03:01 PM |
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| Soldatti |
Great interview, little words and classic Keith. |
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