Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I have to admit that there are times when I find myself being very indifferent about the Rolling Stones, not quite able to understand what people still see in them. However, when it comes to Keith Richards, he absolutely continues to personally amaze me for he’ll be 65 at the end of this year and surely should have been a rock fatality and in his grave years ago.

Even though Richards has been clean for reportedly more than two decades. As Ronnie Woods says during the linked interview below, on or off the drugs trying to interact with him is like trying to communicate with someone from a different plant. One has to be on his wavelength to get where he’s coming from.

This extended 1982 interview is interesting, well to me at least, in that even 25 years ago a fairly lucid and coherent Keith Richards points to the likely longevity of the group and their willingness to keep performing subject to nobody dropping dead in the meantime.

When questioned about drugs, he jokingly attributes his final decision to ditch a 10-year heroin habit to the legal efforts of Toronto’s Canadian Mounties and their attempts to put him behind bars for trafficking. He also admits to life and death reservations about the need to carry a gun when prowling round the streets of New York in search of fix. As he says, he never knew what he would run into or for that matter, what black-market poison dealers would try to persuade him was the real thing and then attempt to have their accomplices rip him off afterwards

I’ll long remember Keith Richards reported response to Mick Jagger when he was told that Jagger was accepting a Knighthood from the British establishment. “Mick” he said, “these are the same people, who years ago, tried to put me and you in jail.”

http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid ... =1&bbcws=1

This a great topic Peter.

Keith has always been an enigma to me. He is a relic of an ancient past. To underscore this observation, consider that when he played a part in Pirates of The Caribbean At Worlds End that he actually did not have to get into character.



He is without a doubt one of the sloppiest, but at the same time one of the best rock and roll guitarists of all time. I don't know how he does it but even as sloppy as he plays, he manages to track a groove that is captivating.

He also looks like death warmed over on a good day. I would hate to see what he looks like after an all night party.

IMO he is a great musician and a star and he deserves his stardom no matter whether you like The Rolling Stones or not.

Thanks for the interview Peter!

I'd grown up thinking Keith was a shambling wreck of a man who'd lost his intellect and musical ability in his attempts to stay high. I was knocked out by an interview he did to promote a tour in the '90s where he was not only lucid, but a fount of knowledge about blues styles and roots music, which he demonstrated on an acoustic guitar with precision and timing that I had not dreamed he was capable of in his prime. It's almost like there are two Keiths - one an articulate and intelligent musician of prodigious talent, the other ("Keef") a card-carrying rock hedonist. In either aspect he's a great performer and showman.