[www.sltrib.com]

to go with Baboon Bro's post of the Mick interview:

Salt Lake Tribune: You guys have played Salt Lake three times over 33 years, once at an amusement park in '66, and the last time in '99. Do you have any memories of the place?

Keith Richards: Um, you do, but it's not there very much. Very fleeting, you know? I do remember that it's certainly got a lot bigger since '66.

SLT: Mick's come here for the Sundance Film Festival before, too. But we haven't caught you for that one yet.

KR: No, I've never made it there.

SLT: And you don't have any collaborations with Donny and Marie hidden anywhere, do you?

KR: [laughs] Uh, probably not, no.

SLT: I've really been enjoying the new record ["A Bigger Bang"], and with 16 songs, it seems like you guys either had a lot on your mind, or a lot of energy from the "Licks" tour that you had to work out.

KR: I'll tell you what, as we started to make the record, we started to realize this would be the first studio album in eight years. So we thought, two songs a year isn't too bad! [laughs] Basically, that was it. We hadn't put a new one out and we had this stuff ready to go. There was a lot more, too. There were times we were up to like 19 tracks. I was like, "Come on, guys. We're not making 'Exile on Main Street' here."

SLT: How did the energy from that "Licks" tour feed this album? Were most of these songs things that had been kicking around for a while, or were they new, [written] in a burst of creativity?

KR: I think the energy from the tour probably does do something in creating the songs afterwards. When you're on the road, you jot down ideas and you work out snatches, but you don't have enough time, and you're too busy with the gigs to actually put it all together. I guess it's like, suddenly you're not on the road, and you keep waking up going, "Where's the show?"

SLT: We're a large market for country music here in Salt Lake. I know it's been an obvious influence in your life.

KR: Yes.

SLT: Can you tell me how a young British lad first hears American country, and how it's influenced you?

KR: Oooh. Like anything else, via the radio, really. Country music in England, I wouldn't say that it was ... well, people like Hank Williams and Hank Snow, and later on Johnny Cash, you did get to hear them. And if you were interested in guitars and American music, you sort of knew where to listen and where to find it. I think also, with the advent of rock 'n' roll in the middle '50s, the late '50s, it became more intersected. Country music was a large part of rock 'n' roll, as much as rhythm-and-blues. It's a great mixture of stuff.

KR: ... You didn't get loads [in England], but after, when I got to America, especially when you start playing around down South, you hear country music coming out of your ears. You didn't realize how many great players there were. But it's guitar music, you know, a lot of it. So you're automatically drawn to it. All the great rock 'n' roll players were country pickers at first. [Elvis Presley guitarist] Scotty Moore, Chet Atkins, you know. So you were kind of drawn to it. I guess the Everly Brothers had a lot to do with bringing country music into a mainstream thing. They were all country boys: Elvis, Buddy [Holly].

SLT: I had a chance to talk to Scotty Moore about a year ago, about the first recording sessions with Elvis, and he still plays around Nashville. Willie Nelson and B.B. King still tour. Do you look at them and think, we have no reason not to keep going?

KR: To us, it's part of the example. The same way I think about Muddy Waters or the blues guys, or even Duke Ellington and Count Basie. Nobody expected them to retire. You just carry on with it. To me, it is the longevity, where can you take the music. You don't do it just to do it. There's a sort of fascinating thing of saying, "Where can I take this music now? Where can it go?" It's sort of this fascination with not getting off of the bus.

SLT: Yeah, the Dylan syndrome. The never-ending road.

KR: Yeah, white-line fever.

SLT: How difficult is it for you personally? Is it hard to get revved up when you know you're going to be on the road for the better part of a couple of years? Or is that the exciting part, and it's hard to slow down when the tour's over?

KR: In a way, it is. It's a Columbus-like feeling, like "OK, pull up the anchor. Let's go!"

SLT: Let's go pirating out and about.

KR: Yeah, it's kind of like that a bit ... You know you're going to be stuck with the same bunch of guys for a year or so. It's like you pull a crew together, and then "Let's go."

SLT: I was curious also, I had a chance to interview Alain Toussaint, and the director of that "Make It Funky" documentary about New Orleans music.

KR: Oh, yes.

SLT: Have you had a chance to get back to New Orleans since the hurricane, and can you talk a little about the influence of that city on your music?

KR: Ah, New Orleans. I have not been there since Katrina. She left a mess. ... I've been in touch a lot with the Nevilles, with Aaron and Ivan Neville, and with the Meters. I get a lot of takes on what they think is happening down there. It's pretty much 50-50. Some of them see it being turned into a theme park. But I know they're all missing it. At the same time, that city is amazing, and I don't really see it dying. It might take a different route from now on, but it's got too much heart, I think, to just rot.

SLT: You're known for your love of all different types of music. Are there any forms out there that either you look at and feel daunted by, or things you still want to delve into as a guitar player and music fan?

KR: Well, Beethoven's Fifth is giving me some problems [laughs]. Otherwise, not really. Traveling around a lot, especially around the world, you hear interesting things all the time. And music's always developing and changing, so really I just try and keep tabs on it. It's impossible to say what kind of music, here and there, because you never know what's coming around the corner. And that's what's fun about it.

SLT: And I know from your years in Jamaica you have a lot of love for reggae, and Bob Marley's son just had the highest-charting reggae album debut ever.

KR: Yeah, reggae lives, huh?

SLT: Yeah. Do you follow much modern reggae, or the dance-hall stuff?

KR: Yeah, here and there. Hopefully I'm going to get down there when we get a break and check the island out. I haven't been there for a year or so.

SLT: Ah, let some people press some music into your hands, huh?

KR: Yeah, and there will be plenty of friends pressing me for everything (laughs).

SLT: I'm also curious about the state of the X-pensive Winos [Richards' side-project band from the late '80s/early '90s]. Is that something that might come back around?

KR: That's funny. They keep cropping up. In fact I saw [drummer] Steve Jordan just last week in L.A., and Ivan Neville. In a way, I sort of feel them circling [laughs]. We did kick around the idea of, maybe when this tour is finished, getting together. It's really got more to do with scheduling than "want to do it." Yeah, they all want to do it, and I'd love to do it to. You've got to find a space where everybody's got the same space at the same time. You can't just pick up a Wino every day, you know.

SLT: Will Walt Disney sue me if I ask you about the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies?

KR: I don't know. They like to sue anybody. They might sue me for talking about it, too. I saw Johnny Depp last week in L.A., and he's doing it for the next year so we're talking about when the Stones' tour is finished, hopefully it will be done. We're looking at it, and it's another thing to do with logistics and timing and such.

SLT: So they haven't had you on the set yet?

KR: No, but Johnny and I did spend an interesting afternoon in ludicrous pirate costumes. I got measured for the job, but whether or not it will happen, I can't say.

SLT: Is that something you look forward to?

KR: Yeah, I'd like to do it. Johnny sort of threw the idea at me, and I said, "If you can pull it all together, and find the time, let's do it. It will be fun."

SLT: I was reading recently in a charity album you were involved with, kind of pointing people toward what you called the "triggers" of the music that you love. As a fan, you wanted to know what Muddy Waters listened to, and what Robert Johnson listened to. Clearly, you're going to be one of those triggers for people out there. Do you hear much of your own influence on other players?

KR: Yeah, in a weird way, here and there. Or I get somebody who comes up to me and says, "You've got to hear this guy. He's got the real Keith Richards sound." Well, I don't even have that! I'm working on it. I guess now and again I'll hear something and go, "Oh, man, he just got that lick right off." It's kind of nice seeing all these young kids out there, these guitar players. I mean, these guys are like 11, 12. We get a bunch of them with every show. It's kind of interesting to see.

SLT: Is it funny that people still refer to Ronnie [Wood] as the "new guy" after 30 years in the band?

KR: Yeah, really [laughs].

SLT: Well, I really appreciate the time. It will be my first time seeing the Stones.

KR: OK, cool . Enjoy it. We hope to see you there. Take it easy, man.


"What do you want - what?!"
- Keith

Thank you, Lady SSSoul!
Just thought it ended at a unexpected place.

you mean the "Ronnie the new guy" bit? yeah, not a very well-developed topic!
looks like a victim of the newspaper column-size requirements.

Dont remember any longer, seems like 100 years ago.
I just know I make people happy today, phonin ´em
& playing the new songs. This is goin to be a wonderful day.
Minus fifteen degrees Celcius where I am
& a red sun on a groovy sky...

Please note my punk rock thread (some mp3´s) at ab. page 3...

Hmmmm...thanks sssoully...love to read tribal words..thanks again.

"You don't do it just to do it."






ROCKMAN

You got me wrong, Sssoully: I meant ther article I posted ended strange.

Great interview, thanks for posting, with sssoul.

Thanks! The Winos coming back???? YESSSSS!!!

Good news about the Winos! And good to hear Keith talk about the Big Easy....

#......Go ahead....Bite the Big Apple....Don't mind the Maggots.....Uh Huh...#

Thanks a lot. But Keith looks like he is wating for the Stones tour to be finished. He does not speak about it as if he got bored. Neither does he talk on Mick and Charlie. Maybe that is the kind of attitude that ususally happens at sometimes during such a long trip. Well, it's time for the Stones to reach South America and europe where audiences are said to bemore in the shows !!!