so keith just did this interview and it was translated and posted by irix in the tour thread

but i thought it deserves it own thread

also the interview gets into the topic of them dropping brown sugar and some other touchy topics for iorr

i'm sure i don't need to remind everybody about bv position on discussing these issues on iorr

so please don't post anything violating his rules about political issues



From the German News-Magazine Der Spiegel, No. 11, 12-Mar-2022, p.120-122:


»40 years ago I was closer to death than I am now«

SPIEGEL-TALK: Guitarist Keith Richards on the Rolling Stones without Charlie Watts, the accusations of racism against the song "Brown Sugar" and a life free of alcohol and cigarettes

He is regarded as the great indestructible of Rock'n'Roll: In December last year, Richards turned 78 - only a few weeks before the Rolling Stones' latest US tour, in which he has played guitar for almost 60 years, had ended. Before that, drummer Charlie Watts, an original member of the band, had died in August 2021. The shock of the loss has not yet been overcome, Richards says in a telephone conversation on the occasion of the re-release of his 1992 solo album "Main Offender".

SPIEGEL: Mr Richards, you have not only stopped drinking but also smoking. How do you feel?

Richards: It must be about two years now that I don't smoke any more. I tell you, it was a very persistent thing. I tried to quit every now and then. But I found that the more I tried to quit, the more I smoked. But then one day I had to go to the dentist and they had to stitch something up in my mouth. When I was out of the surgery, I lit a cigarette, of course. But there was something in that feeling when the smoke got to the raw flesh ...

SPIEGEL: Which was?

Richards: Yeah, you know. That was it for me. I then used some of those patches for a while and that was it. I'm still amazed that I spent my whole life giving things up. And then this. Just like that.

SPIEGEL: Smoking and drinking always have a calming function, after all.

Richards: Yes, they limit certain abilities that we actually have, for example the sense of taste.

SPIEGEL: Are you more thin-skinned since you quit hard alcohol and cigarettes?

Richards: I think when I stopped drinking then, I was more balanced for a while. Last year it helped me a lot to work to get things together. After all, the past few years have been very hard and difficult for everyone.

SPIEGEL: Robbie Williams once said that when he tries to quit smoking, he develops another addiction. He then eats lots of sweets. What is your substitute addiction?

Richards: I smoke more weed.

SPIEGEL: We were thinking more of something like hobby gardening or the treadmill that's supposedly in your basement.

Richards: No, no, no. Well, I have a treadmill, but I don't use it.

SPIEGEL: How are you recovering from the US tour with the Rolling Stones that ended this winter?

Richards: Pretty good, it was hard work because we hadn't toured for a couple of years. But of course it also took some getting used to, putting the band together again with Steve Jordan on drums and working without Charlie Watts. But I've also worked with Steve for half my life now, and we all know each other. It's been a great tour and I'm looking forward to playing a few more shows this year.

SPIEGEL: Are you coming back to Europe?

Richards: I'm not allowed to confirm it, I think. But it's under discussion.

SPIEGEL: What do you miss when you think of Charlie Watts?

Richards: I don't even know where to start there ... His smile, I guess. It could always mean a million different things. You always wondered which one he meant. Yes, his smile is probably what I miss the most.

SPIEGEL: How hard is it for you to go on tour without him after all these decades?

Richards: We were already preparing the tour without him when Charlie died. So we were forced to do it then. I think that made it easier than waiting until now to do it, because now we know it's possible. That it can be done.

SPIEGEL: Did playing live help you get over the grief?

Richards: Oh, we're still not over it.

SPIEGEL: Was it hard to play the songs without him at first?

Richards: Yes, of course. But as Charlie himself once said: The show must go on.

SPIEGEL: Mick Jagger recently said that Charlie was the heartbeat of the band.

Richards: Yes, that's true. The most important thing was to integrate Steve Jordan. Fortunately, Mick and Steve have also known each other for a long time. And Steve has known the Rolling Stones since middle age, so we didn't have the problem of having to bring in a completely new guy. Steve is a great drummer. He can play just the right amount of Charlie Watts and just the right amount of himself, which is really interesting.

SPIEGEL: Were there moments when you thought that was it for the Rolling Stones?

Richards: Ha! We all thought about that. But unfortunately the band doesn't agree with that.

SPIEGEL: So the band has a life of its own. Has it become more of a Keith Richards band now with Steve Jordan, who has been part of your solo band The X-Pensive Winos for so long?

Richards: No, I wouldn't say that. I wouldn't let that happen either. The dynamic is still very much with Mick. He's just a great frontman. In fact, working with the Winos and being the lead singer has taught me a lot more about Mick's job than I realised before. Being a frontman is difficult because you work non-stop. Whereas when you're in Keith Richards mode with the Stones, you can decide when to push forward and when to sit back. You can manage your time, you know? As a front man you have no time at all.

SPIEGEL: You once described the magic of playing live as starting with a feeling of floating.

Richards: I think all good bands, when they have a good night and the rhythm section is playing, have that feeling of floating. The problem then is landing.

SPIEGEL: Do you think differently about death now that you've lost Charlie Watts?

Richards: Different in the sense that it's a hell of a lot closer now?

SPIEGEL: Yes, that's the way it was meant.

Richards: Oh, you know, I was probably closer to death 30, 40 years ago than I am now. (Laughs his typical Keith Richards laugh, a hoarse "Heh-heh-heh".)

SPIEGEL: Do you actually realise that younger listeners who are now rediscovering your solo album "Main Offender" or even the Rolling Stones' records are probably listening to them via a streaming service? Do you have a Spotify account?

Richards: Sorry, what kind of account?

SPIEGEL: Do you have a Spotify or Apple Music account?

Richards: No, I don't. I still listen to CDs.

SPIEGEL: But it's so simple! You have practically the whole music world available on your mobile phone ...

Richards: I know, I know. It's easy if you have a mobile phone, but I don't have a mobile phone.

SPIEGEL: Good for you. But did you still follow the controversy about Spotify and Neil Young and Joni Mitchell pulling their music off Spotify?

Richards: Oh yes, I've been following some of that. It's good for Neil, I would say. You should be able to do what you want with your music. I mean, we finally got Donald Trump to stop playing "You Can't Always Get What You Want".

SPIEGEL: A Rolling Stones song he used in the presidential campaign without asking you for permission.

Richards: Exactly. Normally you want people to play your music, but there are certain occasions when you just say: I'd rather not be associated with that.

SPIEGEL: Is it significant that the protest against Spotify comes from artists like Neil Young or Joni Mitchell? Like you, they come from the counterculture of the sixties.

Richards: And then they're both Canadian, too. Heh-heh-heh.

SPIEGEL: Yes, that's a dangerous combination, of course. But what about the Rolling Stones? When are they withdrawing their music from Spotify? Is that something you've thought about?

Richards: As I said, I don't deal with Spotify much. It would have to be somebody bringing it to my attention for me to think about things like that. But otherwise, you know, I mean, go ahead: Spotify away. Heh-heh-heh.

SPIEGEL: You've also been in trouble recently. There was protest against the famous Stones song "Brown Sugar", a standard of your live shows since 1969. Today, some people consider it racist and sexist.

Richards: Well, some black ladies muttered something, that's true. And we decided then that we would retire "Brown Sugar", for this tour, instead of creating a controversy about it.

SPIEGEL: Your fans protested loudly against you cutting the song. In a way, this is similar to the conflict between Spotify and Neil Young. It's also about censorship and the limits of free speech. Do you feel that with "Brown Sugar" you have become a victim of the so-called Cancel Culture?

Richards: I have to admit that I didn't care that much about this "Brown Sugar" thing at the time. I was more concerned with getting a band going with a black drummer.

SPIEGEL: Of course.

Richards: Mick and I just decided we didn't want to mess with angry black women who didn't seem to know what the song was about. The song is about the horrors of slavery and not just about ... Sex. So we decided not to bother explaining it.

SPIEGEL: You have expressed the hope that you might be able to put the song back on the setlist in the future. So do you think this debate about political correctness will pass?

Richards: It's really impossible to say. People are tripping over themselves right now. I don't know which way it's all going to go. The social media has stirred up quite a bit there. I'm basically just sitting on the sidelines and watching what's happening with a certain amusement.

SPIEGEL: Didn't you feel personally attacked? After all, as a Blues student and fan, you have always been very respectful of black culture and its music.

Richards: Yes. If Charlie hadn't died, we might have taken the time to point that out. But as I said, we've had enough to do and we've decided to let it go now. Some people don't get it, black or white.

SPIEGEL: You've been working with the Rolling Stones on a new studio album for some time now. Is there any news about it?

Richards: We worked on new songs last year. Some of them were created together with Charlie, of course. That's why we haven't moved on yet. My feeling is that we will be on tour later this year. And after that, maybe we'll think about how we want to finish the record.

SPIEGEL: Even without Charlie?

Richards: Yeah, we're going to keep going. The band is forcing us. Heh-heh-heh.

SPIEGEL: Mr Richards, thank you for this interview.

[www.Spiegel.de]

(The interview was conducted by Spiegel-Editor Andreas Borcholte. Translation done with DeepL.com)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2022-03-13 05:34 by ProfessorWolf.

also this article from australia from the same day has more comments from keith

and was posted in the main offender page


Keith Richards celebrates 30th anniversary of his Main Offender solo record

In his only Australian interview, guitar-slinging Keith Richards reveals his alter ego to fans — and how he found valuable lost recordings for his new album.

Kathy McCabe
March 12, 2022

Keith Richards, rock’n’roll God, reformed hellraiser, gentleman gardener.
The rock titan knows it’s a hilariously incongruous image to conjure, the Rolling Stones guitar-slinger wielding a rake or slashing hedges.

But ask him how an inveterate road warrior occupied his time when the pandemic forced his band to halt their seemingly endless world tour, and Richards says he stopped and watched the garden grow.

He has hunkered down with wife Patti, daughters Theodora and Alexandra and pets at his rural pile in Connecticut, east of New York, for many months over the past two years.

“Me, I sat down and realised I had a garden. I’d never seen it do all of the things, like spring and summer … so that was novel,” he says, punctuating the revelation with his characteristic cackle.

When the swashbuckling rock pirate wasn’t reading epic seafaring tomes like the Master and Commander series by Patrick O’Brian, he was diverted by musical pursuits.

He tinkered with the songs earmarked for the first Rolling Stones studio album since 2016’s Blue & Lonesome, which was a covers collection of their favourite blues tracks.
The record remains a work-in-progress as Richards, Mick Jagger and their team plot the campaign to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Stones this year.
Richards also continued his own waltz down the memory lane of his solo career, one that was ignited with Talk Is Cheap in 1988. He reissued that record in 2019 and marks the 30th anniversary of his second album Main Offender with a special edition release this week.

He had always insisted the Stones would be his only band, but when his and Jagger’s relationship soured in the 80s over the band’s direction and the frontman devoted himself to making and touring his solo work, Richards formed the X-Pensive Winos.

It was a “mutual admiration society” of musicians who were either mates or players he respected and whose band name was coined during recording sessions in Canada.

“I had to go away for the day and I left them in the studio. And I also left at the studio a case of Chateau Lafite Rothschild (worth about $3000 in 2022 prices). It was a gift from a friend, you know, it was the stuff!” Richards says.
“When I came back, that thing has gone. Well, I just looked around the room and went ‘I’ve got your name, darlings, you’re just like expensive winos!”

His chief Wino is drummer Steve Jordan. The pair had crossed paths briefly when Jordan played percussion on the Stones’ Dirty Work record in 1986. He then enlisted the musician for the recording of Jumpin’ Jack Flash by Aretha Franklin for the Whoopi Goldberg film of the same name.

When he was recruiting for the Winos in the mid 80s, he sought the counsel of Charlie Watts who enthusiastically endorsed Jordan.
And 35 years later, and ahead of his death in August last year, Watts also “anointed” Jordan to take his seat with the Stones.
Jordan made his concert debut with the band when they resumed their No Filter tour in the US last September.

“Charlie nominated him and put him in position before he left us, ‘Steve Jordan, that’s the man.’ Whatever you say, Charlie,” Richard says.

“Yeah, Steve and I have known each other years and years and years; Charlie entrusted the stool to him and working with Steve is great, he’s slightly different, different dynamics and stuff, but it’s all for the better.”

The pair reunited last week in New York for a charity concert, along with fellow Winos Charley Drayton (who played and recorded with Cold Chisel after the death of drummer Steve Prestwich) guitarist Waddy Wachtel, keyboardist Ivan Neville and singer Sarah Dash.

That gig served as a launch of sorts for the 30th anniversary reissue this week of Main Offender, his second solo record first released in 1992 featuring singles Wicked As It Seems, Eileen and Hate It When You Leave.
Deep dives into his treasure trove of tapes and film and memorabilia unearthed a recording of their Winos Live In London ‘92’ performance at the Town & Country Club, Kentish Town which has been restored to include on the 2022 edition of Main Offender.

“What I was really happy about, and didn’t know existed, was that live record,” she says.

“I sent people out searching every little nook and cranny and it was hiding … it was just mislaid in a tape box probably. I mean, it was 30 years ago and we have moved around a bit.”

Listening back to the tapes as Richards and his team were preparing the new Main Offender box set was a revelation to the songwriter. After a few decades of writing almost exclusively with Jagger for the Stones, collaborating with the X-Pensive Winos was a different beast.

And yet he remains as mystified by the magical process of melding musical notes with words as anyone else, even after 60 years in the service of songwriting.

“They all start bits and pieces, you don’t know quite what to do with them, but somehow before your ears and eyes they sort of meld together; you are not doing anything, you’re just watching this thing happen, and it’s just a matter of whether you keep it going or chop it off for it. It’s a fascinating process,” he says.

“I guess it is the mystery of it all. I’ve just sat around with a lot of songwriters and nobody can put their finger on it. It’s a feeling, you know.”
The Stones kick off their 60th anniversary year with the release of a revamped version of their 1977 Live At The El Mocambo album in April.

As for their other plans, Richards remains relatively tight-lipped.
“We’re going out again in a few months, in Europe, start off our 60th year victory lap,” he says.

“When I think about a bunch of musicians holding that place for so long, I feel really humble about it now. I didn’t used to … but when you think about all the lives that have been lived around us and the people who listen to us, it’s an amazing thing.”

Will Australia be on that victory lap?
“I’d love to come back down; we’ll see what happens in the next year or two.”
Main Offender is out on March 18.

heraldsun

Thanks for posting the English translation - would you also happen to have the original text in German?



The online version is only accessible to subscribers: Der Spiegel

TIRED's Request

Quote
child-of-the-moon
TIRED's Request

thanks i can't read german but like have the original anyways

Beautiful interview, typicall Keef

He still smokes weed. A nice way to fool yourself.

That's some stupid questions

Quote
ProfessorWolf
the interview gets into the topic of them dropping brown sugar and some other touchy topics for iorr

i'm sure i don't need to remind everybody about bv position on discussing these issues on iorr

so please don't post anything violating his rules about political issues

Sadly, Keith has been banned from posting as a consequence. Mentioning "High Wire" earned him a warning a few months back. No exceptions. Not even for a Rolling Stone.

Lest my sarcasm not translate, Bjornulf doesn't want people turning the message board into a forum for their own political or religious arguments. That is requesting for civility. People can and do mention controversial Stones songs then and now and their lyrics.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2022-03-13 21:32 by Rocky Dijon.

Quote
TheflyingDutchman
He still smokes weed. A nice way to fool yourself.

No, weed has a longer lasting and different effect. Unless his stash is low grade, he will be smoking less than before.

After decades of smoking, the body does not cope well with sudden abstinence, you'd need sleeping pills, blood control pills, digestive pills, chill out pills, get creative pills and more unhealthy stuff to compensate for the ganja.

Quote
Rocky Dijon

Quote
ProfessorWolf
the interview gets into the topic of them dropping brown sugar and some other touchy topics for iorr

i'm sure i don't need to remind everybody about bv position on discussing these issues on iorr

so please don't post anything violating his rules about political issues

Sadly, Keith has been banned from posting as a consequence. Mentioning "High Wire" earned him a warning a few months back. No exceptions. Not even for a Rolling Stone.

Lest my sarcasm not translate, Bjornulf doesn't want people turning the message board into a forum for their own political or religious arguments. That is requesting for civility. People can and do mention controversial Stones songs then and now and their lyrics.

yeah that's what i was trying to get across

if your going to discuss these issues here be tactful