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Keith Richards interview - The Telegraph, February 28
Posted by: bye bye johnny ()
Date: February 28, 2018 22:35

Keith Richards on reuniting the Rolling Stones and going sober: 'The drugs are so bland these days'


Credit: AP

By Neil McCormick, Music Critic

28 February 2018

Keith Richards hasn’t had a drink since Christmas. The legendarily hard-living rock and roll icon sounds almost reluctant to admit to sobriety. “I’m not saying I’m definitely off all of this stuff,” he protests. “In six months’ time, I might be on it again. But at the moment, for a couple of months, I haven’t touched it.” When I ask how he is finding abstinence, he chuckles ruefully. “It’s novel.”

The 74-year-old Rolling Stone still smokes incessantly and speaks as if his vocal cords are coated in thick layers of fur, but he insists that cigarettes and coffee are the only real vices he has left. He is impressively disdainful of the prescription drugs rife among a younger generation, such as Xanax and Percocet. “Drugs are not interesting these days. They are very institutionalised and bland. And, anyway, I’ve done ’em all.”

His laughter is rich, throaty and infectious, constantly bubbling up to shade his remarks with mischief. Richards has always been the Stones’ most entertaining conversationalist, brutally honest and quick-witted. On the recent spate of retirements of many of his musical contemporaries, he chortles: “More room for us!” On Sir Elton John’s announcement of a three-year farewell tour, he chuckles, “After three years on the road with Elton, you would want to retire, too. I’ll take his word for it.” Richards had a long feud with Elton (who once described him as “an a--hole” who looks like “a monkey with arthritis”). However, he is in a forgiving mood. “He’s a lovable old dear,” he says of him now. “He’s softening with age.” But on the question of whether he’ll miss Elton when he’s gone, he is unmoved. “Not at all.

Asked what it would take to bring the Rolling Stones’ long run to an end, Richards is unequivocal: “Somebody keeling over.” Drummer Charlie Watts has claimed that it wouldn’t bother him if the Stones called it a day. But Richards insists there is no thought of retirement. “There’s never ever been a word about it muttered among ourselves. I guess the day’s obviously going to come, some day. But not in the near future. We’re all looking forward to doing what we’re doing, especially back in Blighty.”

What he’s referring to is the Stones’ upcoming stadium tour of Britain in the summer, their first UK shows since Glastonbury and Hyde Park in 2013, and their first tour in more than 10 years. “We’re playing home turf, so there’s a certain extra glow. But it’s always a pleasure to get up there again, especially with this band, man. I think the boys are playing better than ever. Maybe it’s experience, we seem to be able to pace ourselves right. I’m blessed to work with some of the best players ever. That never gets old.”



There is a new Stones album in the works, to follow their fantastic 2016 covers album, Blue & Lonesome. Richards is calling from a studio in New York, where he is awaiting the arrival of Mick Jagger to work on new songs. “Mick’s great, we’re getting on very well,” says Richards. “He’ll be here in half an hour and we’ll be sitting face to face, making music, like always.”

Jagger and Richards met as schoolboys in Fifties Dartford and have been the creative leaders and songwriting heart of the Stones since 1962. They haven’t always got along, though, and there was a particularly unpleasant schism following the publication of Richards’s acclaimed autobiography Life, in 2010, with its disparaging remarks about Jagger. For a while, it seemed touch and go whether the Stones would ever play together again. But the acclaim afforded their shows since getting back on the road in 2012 seems to have helped thaw relationships.

“Mick and I live off the fire between us,” says Richards, who is effusively warm about all of his band mates. “We were made for each other. It’s like putting on an old glove, man, you know.” They don’t hang out much between engagements. “We can stay away from each other, happily, for months. But it’s the gaps in between that make it more interesting. You come back fresher. When we do get together, we rehearse very hard, we soak ourselves in it.”



I have seen the Stones four times in recent years, and each show has been extraordinary, hitting the kind of sinuous heights that first established their claim to be the world’s greatest rock and roll band. When I ask if the relative sobriety of Richards and fellow guitarist Ronnie Wood has contributed to sharpened playing, Richards guffaws. “Well… all things are relative! Insobriety produced some amazing stuff, too!”

Richards’s personal favourite Stones period (“God, that’s hard, being asked to choose. That’s really like cutting the babies in half!”) is 1968-72. “Beggars Banquet, Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers, Exile… we really hit the spot.”

That, of course, was also a period when Richards was becoming increasingly addicted to hard drugs, gaining a reputation as the most elegantly wasted human being on earth. The Stones in the Seventies ruled the roost during rock’s most notorious period of conspicuous debauchery. In the wake of the #MeToo movement shining a harsh light on the treatment of women in the entertainment industry, I wonder if Richards has any qualms about past behaviour. “You’d have to ask the ladies,” says Richards. “I’ve had no complaints.”

In fact, Richards has always been a bit of a one-woman man. He was with model and actress Anita Pallenberg for over 10 years (they have a son and daughter) and has been married to former model Patti Hansen for 34 years (they have two daughters). Pallenberg, one of the great loves of his life, died last year. “Miss her dearly,” he says, momentarily sombre, before suddenly laughing again. “Long may she not rest in peace, because she hates peace!”



With so many deaths and retirements among his contemporaries, it seems that the rock and roll era is coming to an end. Young guitar bands find it hard to thrive in the charts. Gibson guitar manufacturers were recently revealed to be on the verge of bankruptcy.

Richards remains optimistic, though. “I don’t think eras end, they sort of fold and meld into each other. If rock and roll is at an end, when was the beginning? It’s part of the blues, it’s built into the musical framework of the world. If we’re talking about fashion and all the other things, everything was rock for a while – you can’t expect that to go on forever. But we’ll see. We’re going to be playing to several million people in the coming months, so I wouldn’t call that dead.”

Richards doesn’t particularly keep up with new music (“Even as a kid, I never listened to what was pop, was always listening to old stuff”) but admires Lady Gaga, comparing her to Barbra Streisand, and Ed Sheeran, of whom he says: “Nice voice, nice songs.”



As for his views on his contemporaries, Quincy Jones recently disparaged the musicianship of the Beatles, the Stones’ great Sixties rivals, but Richards is not persuaded. “It was their songwriting which was the real apex of what they did, rather than their musicianship, which was definitely adequate,” he laughs, perhaps aware he is damning with faint praise. “Their vocal harmonies were very strong. Some very interesting stuff went on there. So without pooh-poohing our Quincy, leave Beatles alone, you know.”

Richards famously reads a lot of history books and listens to the blues, jazz and classical music. Does he keep up with politics and current affairs? “Well, it’s very difficult not to these days. They’ve got a president here that’s pretty funny. And I don’t mean ha ha.” Trump used a Rolling Stones song, You Can’t Always Get What You Want, on his campaign trail, continuing to walk out to it even after the Stones asked him to desist. “That’s about the level of the guy’s manners,” notes Richards, disparagingly.

Although Jagger was knighted in 2003, Richards has no expectations of joining him on the honours list. “My views are well known to the people that dole them out.” He denies there is anything malicious in his mockery of Sir Mick (and, for that matter, Sir Elton, Sir Paul, Sir Rod, Sir Cliff, Sir Tom and Sir Ray), though can’t resist adding, “I think it’s all a bit archaic. I thought Sirs were for doing some brave deed in battle, not singing songs.”



You get the sense that Richards really wants to be diplomatically positive about Jagger but is constantly undermined by an instinct for mischief. He praises Jagger’s strenuous approach to septuagenarian fitness but then adds, “I worry about his joints from all that jogging, man. But he gets along all right.” On his own fitness routine, he quips: “Well, I don’t like routines. If I find I’ve got one, I deliberately fall out of it.”

Despite all indications to the contrary, Richards and the Stones won’t go on forever. But he’s clearly determined to enjoy it while it lasts. “I do think the further along the line you go, and you realise you are enjoying it, you put more into it. Just the fact that we’re still honing it down, it’s a blast.”

He expects to keep playing until he drops and insists he doesn’t worry about when that day might come. “I never think about it. Never. I know loads of other people worry about it, and I let them concern themselves with it. Me, I’ll wait for it to happen.”

[www.telegraph.co.uk]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2018-02-28 22:35 by bye bye johnny.

Re: Keith Richards interview - The Telegraph, February 28
Posted by: tommycharles ()
Date: February 28, 2018 22:53

I remain confused by the clear articulate Keith we see in these recent newspaper interviews, and the spaced out mumbling Keith we see whenever he’s on film. If this is what sobriety does, it should be a great tour.

Re: Keith Richards interview - The Telegraph, February 28
Posted by: gotdablouse ()
Date: February 28, 2018 23:08

Thanks for sharing.

Keith sober ? That would be something, in any case a good excuse to go waste some cash on the Stones again !

--------------
IORR Links : Essential Studio Outtakes CDs : Audio - History of Rarest Outtakes : Audio

Re: Keith Richards interview - The Telegraph, February 28
Posted by: Beast ()
Date: March 1, 2018 01:01

Thanks, bbj! That was a great read. Some good Keith wisdom and good laughs too in there.

Re: Keith Richards interview - The Telegraph, February 28
Posted by: Hairball ()
Date: March 1, 2018 01:20

Yes nice, thanks for posting bye bye johnny. thumbs up

On Elton:

“He’s a lovable old dear,” he says of him now. “He’s softening with age.”
But on the question of whether he’ll miss Elton when he’s gone, he is unmoved. “Not at all".

Lol.

_____________________________________________________________
Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......

Re: Keith Richards interview - The Telegraph, February 28
Posted by: runrudolph ()
Date: March 1, 2018 02:11

Thanks, great Read. love Keef to death, i do.
Jeroen

Re: Keith Richards interview - The Telegraph, February 28
Posted by: 35love ()
Date: March 1, 2018 03:40

Quote
bye bye johnny
Keith Richards on reuniting the Rolling Stones and going sober: 'The drugs are so bland these days'


Credit: AP

By Neil McCormick, Music Critic

28 February 2018

Keith Richards hasn’t had a drink since Christmas. The legendarily hard-living rock and roll icon sounds almost reluctant to admit to sobriety. “I’m not saying I’m definitely off all of this stuff,” he protests. “In six months’ time, I might be on it again. But at the moment, for a couple of months, I haven’t touched it.” When I ask how he is finding abstinence, he chuckles ruefully. “It’s novel.”

The 74-year-old Rolling Stone still smokes incessantly and speaks as if his vocal cords are coated in thick layers of fur, but he insists that cigarettes and coffee are the only real vices he has left. He is impressively disdainful of the prescription drugs rife among a younger generation, such as Xanax and Percocet. “Drugs are not interesting these days. They are very institutionalised and bland. And, anyway, I’ve done ’em all.”

His laughter is rich, throaty and infectious, constantly bubbling up to shade his remarks with mischief. Richards has always been the Stones’ most entertaining conversationalist, brutally honest and quick-witted. On the recent spate of retirements of many of his musical contemporaries, he chortles: “More room for us!” On Sir Elton John’s announcement of a three-year farewell tour, he chuckles, “After three years on the road with Elton, you would want to retire, too. I’ll take his word for it.” Richards had a long feud with Elton (who once described him as “an a--hole” who looks like “a monkey with arthritis”). However, he is in a forgiving mood. “He’s a lovable old dear,” he says of him now. “He’s softening with age.” But on the question of whether he’ll miss Elton when he’s gone, he is unmoved. “Not at all.

Asked what it would take to bring the Rolling Stones’ long run to an end, Richards is unequivocal: “Somebody keeling over.” Drummer Charlie Watts has claimed that it wouldn’t bother him if the Stones called it a day. But Richards insists there is no thought of retirement. “There’s never ever been a word about it muttered among ourselves. I guess the day’s obviously going to come, some day. But not in the near future. We’re all looking forward to doing what we’re doing, especially back in Blighty.”

What he’s referring to is the Stones’ upcoming stadium tour of Britain in the summer, their first UK shows since Glastonbury and Hyde Park in 2013, and their first tour in more than 10 years. “We’re playing home turf, so there’s a certain extra glow. But it’s always a pleasure to get up there again, especially with this band, man. I think the boys are playing better than ever. Maybe it’s experience, we seem to be able to pace ourselves right. I’m blessed to work with some of the best players ever. That never gets old.”



There is a new Stones album in the works, to follow their fantastic 2016 covers album, Blue & Lonesome. Richards is calling from a studio in New York, where he is awaiting the arrival of Mick Jagger to work on new songs. “Mick’s great, we’re getting on very well,” says Richards. “He’ll be here in half an hour and we’ll be sitting face to face, making music, like always.”

Jagger and Richards met as schoolboys in Fifties Dartford and have been the creative leaders and songwriting heart of the Stones since 1962. They haven’t always got along, though, and there was a particularly unpleasant schism following the publication of Richards’s acclaimed autobiography Life, in 2010, with its disparaging remarks about Jagger. For a while, it seemed touch and go whether the Stones would ever play together again. But the acclaim afforded their shows since getting back on the road in 2012 seems to have helped thaw relationships.

“Mick and I live off the fire between us,” says Richards, who is effusively warm about all of his band mates. “We were made for each other. It’s like putting on an old glove, man, you know.” They don’t hang out much between engagements. “We can stay away from each other, happily, for months. But it’s the gaps in between that make it more interesting. You come back fresher. When we do get together, we rehearse very hard, we soak ourselves in it.”



I have seen the Stones four times in recent years, and each show has been extraordinary, hitting the kind of sinuous heights that first established their claim to be the world’s greatest rock and roll band. When I ask if the relative sobriety of Richards and fellow guitarist Ronnie Wood has contributed to sharpened playing, Richards guffaws. “Well… all things are relative! Insobriety produced some amazing stuff, too!”

Richards’s personal favourite Stones period (“God, that’s hard, being asked to choose. That’s really like cutting the babies in half!”) is 1968-72. “Beggars Banquet, Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers, Exile… we really hit the spot.”

That, of course, was also a period when Richards was becoming increasingly addicted to hard drugs, gaining a reputation as the most elegantly wasted human being on earth. The Stones in the Seventies ruled the roost during rock’s most notorious period of conspicuous debauchery. In the wake of the #MeToo movement shining a harsh light on the treatment of women in the entertainment industry, I wonder if Richards has any qualms about past behaviour. “You’d have to ask the ladies,” says Richards. “I’ve had no complaints.”

In fact, Richards has always been a bit of a one-woman man. He was with model and actress Anita Pallenberg for over 10 years (they have a son and daughter) and has been married to former model Patti Hansen for 34 years (they have two daughters). Pallenberg, one of the great loves of his life, died last year. “Miss her dearly,” he says, momentarily sombre, before suddenly laughing again. “Long may she not rest in peace, because she hates peace!”



With so many deaths and retirements among his contemporaries, it seems that the rock and roll era is coming to an end. Young guitar bands find it hard to thrive in the charts. Gibson guitar manufacturers were recently revealed to be on the verge of bankruptcy.

Richards remains optimistic, though. “I don’t think eras end, they sort of fold and meld into each other. If rock and roll is at an end, when was the beginning? It’s part of the blues, it’s built into the musical framework of the world. If we’re talking about fashion and all the other things, everything was rock for a while – you can’t expect that to go on forever. But we’ll see. We’re going to be playing to several million people in the coming months, so I wouldn’t call that dead.”

Richards doesn’t particularly keep up with new music (“Even as a kid, I never listened to what was pop, was always listening to old stuff”) but admires Lady Gaga, comparing her to Barbra Streisand, and Ed Sheeran, of whom he says: “Nice voice, nice songs.”



As for his views on his contemporaries, Quincy Jones recently disparaged the musicianship of the Beatles, the Stones’ great Sixties rivals, but Richards is not persuaded. “It was their songwriting which was the real apex of what they did, rather than their musicianship, which was definitely adequate,” he laughs, perhaps aware he is damning with faint praise. “Their vocal harmonies were very strong. Some very interesting stuff went on there. So without pooh-poohing our Quincy, leave Beatles alone, you know.”

Richards famously reads a lot of history books and listens to the blues, jazz and classical music. Does he keep up with politics and current affairs? “Well, it’s very difficult not to these days. They’ve got a president here that’s pretty funny. And I don’t mean ha ha.” Trump used a Rolling Stones song, You Can’t Always Get What You Want, on his campaign trail, continuing to walk out to it even after the Stones asked him to desist. “That’s about the level of the guy’s manners,” notes Richards, disparagingly.

Although Jagger was knighted in 2003, Richards has no expectations of joining him on the honours list. “My views are well known to the people that dole them out.” He denies there is anything malicious in his mockery of Sir Mick (and, for that matter, Sir Elton, Sir Paul, Sir Rod, Sir Cliff, Sir Tom and Sir Ray), though can’t resist adding, “I think it’s all a bit archaic. I thought Sirs were for doing some brave deed in battle, not singing songs.”



You get the sense that Richards really wants to be diplomatically positive about Jagger but is constantly undermined by an instinct for mischief. He praises Jagger’s strenuous approach to septuagenarian fitness but then adds, “I worry about his joints from all that jogging, man. But he gets along all right.” On his own fitness routine, he quips: “Well, I don’t like routines. If I find I’ve got one, I deliberately fall out of it.”

Despite all indications to the contrary, Richards and the Stones won’t go on forever. But he’s clearly determined to enjoy it while it lasts. “I do think the further along the line you go, and you realise you are enjoying it, you put more into it. Just the fact that we’re still honing it down, it’s a blast.”

He expects to keep playing until he drops and insists he doesn’t worry about when that day might come. “I never think about it. Never. I know loads of other people worry about it, and I let them concern themselves with it. Me, I’ll wait for it to happen.”

[www.telegraph.co.uk]

Perceptive intelligent read from Mr. Richards, as usual.

“When we do get together, we rehearse very hard, we soak ourselves in it.”
“You’d have to ask the ladies,” says Richards. “I’ve had no complaints.”

On Mick:
“But he gets along all right.”

Re: Keith Richards interview - The Telegraph, February 28
Posted by: keefriff99 ()
Date: March 1, 2018 04:25

Quote
Hairball
Yes nice, thanks for posting bye bye johnny. thumbs up

On Elton:

“He’s a lovable old dear,” he says of him now. “He’s softening with age.”
But on the question of whether he’ll miss Elton when he’s gone, he is unmoved. “Not at all".

Lol.
Only Keith can come off as lovable and a total prick at the same time, lol.

Re: Keith Richards interview - The Telegraph, February 28
Posted by: IanBillen ()
Date: March 1, 2018 05:47

Quote
35love
Quote
bye bye johnny
Keith Richards on reuniting the Rolling Stones and going sober: 'The drugs are so bland these days'


Credit: AP

By Neil McCormick, Music Critic

28 February 2018

Keith Richards hasn’t had a drink since Christmas. The legendarily hard-living rock and roll icon sounds almost reluctant to admit to sobriety. “I’m not saying I’m definitely off all of this stuff,” he protests. “In six months’ time, I might be on it again. But at the moment, for a couple of months, I haven’t touched it.” When I ask how he is finding abstinence, he chuckles ruefully. “It’s novel.”

The 74-year-old Rolling Stone still smokes incessantly and speaks as if his vocal cords are coated in thick layers of fur, but he insists that cigarettes and coffee are the only real vices he has left. He is impressively disdainful of the prescription drugs rife among a younger generation, such as Xanax and Percocet. “Drugs are not interesting these days. They are very institutionalised and bland. And, anyway, I’ve done ’em all.”

His laughter is rich, throaty and infectious, constantly bubbling up to shade his remarks with mischief. Richards has always been the Stones’ most entertaining conversationalist, brutally honest and quick-witted. On the recent spate of retirements of many of his musical contemporaries, he chortles: “More room for us!” On Sir Elton John’s announcement of a three-year farewell tour, he chuckles, “After three years on the road with Elton, you would want to retire, too. I’ll take his word for it.” Richards had a long feud with Elton (who once described him as “an a--hole” who looks like “a monkey with arthritis”). However, he is in a forgiving mood. “He’s a lovable old dear,” he says of him now. “He’s softening with age.” But on the question of whether he’ll miss Elton when he’s gone, he is unmoved. “Not at all.

Asked what it would take to bring the Rolling Stones’ long run to an end, Richards is unequivocal: “Somebody keeling over.” Drummer Charlie Watts has claimed that it wouldn’t bother him if the Stones called it a day. But Richards insists there is no thought of retirement. “There’s never ever been a word about it muttered among ourselves. I guess the day’s obviously going to come, some day. But not in the near future. We’re all looking forward to doing what we’re doing, especially back in Blighty.”

What he’s referring to is the Stones’ upcoming stadium tour of Britain in the summer, their first UK shows since Glastonbury and Hyde Park in 2013, and their first tour in more than 10 years. “We’re playing home turf, so there’s a certain extra glow. But it’s always a pleasure to get up there again, especially with this band, man. I think the boys are playing better than ever. Maybe it’s experience, we seem to be able to pace ourselves right. I’m blessed to work with some of the best players ever. That never gets old.”



There is a new Stones album in the works, to follow their fantastic 2016 covers album, Blue & Lonesome. Richards is calling from a studio in New York, where he is awaiting the arrival of Mick Jagger to work on new songs. “Mick’s great, we’re getting on very well,” says Richards. “He’ll be here in half an hour and we’ll be sitting face to face, making music, like always.”

Jagger and Richards met as schoolboys in Fifties Dartford and have been the creative leaders and songwriting heart of the Stones since 1962. They haven’t always got along, though, and there was a particularly unpleasant schism following the publication of Richards’s acclaimed autobiography Life, in 2010, with its disparaging remarks about Jagger. For a while, it seemed touch and go whether the Stones would ever play together again. But the acclaim afforded their shows since getting back on the road in 2012 seems to have helped thaw relationships.

“Mick and I live off the fire between us,” says Richards, who is effusively warm about all of his band mates. “We were made for each other. It’s like putting on an old glove, man, you know.” They don’t hang out much between engagements. “We can stay away from each other, happily, for months. But it’s the gaps in between that make it more interesting. You come back fresher. When we do get together, we rehearse very hard, we soak ourselves in it.”



I have seen the Stones four times in recent years, and each show has been extraordinary, hitting the kind of sinuous heights that first established their claim to be the world’s greatest rock and roll band. When I ask if the relative sobriety of Richards and fellow guitarist Ronnie Wood has contributed to sharpened playing, Richards guffaws. “Well… all things are relative! Insobriety produced some amazing stuff, too!”

Richards’s personal favourite Stones period (“God, that’s hard, being asked to choose. That’s really like cutting the babies in half!”) is 1968-72. “Beggars Banquet, Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers, Exile… we really hit the spot.”

That, of course, was also a period when Richards was becoming increasingly addicted to hard drugs, gaining a reputation as the most elegantly wasted human being on earth. The Stones in the Seventies ruled the roost during rock’s most notorious period of conspicuous debauchery. In the wake of the #MeToo movement shining a harsh light on the treatment of women in the entertainment industry, I wonder if Richards has any qualms about past behaviour. “You’d have to ask the ladies,” says Richards. “I’ve had no complaints.”

In fact, Richards has always been a bit of a one-woman man. He was with model and actress Anita Pallenberg for over 10 years (they have a son and daughter) and has been married to former model Patti Hansen for 34 years (they have two daughters). Pallenberg, one of the great loves of his life, died last year. “Miss her dearly,” he says, momentarily sombre, before suddenly laughing again. “Long may she not rest in peace, because she hates peace!”



With so many deaths and retirements among his contemporaries, it seems that the rock and roll era is coming to an end. Young guitar bands find it hard to thrive in the charts. Gibson guitar manufacturers were recently revealed to be on the verge of bankruptcy.

Richards remains optimistic, though. “I don’t think eras end, they sort of fold and meld into each other. If rock and roll is at an end, when was the beginning? It’s part of the blues, it’s built into the musical framework of the world. If we’re talking about fashion and all the other things, everything was rock for a while – you can’t expect that to go on forever. But we’ll see. We’re going to be playing to several million people in the coming months, so I wouldn’t call that dead.”

Richards doesn’t particularly keep up with new music (“Even as a kid, I never listened to what was pop, was always listening to old stuff”) but admires Lady Gaga, comparing her to Barbra Streisand, and Ed Sheeran, of whom he says: “Nice voice, nice songs.”



As for his views on his contemporaries, Quincy Jones recently disparaged the musicianship of the Beatles, the Stones’ great Sixties rivals, but Richards is not persuaded. “It was their songwriting which was the real apex of what they did, rather than their musicianship, which was definitely adequate,” he laughs, perhaps aware he is damning with faint praise. “Their vocal harmonies were very strong. Some very interesting stuff went on there. So without pooh-poohing our Quincy, leave Beatles alone, you know.”

Richards famously reads a lot of history books and listens to the blues, jazz and classical music. Does he keep up with politics and current affairs? “Well, it’s very difficult not to these days. They’ve got a president here that’s pretty funny. And I don’t mean ha ha.” Trump used a Rolling Stones song, You Can’t Always Get What You Want, on his campaign trail, continuing to walk out to it even after the Stones asked him to desist. “That’s about the level of the guy’s manners,” notes Richards, disparagingly.

Although Jagger was knighted in 2003, Richards has no expectations of joining him on the honours list. “My views are well known to the people that dole them out.” He denies there is anything malicious in his mockery of Sir Mick (and, for that matter, Sir Elton, Sir Paul, Sir Rod, Sir Cliff, Sir Tom and Sir Ray), though can’t resist adding, “I think it’s all a bit archaic. I thought Sirs were for doing some brave deed in battle, not singing songs.”



You get the sense that Richards really wants to be diplomatically positive about Jagger but is constantly undermined by an instinct for mischief. He praises Jagger’s strenuous approach to septuagenarian fitness but then adds, “I worry about his joints from all that jogging, man. But he gets along all right.” On his own fitness routine, he quips: “Well, I don’t like routines. If I find I’ve got one, I deliberately fall out of it.”

Despite all indications to the contrary, Richards and the Stones won’t go on forever. But he’s clearly determined to enjoy it while it lasts. “I do think the further along the line you go, and you realise you are enjoying it, you put more into it. Just the fact that we’re still honing it down, it’s a blast.”

He expects to keep playing until he drops and insists he doesn’t worry about when that day might come. “I never think about it. Never. I know loads of other people worry about it, and I let them concern themselves with it. Me, I’ll wait for it to happen.”

[www.telegraph.co.uk]

Perceptive intelligent read from Mr. Richards, as usual.

“When we do get together, we rehearse very hard, we soak ourselves in it.”
“You’d have to ask the ladies,” says Richards. “I’ve had no complaints.”

On Mick:
“But he gets along all right.”


______________________________________



Well .. at least they are working on it together on certain segments in the creation of the album.


We keep hearing about sessions and him and Mick working on it .. Remember ...exactly one year ago he (Keith) said he and Mick were together alone 'slowly putting an album together'.


<When he said 'slowly' a year ago at this juncture.. he wasn't bloody kidding!>

Re: Keith Richards interview - The Telegraph, February 28
Posted by: desertblues68 ()
Date: March 1, 2018 07:44

Interesting read. And this made me really laugh on a chilly morning

Keith apologies to Mick again...

Re: Keith Richards interview - The Telegraph, February 28
Posted by: gotdablouse ()
Date: March 1, 2018 10:19

Time for the snip, hehe...

35love and IanBillen, please don't quite entire messages, it makes for a very unpleasant and difficult read, especially on a mobile device, thanks.

--------------
IORR Links : Essential Studio Outtakes CDs : Audio - History of Rarest Outtakes : Audio

Re: Keith Richards interview - The Telegraph, February 28
Posted by: Bjorn ()
Date: March 1, 2018 11:25

Sober is gooood!!!

Re: Keith Richards interview - The Telegraph, February 28
Posted by: matxil ()
Date: March 1, 2018 11:30

Fun to read.
Thanks for posting.

Re: Keith Richards interview - The Telegraph, February 28
Posted by: 35love ()
Date: March 1, 2018 12:21

Quote
gotdablouse
Time for the snip, hehe...

35love and IanBillen, please don't quite entire messages, it makes for a very unpleasant and difficult read, especially on a mobile device, thanks.

*Got it, good point (repost)
BTW, Mick’s blood bro, Chris Jagger, made the vasectomy joke about a year ago...
Keith’s not letting kittens out of the bag, is he? eye popping smiley
Uh-oh, I don’t want Mick mad at me, either.

Keith Richards apologises to Mick Jagger for saying he needed a vasectomy
Posted by: peoplewitheyes ()
Date: March 1, 2018 13:05

The article from the Guardian here!

Re: Keith Richards apologises to Mick Jagger for saying he needed a vasectomy
Posted by: keefriff99 ()
Date: March 1, 2018 14:56

Silly. In the long line of outrageous things Keith has said, that one hardly warrants an apology.

Re: Keith Richards apologises to Mick Jagger for saying he needed a vasectomy
Date: March 1, 2018 14:58

More in this thread: [iorr.org]

Re: Keith Richards apologises to Mick Jagger for saying he needed a vasectomy
Posted by: RoughJusticeOnYa ()
Date: March 1, 2018 15:23

Ever heard of marketing, people?

Re: Keith Richards apologises to Mick Jagger for saying he needed a vasectomy
Posted by: TooTough ()
Date: March 1, 2018 15:47

If sobriety does make him say such things he should take drugs again.

Re: Keith Richards apologises to Mick Jagger for saying he needed a vasectomy
Posted by: keithsman ()
Date: March 1, 2018 15:48

Surprised Keith publicly apologizes over a lighthearted joke like that, Keith obviously mucking around, Jeez times have changed, Keith getting all PC in his old age confused smiley

Re: Keith Richards apologises to Mick Jagger for saying he needed a vasectomy
Posted by: keithsman ()
Date: March 1, 2018 15:49

Quote
TooTough
If sobriety does make him say such things he should take drugs again.

Haha brilliant line TooTough thumbs upsmoking smiley

Re: Keith Richards apologises to Mick Jagger for saying he needed a vasectomy
Posted by: 35love ()
Date: March 1, 2018 15:50

Or, a female who has been fixed >grinning smiley<

Re: Keith Richards apologises to Mick Jagger for saying he needed a vasectomy
Posted by: EJM ()
Date: March 1, 2018 16:05

The apology produced more headlines than the comment - he stones publicity machine in full swing !

Re: Keith Richards apologises to Mick Jagger for saying he needed a vasectomy
Posted by: BowieStone ()
Date: March 1, 2018 16:12

This is thread #3?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2018-03-01 16:12 by BowieStone.

Re: Keith Richards apologises to Mick Jagger for saying he needed a vasectomy
Posted by: Cristiano Radtke ()
Date: March 1, 2018 16:13

Quote
RoughJusticeOnYa
Ever heard of marketing, people?

thumbs up

Re: Keith Richards apologises to Mick Jagger for saying he needed a vasectomy
Date: March 1, 2018 16:16

Quote
BowieStone
This is thread #3?

Yep...

Re: Keith Richards apologises to Mick Jagger for saying he needed a vasectomy
Posted by: 1962 ()
Date: March 1, 2018 16:18

Just a tasteful promo

Re: Keith Richards apologises to Mick Jagger for saying he needed a vasectomy
Posted by: bye bye johnny ()
Date: March 1, 2018 16:52

Quote
DandelionPowderman
More in this thread: [iorr.org]

Actually the vasectomy comment's from the Wall Street Journal piece.

Re: Keith Richards apologises to Mick Jagger for saying he needed a vasectomy
Date: March 1, 2018 17:09

Quote
bye bye johnny
Quote
DandelionPowderman
More in this thread: [iorr.org]

Actually the vasectomy comment's from the Wall Street Journal piece.

Yep, also posted in the link I referred to.

Re: Keith Richards interview - The Telegraph, February 28
Posted by: keithsman ()
Date: March 1, 2018 17:46

Quote
bye bye johnny
Keith Richards on reuniting the Rolling Stones and going sober: 'The drugs are so bland these days'


Credit: AP

By Neil McCormick, Music Critic

28 February 2018

Keith Richards hasn’t had a drink since Christmas. The legendarily hard-living rock and roll icon sounds almost reluctant to admit to sobriety. “I’m not saying I’m definitely off all of this stuff,” he protests. “In six months’ time, I might be on it again. But at the moment, for a couple of months, I haven’t touched it.” When I ask how he is finding abstinence, he chuckles ruefully. “It’s novel.”

The 74-year-old Rolling Stone still smokes incessantly and speaks as if his vocal cords are coated in thick layers of fur, but he insists that cigarettes and coffee are the only real vices he has left. He is impressively disdainful of the prescription drugs rife among a younger generation, such as Xanax and Percocet. “Drugs are not interesting these days. They are very institutionalised and bland. And, anyway, I’ve done ’em all.”

His laughter is rich, throaty and infectious, constantly bubbling up to shade his remarks with mischief. Richards has always been the Stones’ most entertaining conversationalist, brutally honest and quick-witted. On the recent spate of retirements of many of his musical contemporaries, he chortles: “More room for us!” On Sir Elton John’s announcement of a three-year farewell tour, he chuckles, “After three years on the road with Elton, you would want to retire, too. I’ll take his word for it.” Richards had a long feud with Elton (who once described him as “an a--hole” who looks like “a monkey with arthritis”). However, he is in a forgiving mood. “He’s a lovable old dear,” he says of him now. “He’s softening with age.” But on the question of whether he’ll miss Elton when he’s gone, he is unmoved. “Not at all.

Asked what it would take to bring the Rolling Stones’ long run to an end, Richards is unequivocal: “Somebody keeling over.” Drummer Charlie Watts has claimed that it wouldn’t bother him if the Stones called it a day. But Richards insists there is no thought of retirement. “There’s never ever been a word about it muttered among ourselves. I guess the day’s obviously going to come, some day. But not in the near future. We’re all looking forward to doing what we’re doing, especially back in Blighty.”

What he’s referring to is the Stones’ upcoming stadium tour of Britain in the summer, their first UK shows since Glastonbury and Hyde Park in 2013, and their first tour in more than 10 years. “We’re playing home turf, so there’s a certain extra glow. But it’s always a pleasure to get up there again, especially with this band, man. I think the boys are playing better than ever. Maybe it’s experience, we seem to be able to pace ourselves right. I’m blessed to work with some of the best players ever. That never gets old.”



There is a new Stones album in the works, to follow their fantastic 2016 covers album, Blue & Lonesome. Richards is calling from a studio in New York, where he is awaiting the arrival of Mick Jagger to work on new songs. “Mick’s great, we’re getting on very well,” says Richards. “He’ll be here in half an hour and we’ll be sitting face to face, making music, like always.”

Jagger and Richards met as schoolboys in Fifties Dartford and have been the creative leaders and songwriting heart of the Stones since 1962. They haven’t always got along, though, and there was a particularly unpleasant schism following the publication of Richards’s acclaimed autobiography Life, in 2010, with its disparaging remarks about Jagger. For a while, it seemed touch and go whether the Stones would ever play together again. But the acclaim afforded their shows since getting back on the road in 2012 seems to have helped thaw relationships.

“Mick and I live off the fire between us,” says Richards, who is effusively warm about all of his band mates. “We were made for each other. It’s like putting on an old glove, man, you know.” They don’t hang out much between engagements. “We can stay away from each other, happily, for months. But it’s the gaps in between that make it more interesting. You come back fresher. When we do get together, we rehearse very hard, we soak ourselves in it.”



I have seen the Stones four times in recent years, and each show has been extraordinary, hitting the kind of sinuous heights that first established their claim to be the world’s greatest rock and roll band. When I ask if the relative sobriety of Richards and fellow guitarist Ronnie Wood has contributed to sharpened playing, Richards guffaws. “Well… all things are relative! Insobriety produced some amazing stuff, too!”

Richards’s personal favourite Stones period (“God, that’s hard, being asked to choose. That’s really like cutting the babies in half!”) is 1968-72. “Beggars Banquet, Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers, Exile… we really hit the spot.”

That, of course, was also a period when Richards was becoming increasingly addicted to hard drugs, gaining a reputation as the most elegantly wasted human being on earth. The Stones in the Seventies ruled the roost during rock’s most notorious period of conspicuous debauchery. In the wake of the #MeToo movement shining a harsh light on the treatment of women in the entertainment industry, I wonder if Richards has any qualms about past behaviour. “You’d have to ask the ladies,” says Richards. “I’ve had no complaints.”

In fact, Richards has always been a bit of a one-woman man. He was with model and actress Anita Pallenberg for over 10 years (they have a son and daughter) and has been married to former model Patti Hansen for 34 years (they have two daughters). Pallenberg, one of the great loves of his life, died last year. “Miss her dearly,” he says, momentarily sombre, before suddenly laughing again. “Long may she not rest in peace, because she hates peace!”



With so many deaths and retirements among his contemporaries, it seems that the rock and roll era is coming to an end. Young guitar bands find it hard to thrive in the charts. Gibson guitar manufacturers were recently revealed to be on the verge of bankruptcy.

Richards remains optimistic, though. “I don’t think eras end, they sort of fold and meld into each other. If rock and roll is at an end, when was the beginning? It’s part of the blues, it’s built into the musical framework of the world. If we’re talking about fashion and all the other things, everything was rock for a while – you can’t expect that to go on forever. But we’ll see. We’re going to be playing to several million people in the coming months, so I wouldn’t call that dead.”

Richards doesn’t particularly keep up with new music (“Even as a kid, I never listened to what was pop, was always listening to old stuff”) but admires Lady Gaga, comparing her to Barbra Streisand, and Ed Sheeran, of whom he says: “Nice voice, nice songs.”



As for his views on his contemporaries, Quincy Jones recently disparaged the musicianship of the Beatles, the Stones’ great Sixties rivals, but Richards is not persuaded. “It was their songwriting which was the real apex of what they did, rather than their musicianship, which was definitely adequate,” he laughs, perhaps aware he is damning with faint praise. “Their vocal harmonies were very strong. Some very interesting stuff went on there. So without pooh-poohing our Quincy, leave Beatles alone, you know.”

Richards famously reads a lot of history books and listens to the blues, jazz and classical music. Does he keep up with politics and current affairs? “Well, it’s very difficult not to these days. They’ve got a president here that’s pretty funny. And I don’t mean ha ha.” Trump used a Rolling Stones song, You Can’t Always Get What You Want, on his campaign trail, continuing to walk out to it even after the Stones asked him to desist. “That’s about the level of the guy’s manners,” notes Richards, disparagingly.

Although Jagger was knighted in 2003, Richards has no expectations of joining him on the honours list. “My views are well known to the people that dole them out.” He denies there is anything malicious in his mockery of Sir Mick (and, for that matter, Sir Elton, Sir Paul, Sir Rod, Sir Cliff, Sir Tom and Sir Ray), though can’t resist adding, “I think it’s all a bit archaic. I thought Sirs were for doing some brave deed in battle, not singing songs.”



You get the sense that Richards really wants to be diplomatically positive about Jagger but is constantly undermined by an instinct for mischief. He praises Jagger’s strenuous approach to septuagenarian fitness but then adds, “I worry about his joints from all that jogging, man. But he gets along all right.” On his own fitness routine, he quips: “Well, I don’t like routines. If I find I’ve got one, I deliberately fall out of it.”

Despite all indications to the contrary, Richards and the Stones won’t go on forever. But he’s clearly determined to enjoy it while it lasts. “I do think the further along the line you go, and you realise you are enjoying it, you put more into it. Just the fact that we’re still honing it down, it’s a blast.”

He expects to keep playing until he drops and insists he doesn’t worry about when that day might come. “I never think about it. Never. I know loads of other people worry about it, and I let them concern themselves with it. Me, I’ll wait for it to happen.”

[www.telegraph.co.uk]


Thanks for putting this interview on here Johnny thumbs up

Shame that the woven in story about Keith apologizing to Mick has detracted what is a great exiting funny and intelligent as always interview from Keith.

Damn his mind is razor sharp when drunk but sober here he really is an interesting person to interview. I just wish i could ask him a few questions, got a couple good ones that never get asked to Keith. These journalist lack imagination, always asking the same questions, and when they do ask a good question it fails to penetrate for some reason. Perhaps Keith likes to keep anything personal to himself unless of course he wants to tell.

I think the whole thing about suggesting Mick having the snip it a good publicity stunt, Keith has always been good at getting a headline story in the press when he wants to, baring in mind tickets go on sale tomorrow haha.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2018-03-02 00:45 by keithsman.

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