Keith Richards on catching COVID: ‘I’m impervious ... like Donald Trump’


(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

By MIKAEL WOOD POP MUSIC CRITIC
OCT. 29, 2020

Keith Richards has been in the rock ’n’ roll business long enough to recognize hype.

On the phone the other day from a recording studio in New York, the 76-year-old Rolling Stones guitarist recalled the formation of a side project, the X-Pensive Winos, as a “pivotal moment” in his half-century-and-then-some career. Then he interrupted himself, chuckling in his signature pirate-like rasp.

“Hmm, pivotal? I’m not so sure,” he said. “But it was an important part of the development of … whatever.”

Richards has had time this year to ponder his journey while at home in Connecticut, where he rode out much of quarantine — “just ducking and diving, you know?” — with his wife, Patti Hansen, and their two adult daughters.

“It’s sort of interesting in that it ain’t happened to nobody before in the history of this planet,” he said of the COVID-19 pandemic. “Weren’t we the lucky ones?”

Yet he’s been thinking about the Winos in particular ahead of the deluxe Nov. 13 reissue of “Live at the Hollywood Palladium,” an oft-bootlegged concert set recorded in 1988. The Winos came together during what Richards has referred to as World War III in the Stones: the period between 1986’s “Dirty Work” and 1989’s “Steel Wheels” when Richards and Mick Jagger were famously fighting over the band’s direction.

Miffed that Jagger decided to make a solo album instead of touring behind “Dirty Work,” Richards cut his own solo record, “Talk Is Cheap,” then hit the road with the Winos, which convened a wrecking crew of top-notch players: drummer Steve Jordan, guitarist Waddy Wachtel, bassist Charley Drayton, keyboardist Ivan Neville, singer Sarah Dash and saxophonist Bobby Keys.

“Live at the Hollywood Palladium” captures the next-to-last gig of a brief U.S. tour and features impeccably ragged renditions of every song from “Talk Is Cheap” — including “You Don’t Move Me,” widely understood as a Jagger diss track — along with assorted Stones tunes such as “Happy” and “Before They Make Me Run.”

As Richards acknowledges, the music won’t make you forget about the Rolling Stones. Yet it does reveal the guitarist expanding his vocabulary with heavy grooves from funk and R&B; one highlight from the live album is a slow-and-low “Make No Mistake” that showcases sultry duet vocals by Dash, known for her work with Patti LaBelle.

“The last thing we wanted the Winos to sound like was a Stones cover band,” Jordan said in a separate phone call. And in an era when rock tours were super-sizing with ever flashier production tricks, “Hollywood Palladium” documents a sweaty night that was “just about the playing,” as the drummer put it.

“No trampolines, no laser lights,” he said.

This year the Stones were forced to call off just such a high-tech outing due to the pandemic. But after releasing a new single, the lockdown-minded “Living in a Ghost Town,” in April, the band has been slowly ramping up remote work on a new studio album, its first of original songs since “A Bigger Bang” in 2005. Richards, who’s been writing in New York with Jordan and producer Don Was, said it’s been “a bit of a relief to just do what you do.”

“I was expecting to be on the road,” he said. “You get all geared up for that, then — nope. So it’s like energy transference.”

What’s the priority for the Stones: resuming the tour or making the album?
I think at the moment it probably has to be getting a record done, because I don’t see the possibility of people getting together in crowds in the foreseeable months. So I think we work on the record. We’re just trying to figure out how and when — the end of this year or January?

The reaction to “Ghost Town” was strong. The song went top 5 on Billboard’s rock chart.
It was a shot in the dark. We’d already recorded it almost a year before the pandemic, and we had it in the can along with several other tracks that we were working on. Eerily prophetic.

Your old friend Marianne Faithfull contracted COVID. Do you know how she’s doing?
Marianne, my babe. She’s good. You think I’m gonna be the one with the roaches? That’s Marianne. Made of stern stuff, that woman.

Have you feared catching it yourself?
I’m impervious. I’m like Donald Trump — immune [laughs]. Note the hollow laugh.

How closely have you been following the election?
Politics — I’ve seen too much of it to take much notice. Things can get a little hairy, but you’re talking to the exiles on Main Street, man. We got thrown out of our own country for being too successful. Any nutty thing you can dream up, there it is. It’s just another period now.

Brian Wilson and Mike Love of the Beach Boys have been bickering over Love’s support of Trump. Did the Stones ever fight about politics?
We have no political differences because we’re basically apolitical. We’re just making music; we don’t give a s— about the rest of the world. And I’m English and I’m living in America, so I’m not gonna squeak hardly. I’ll just squeak a little.

Are you a U.S. citizen?
Get the f— out of here. I have a passport that says U.K. But I think globally.

A citizen of the world.
They don’t have a passport for it yet.

So, the X-Pensive Winos. How’d you explain the concept when you called guys to ask them to be in the band?
We don’t do concepts; we don’t have plans. All we need is enthusiasm, and the rest will come.

If you were forming the band today, would you use the same name?
It was the X-Pensive Winos because they drank a whole crate of Lafite Rothschild that was sent to me. I had to leave ’em alone for one day, came back to the sessions and the whole g— case is gone. But I’d have given them another crate just to get the name.

At the top of the Palladium recording, you describe the stage as one you’ve been thrown off many times. Are you referring to when Chuck Berry booted you from playing with him in 1972?
Probably. But I only remember Chuck giving me a black eye in a dressing room — wasn’t onstage exactly. I was in Chuck’s dressing room — he’d gone out to deal with some business — and his guitar case was open. I just wanted to have a look, see what he was playing those days. I picked it up, he walked back in, saw me touching his guitar and biffed me. Quite rightly, I thought — ax players don’t do that to each other.

Why doesn’t a guitarist want somebody else to touch his guitar?
I don’t give a s— who touches mine, quite honestly. But some guys get fussy. Chuck was like that about many things, not just his guitar.

Eddie Van Halen died this month. Do you remember when Van Halen opened for the Stones in Florida in 1981?
I don’t remember a thing about Van Halen in those days. I appreciated the work later on and everything, but I’m not a virtuoso soloist. People that think the guitar player has to wail away somewhere on the top end — no. I’m a guitarist — I play chords, I play rhythm. I use the guitar to project a song. I’ve never been out there, like, Wally’s Whistling Saw, and everybody’s supposed to be impressed. I’m not impressed by that kind of guitar playing. You want to listen to a guitar player, listen to [Andrés] Segovia, for Christ’s sake. Or Django Reinhardt. The rock players, they’re good and they’ve all got their little thing going. But it’s never been my bag.

Do you think about playing in the Stones differently from playing in the Winos?
I just play Keith Richards. What I do appreciate is everyone that I’ve played with — from Brian Jones to Mick Taylor, Ronnie Wood, Waddy Wachtel and loads of others in between — how sympathetic they are to me. One guitar player don’t make it for me — I need two or three guitars weaving in and out of each other. That’s what gets me off. I’m not interested in listening to solos or anything like that. I’ve heard it all before, and it’s a variation on a g—oddamn theme. What interests me is how two guitar players can play together — and how, with a bit of magic, they can sound like 15. It’s cheap at half the price.

[www.latimes.com]

A bit lame, his fear of saying anything political. What about some solidarity with the black artists he loves so much? Or women? It's easy you're a citizen of the world if you have enough money to close your eyes to other people's misery. Ostriche of the world, more like.

I like his lack of interest in soloists. What is "Wally’s Whistling Saw", by the way?

And speaking of the X-pensive winos, what I would like to know is: when is his next solo album coming out?

Why doesn’t a guitarist want somebody else to touch his guitar?
"I don’t give a s— who touches mine, quite honestly"





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2020-10-31 15:42 by KRiffhard.

Quote
KRiffhard
Why doesn’t a guitarist want somebody else to touch his guitar?
"I don’t give a s— who touches mine, quite honestly"

Think of somebody wanting to drive your girlfriend somewhere with your car.

Keith is a conservative and so is Patti, he just knows better than to say it out loud. Funny thing is if Biden wins the taxes for the top earners will be near what they were when the Stones had to bail England.
Mick is a more vocal liberal or at least he thinks he is because its hip but he too is pretty damm conservative with his business.

He sounded a little grouchy to me, but understandable with all that's happening in the world right now,

Great response though: "We don’t do concepts; we don’t have plans. All we need is enthusiasm, and the rest will come."

Can't wait for the album!

I would guess that Keith is fairly libertarian, outside the definition of modern conservative and liberals.
Also much more concerned with individuals and their relationships than macro politics. And completely uninterested in anybody's bullshit partisan politics. I don't think you can be an artist and political.

Quote
longlongwinter
Keith is a conservative and so is Patti, he just knows better than to say it out loud. Funny thing is if Biden wins the taxes for the top earners will be near what they were when the Stones had to bail England.
Mick is a more vocal liberal or at least he thinks he is because its hip but he too is pretty damm conservative with his business.

Lol. No.
Y'all need to just stop with this "what Keith really thinks" nonsense.
Keith says what he thinks.

Rolling Stone Keith Richards says America has to ‘get rid’ of Donald Trump
[www.cnbc.com]

Keith is awesome, looks great these days and thank goodness his retirement thoughts a few years ago were not real. Still “just making music...”

I read this interview in the Chicago Tribune late last night and was going to post it today, but looking now I see it says "By Mikael Wood, Los Angeles Times, Tribune News Service"

What struck me first was this:

LA Times:What’s the priority for the Stones: resuming the tour or making the album?

Keith: I think at the moment it probably has to be getting a record done, because I don’t see the possibility of people getting together in crowds in the foreseeable months.
So I think we work on the record. We’re just trying to figure out how and when — the end of this year or January?


Doesn't sound good regarding rescheduling any tour, but that's not a surprise - Keith being realistic as always.
As for the album, sounds like he's drifted back to fantasy land when talking about getting a record done.
Based on several comments he's made the last few years - "sounds good", "almost done", "working on it",
anything he says about a new album should be taken with a grain of salt.

Sad to hear about Marianne Faithfull getting the coronavirus - I don't recall reading about that before.

As for Keith's political views, he might be "democrat" at heart (after all, Bill and Hillary Clinton are friends of his),
but doubt he would side with any of the current horrible candidates for this upcoming election - both are corrupt clowns.

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

Someone who gets it. Nothing more annoying than a non American yapping.

"We have no political differences because we’re basically apolitical. We’re just making music; we don’t give a s— about the rest of the world. And I’m English and I’m living in America, so I’m not gonna squeak hardly. I’ll just squeak a little"

More imaginary thoughts about how Keith would think or vote

Serious question.
Do y'all hear voices at any other times?

Quote
longlongwinter
Keith is a conservative and so is Patti, he just knows better than to say it out loud. Funny thing is if Biden wins the taxes for the top earners will be near what they were when the Stones had to bail England.
Mick is a more vocal liberal or at least he thinks he is because its hip but he too is pretty damm conservative with his business.

Uh, the top tax rate will not be near what Britain had. Biden has proposed raising it from 37 to 39.6%. The state rate in Connecticut is 6.99%. That would total to under 47%. It was around 90% in Britain in the 1960's.

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MisterDDDD

Rolling Stone Keith Richards says America has to ‘get rid’ of Donald Trump
[www.cnbc.com]

Doesn't make you a Democrat. Let's just take him at his word -- apolitical -- and leave it at that.

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wonderboy

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MisterDDDD

Rolling Stone Keith Richards says America has to ‘get rid’ of Donald Trump
[www.cnbc.com]

Doesn't make you a Democrat. Let's just take him at his word -- apolitical -- and leave it at that.

That article is over two years old - Keith might have jumped on the Trump bandwagon since then (jk) considering the alternative might be much worse.
And now he simply says he's "apolitical" - quite a contrast to what he was saying back then. Sounds to me he's not taking sides as both choices are miserable.

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



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2020-10-31 21:35 by Hairball.

You cannot be apolitical. If you don't care about politics it's political too.

Quote
Hairball

That article is over two years old - Keith might have jumped on the Trump bandwagon since then (jk) considering the alternative might be much worse.
And now he simply says he's "apolitical" - quite a contrast to what he was saying back then. Sounds to me he's not taking sides as both choices are miserable.

More of what Keith is really or likely thinking.
It's like a gift.

Just a hunch as there are many out there who don't want to choose the lesser of two evils. After all, evil is evil.

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

Quote
MisterDDDD

Quote
longlongwinter
Keith is a conservative and so is Patti, he just knows better than to say it out loud. Funny thing is if Biden wins the taxes for the top earners will be near what they were when the Stones had to bail England.
Mick is a more vocal liberal or at least he thinks he is because its hip but he too is pretty damm conservative with his business.

Lol. No.
Y'all need to just stop with this "what Keith really thinks" nonsense.
Keith says what he thinks.

Rolling Stone Keith Richards says America has to ‘get rid’ of Donald Trump
[www.cnbc.com]

What worries me more is that Keith dislikes synthesizers. He must have been living on the dark side of the moon.

Keith is just a Bernie type of guy and that‘s why he doesn‘t want to share his views on the two idiots now ;-)

Thanks for posting, bye bye johnny!

There’s some great interplay between Keith and Taylor in Brussels like Midnight Rambler and You Can’t Always Get What You Want.On the latter I listened to the song without drums and vocals and was amazed how much more I can hear Keith playing .Its really powerful and hypnotic at the same time.I wonder Keith listened to Brussels on the new GHS deluxe

Quote
Taylor1
There’s some great interplay between Keith and Taylor in Brussels like Midnight Rambler and You Can’t Always Get What You Want.On the latter I listened to the song without drums and vocals and was amazed how much more I can hear Keith playing .Its really powerful and hypnotic at the same time.I wonder Keith listened to Brussels on the new GHS deluxe

He talks about it here. This is from when it was released for the first time.

[youtu.be]

Quote
bye bye johnny

Eddie Van Halen died this month. Do you remember when Van Halen opened for the Stones in Florida in 1981?
I don’t remember a thing about Van Halen in those days. I appreciated the work later on and everything, but I’m not a virtuoso soloist. People that think the guitar player has to wail away somewhere on the top end — no. I’m a guitarist — I play chords, I play rhythm. I use the guitar to project a song. I’ve never been out there, like, Wally’s Whistling Saw, and everybody’s supposed to be impressed. I’m not impressed by that kind of guitar playing. You want to listen to a guitar player, listen to [Andrés] Segovia, for Christ’s sake. Or Django Reinhardt. The rock players, they’re good and they’ve all got their little thing going. But it’s never been my bag.

Keith has mellowed with age. Roughly 25 years ago he would have said about EVH :

"nah I don't give a sh!t about w@nkers who jerk the neck of their guitar off. Plus obviously the guy couldn't handle his drug intake so fu@k him! HA HA HA!"



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2020-11-01 19:16 by dcba.

Keith understands the business of show, and probably is more interested in not alienating Stones than he is on taking a strong political stand. It's just that politics are taking on an outsize importance right at the moment, for obvious reasons.

There have been things written here recently that have bothered me greatly, yet I'm trying not to respond to them and to obey BV's rules. But that is challenging when

1. It is currently a politically charged time
2. Political topics are being raised in the interviews being discussed
3. The new music arguably has political themes

I want to stay focused on the new album.

I can't get the 50th anniversary coverage on morning shows out of my head. It is almost impossible for me to envision the Stones passing up that free publicity of the 60th, and how else better to mark the anniversary than with a great new record? Even if shows were possible, that's not rare anymore.

I'd love for them to prove me wrong and release it this year or next year! But I don't see that as likely.

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MAF
You cannot be apolitical. If you don't care about politics it's political too.

That makes sense. So much sense that “apolitical” is a legitimate word. Thanks, Webster.

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bam

Quote
longlongwinter
Keith is a conservative and so is Patti, he just knows better than to say it out loud. Funny thing is if Biden wins the taxes for the top earners will be near what they were when the Stones had to bail England.
Mick is a more vocal liberal or at least he thinks he is because its hip but he too is pretty damm conservative with his business.

Uh, the top tax rate will not be near what Britain had. Biden has proposed raising it from 37 to 39.6%. The state rate in Connecticut is 6.99%. That would total to under 47%. It was around 90% in Britain in the 1960's.

Also, these are marginal tax rates, meaning that only income above a certain level is taxed at the higher rate. Even if the top rate were raised, he wouldn't be paying it on all his income.

Quote
TheflyingDutchman

Quote
MisterDDDD

Quote
longlongwinter
Keith is a conservative and so is Patti, he just knows better than to say it out loud. Funny thing is if Biden wins the taxes for the top earners will be near what they were when the Stones had to bail England.
Mick is a more vocal liberal or at least he thinks he is because its hip but he too is pretty damm conservative with his business.

Lol. No.
Y'all need to just stop with this "what Keith really thinks" nonsense.
Keith says what he thinks.

Rolling Stone Keith Richards says America has to ‘get rid’ of Donald Trump
[www.cnbc.com]

What worries me more is that Keith dislikes synthesizers. He must have been living on the dark side of the moon.

You sure about that? Like with others of his instruments, he prefers them vintage





[www.youtube.com]