Keith Richards on reuniting the Rolling Stones and going so…

September 26, 2024 admin Uncategorized 0

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

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.”

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.”

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.”

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