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Excerpts from a phenomenally entertaining interview with Keith Richards in Mens Style.

Original hippies, how old does this make you feel? Keef gets his British senior citizens free bus pass :

“Do you know that I actually have a bus pass? In England? I’ve reached the age where I am given a free bus pass. [laughs] I feel like going to England right now and riding every bus I can get! [pause] There’s a certain thing about growing old, which is I’m still getting used to it. It’s a whole new experience.”

Keef on growing up :

“When I was younger, I said, “If I live to 30, I’ll shoot myself.” You reach 30 and put the gun away. It’s a fascinating process, just growing up.”

Keef on the prosecution, or more accurately, persecution, of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones for drug-taking in the late 1960s and early 1970s :

“I never saw myself being a target for the system. And suddenly you realize you are. It never occurred to me that just because I did a little of this [he pretends he’s injecting his arm] or took a little of that [he mimes a toke], that I was gonna get this heat, you know? And then I realized I’d been targeted. And then your mind takes on other things. I still look out the window to see if there are any unmarked cars. [laughs] It puts fear in you. Suddenly, you feel like a criminal.

“(John Lennon) felt he was hunted. That it was high-profile hunting. And then you realize that it doesn’t really matter if you’re doing it or not. They’ll shove it in your pocket. And you think, It’s not a game now. This isn’t just rock ’n’ roll. They’re afraid of you. And that was the thing that intrigued me. They’re actually frightened. I mean, I grew up in the British Empire and bop-bop-bop God Save the Queen, and you realize this whole edifice actually thinks you’re a threat to it? And you realize how paranoid they must be that if they get rid of a guitar player or two, everything’s gonna be cool in the empire? All they did was illustrate their fragility.”

Keef on the last days of his mother, who didn’t let cancer stop her from taking the piss out of her son :

“We knew me mum was going, and so my daughter Angela says, “Dad, take the guitar out. Play to her. Go into her room.” So I went up there and sat on the hospital bed and played my best. And she’s out on morphine, anyway, unconscious. And I played the old songs, the old dance-hall songs. The next morning, she came out of her sleep for a moment, and my daughter was there and asked her, “Did you hear Daddy play for you last night?” And me mum says, “Yeah, he was out of tune.”

Keef on “going to the edge” but not finding anything there :

“I’ve been there a few times. No, my life—at least for me—didn’t flash before my eyes. It was more like what could’ve been. At the same time, I had this weird perception that—I mean, I don’t know if it’s sheer cowardice or not, but you leave the body. And you think, Oh, my God, I’m dead. And suddenly you can watch it quite dispassionately and objectively from twelve, fifteen feet above. And I once crashed a car, a convertible. Anita was with me. No seat belts—she was seven months pregnant. Three tons of car. A convertible. Rolled over three times. After the first roll, I was out of the car, watching. My only recollection of the whole thing is looking down very cold-bloodedly.”

Keef on Beatles Vs Stones :

Q: Do you think the Beatles are overrated?
A: Oh, definitely. So are we.

Q : Why?
A : In that moment, the Beatles… But how can you—I mean yes. I’ll say yes. As a musician, yes. As a breath of fresh air and an injection of life into society, no, they were certainly not. They were exactly what was needed. It was a great enema.

Q : What does that make you guys?
A : A great toilet bowl. [laughs]

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