Tumbling Dice

March 30, 2008 2:49 PM

He laughs and leaves. I sit alone in the room, staring at the walls, just about every inch of which is covered with more memorabilia: a photo of him with Lennon, a photo of the Beatles circa 1965, a photo of Muddy Waters.... After maybe five minutes, Richards wanders back into the room, laughing. “Sorry, mate,” he says. “I got lost. I don’t come here often!”]... Why do you think some people live and some die..? ...there’s that line between recklessness and stupidity, and you— "No, you bring up a good point...."
posted by Huplescat (21 comments total)

OK, the FPP excerpts weren't that intriguing (sorry, mate!), but that's a great interview. I especially liked him giving props to Charlie and Ian for the band's success.
posted by dhartung at 3:02 PM on March 30, 2008

Enjoyed that. Agreed that the excerpt here isn't the best part. Best comes several screens in, I think -- what I pain that it's broken up into so many pieces.
posted by LobsterMitten at 3:24 PM on March 30, 2008

If the tags don't give it away, it's a Keith Richards interview.
posted by Pronoiac at 3:29 PM on March 30, 2008

Awesome. I once had a dream -- no lie -- in which Keith Richards was the Grim Reaper, and I avoided going on to meet my maker by offering him a pack of Camels, which we shared in a porch swing at my parents' house.

Choice quotes:

Richards considers the blade for a moment, in silence, then snaps the knife closed and tucks it back into his waistband and explains, “I use it to keep me pants up, because I’ve been losing weight, baby.”
[...]
Q: The legendary blood transfusions?
A: That’s all bullshit. Bullshit. I put that out because I was gonna have to clean up from all the dope. There’s nothing like legend.
Q: Like your immune system—legendary.
A: It’s above average, yes.
posted by scody at 3:33 PM on March 30, 2008

Also, his thoughts on cheese are fascinating, all things considered.
posted by scody at 3:35 PM on March 30, 2008

So the key to living forever is massive quantities of booze and drugs but no cheese.

Of course, you wind up looking like an Egyptian mummy that someone dropped in tar.
posted by Astro Zombie at 3:38 PM on March 30, 2008

I find nothing more boring than the everlasting efforts to maintain the celebrity of these dinosaurs, but one thing I don't get is why people talk about how horrible Keith Richards looks. The man is 64 years old, not an ounce of fat on him, wiry and even sort of muscular, and if anything he (like Iggy Pop, who is even more of a super-fit freak of nature) are examples either of how drugs and cigs and all those bad things can keep you young-ish, hip and SKINNY to old age... or else, as I very much suspect, Keith (and Mick though that's no secret) are really EXTREMELY healthy, personal-trainer-toned poseurs whose druggy lifestyles are nothing but fronts.

And yeah, I think exactly the same thing about Amy Winehouse. Real addicts do their thing in the background. Amy probably has the same personal trainer as Keith does- look at her fucking abs.
posted by ethnomethodologist at 3:56 PM on March 30, 2008

That was an incredibly charming interview. I've never been a big Stones fan, I don't know the mythology or anything - but he seems to have made a significant bit of peace with himself and how he lives his life. I came away pretty inspired. He's quite a bit deeper than I would have assumed for someone who has lived their life for so long in the public eye.
posted by The Light Fantastic at 4:30 PM on March 30, 2008 [1 favorite]

I'm trying to wrap my head around the image of Keef on a StairMaster.
posted by Dizzy at 4:31 PM on March 30, 2008

The best part of the interview comes at the exact half-way mark, where it is revealed, entirely accidentally, that Richards is, in fact, carrying a knife. And then, that covered, the conversation continues as before.
posted by roombythelake at 4:31 PM on March 30, 2008

If you check out the record of the Stones’ kids—my kids, Mick’s kids—they’re pretty stable cats.

Yes! Take THAT middle America!
posted by R. Mutt at 5:35 PM on March 30, 2008

ethnomethodologist: I find nothing more boring than the everlasting efforts to maintain the celebrity of these dinosaurs, but one thing I don't get is why people talk about how horrible Keith Richards looks.

Google Image Search hit #1 for keith richards

I've heard from an acquaintance that in person, up close, Mick looks as rough as Keith does in pictures, & Keith looks that much worse.
posted by Pronoiac at 6:36 PM on March 30, 2008

That's a great shot of him on the front page of the interview. THAT'S Keith Richards, I don't care how old or ugly he is now or ever gets. That's the image of himself I bet he has in his own mind's eye, so that's the image of him I will have, too.
posted by yhbc at 6:56 PM on March 30, 2008

There's some good stuff on his website - here's a video clip of him talking about the "guitar as weapon" incident.
posted by davebush at 7:39 PM on March 30, 2008

Great interview. I wasn't expecting him to sound so...Buddhist.
posted by cazoo at 8:45 PM on March 30, 2008

Wow... this is a great document. I must admit I'm even now somewhat starstruck by the Stones mystique. The vision that they manifested in the early 70s was a masterstroke. This interview reads like I'm sitting with Keith and sharing a joint. He's rhapsodic, honest... even coherent in turns. Thank you so much for posting this.
posted by squirrel at 9:15 PM on March 30, 2008

I guess that’s my declension.

keefus
keefi
keefo
keefum
keefo
keefi
keeforum
keefis
keefos
keefis
posted by pracowity at 11:36 PM on March 30, 2008

I didn't know Keef was so funny. Thanks!
posted by not_on_display at 4:53 AM on March 31, 2008

Great interview. I always like to think the Keith Richards view of the world is encapsulated in the song "That Feel" he and Tom Waits wrote that comes at the end of Bone Machine, how you can throw it out in the rain and whip it like a dog or try to pawn it but you can't lose that feel.

I got all choked up at the part where his mom said on her death bed that he was out of tune.

A couple of years ago, he was on the cover of Rolling Stone and I loved that he showed his whole wrinkly self--young'ns don't like to think about one day looking like that. He looks good, he's old.
posted by frances1972 at 9:21 AM on March 31, 2008

“That’s not a gun you’re carrying, is it?” I ask. Keith pauses. “This?” he says, reaching for the handle. “Nah, this is a knife.” At which point he pulls it from his waistband, flips it open, and reveals a shiny blade five inches long. Richards considers the blade for a moment, in silence, then snaps the knife closed and tucks it back into his waistband and explains, “I use it to keep me pants up, because I’ve been losing weight, baby.”
posted by damn dirty ape at 6:50 PM on March 31, 2008

We’re guys who’ve not really taken advantage of what we could have. Or what we could have done. It’s always been that it’s just too obvious. [laughs] I mean, the odd groupie here and there. Which we actually used to look upon as, uh, gas stations.… “Uh, we’re in Cincinnati, so…we need to fill ’er up a little.” And the other thing about groupies, it wasn’t just boinky-boinky. They used to take care of you. They used to rub Vicks on your chest if you had a cold. Sometimes you’d never do anything. Sometimes they were just…nasty. [laughs] Get my drift? [laughs]
posted by Poolio at 5:50 AM on April 1, 2008