RICHARDS: STONES BARELY IN TOUCH
Keith Richards says he’s rarely in touch with the other members of the Rolling Stones when they’re not working. Richards says the band barely talk to each other.
“Not a lot really, probably once a year. A few faxes, notes here and there. If you’re stuck on the road for two and a half years together you’ve said just about everything you’ve got to say to each other. Faxes are as far as I get, then you can do drawings — you can express yourself. It’s like getting a letter. I never need to be in touch with people that immediately. I really despise gossip. I hate phones. I have nothing to do with them. I don’t even have a mobile phone.”
He says that when he’s not working with the band or on a solo project, he takes it as easy as possible: “I tell you what I do when I’m not working with the Stones, I kick back, baby. Go get a tan, lie on the beach. Wait for the tour to wear off.”
Richards, a longtime heavy smoker, spoke out against Britain’s indoor smoking ban: “It’s a drag because you’ve got to freeze your balls off to light a cigarette, you’ve got to go outside. It’s draconian — socially, politically-correct bull****. That’s what it is. They’ll get over it. It’s like prohibition, they tried to stop booze once. Ha, look what happened. It ruined America.”
Richards is promoting the Stones’ new Martin Scorsese-directed concert film Shine A Light, which opens nationally tomorrow (Friday, April 4th).
Out now is the soundtrack to Shine A Light which is available in both single and double disc configurations. Both sets feature such Stones classics as “Jumping Jack Flash,” “All Down The Line,” “Loving Cup” with Jack White, “As Tears Go By,” “Some Girls,” “Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me),” “Far Away Eyes,” “You Got The Silver,” “Connection,” “Sympathy For The Devil,” “Live With Me” with Christina Aguilera, “Start Me Up,” “Brown Sugar,” and others.