Keith Richards on Keith Richards by Sean Egan

Author:Sean Egan [Egan, Sean]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-78323-197-3
Publisher: Omnibus Press
Published: 2014-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

8 |

THE ROCK SURVIVOR

ROBIN EGGAR | 1983

Robin Eggar’s 1983 chat with Richards was for the Daily Mirror. That this is a UK tabloid newspaper perhaps explains why the interview is so revealing about things that often get short shrift in the copy of music press journalists eager to assert Richards’s edgy credentials, namely love and family.

He has old, old eyes. They have enjoyed great triumphs and indulged in worse squalor. They have seen everything, done everything, travelled to hell and back … and survived.

Keith Richards is just a few weeks short of his fortieth birthday. The haggard face is being held back from collapse by force of will.

He could be just another pathetic has-been old pop star junkie.

He chain smokes and tipples Jack Daniels as if it were tea. His voice is slurred, his thought processes appear to ramble.

He shows all the signs of the ex-drug addict searching fruitlessly to replace the one great love of his life—heroin.

But Keith Richards does have replacement loves. He has his band, the Rolling Stones; his fiancee, American model Patti Hansen, his parents and his children.

He also has a throaty, infectious laugh and a caustic wit which quickly slices through his apparent mumblings.

Keith Richards is very much more alive than he has been for the last 15 years.

He has survived everything twenty years at the top of the rock ’n’ roll tree can throw at him. And he’s proud of it.

Keith says: “I’ve never regretted going through heroin—especially coming out of it. It made me what I am today.

“I’ve been through the furnace and out the other side.

“Whether you’ve got millions or whether you’ve got nothing heroin is the great equaliser.

“I used to have to go down to Manhattan’s lower East Side to score. It’s as bad as it can be down there. I’d be carrying a shooter in my pocket.

“Nothing mattered, except getting the dope.

“You only get high the first few times, after that you just maintain the habit.

“The money, the whole way of life you go through to feed it, is so time-consuming and boring.

“But the money wasn’t a waste. It was a necessity.

“I’m glad I got out of it,” says Richards, draining his whisky glass. “Some of my best friends didn’t. Some never will.”

The six years since the Mounties entered his Toronto hotel room and arrested him on drugs charges have seen other crucial changes in Keith’s lifestyle.

He split with his long-time girlfriend—and the mother of his two children—Anita Pallenberg.

The Rolling Stone who has always refused to gather any marital moss is finally getting married.

“I am going to marry Patti Hansen,” he smiles mischievously, “But we’ve had Mick and Jerry up to here, so I want to let them get it over with first.

“I’ve only just had the engagement ring made. I’m doing this properly. I’m only doing it once. I’m really old-fashioned that way.

“I presented the ring on bended knee a month ago, in Paris at the Ritz hotel. It was fairly romantic, I can make anywhere romantic.

“Patti and I will have kids eventually.

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