What would Keith Richards do_ - Jessica Pallington West [38]
“I wouldn’t have written ‘Coming Down Again’ without that. I’m this millionaire rock star, but I’m in the gutter with these other sniveling people. It kept me in touch with the street, at the lowest level."
“Smack. It’s a real leveler. I’m a superstar, but when I want the stuff, baby, I’m down on the ground with the rest of them. But at the same time, I can’t say I regret going there."
“On one hand, they say the Rolling Stones and rock musicians in general are corrupting the kids, but if they just left us alone and didn’t come looking for drugs, then nobody would know if we had a drug problem or not."
“I don’t regret zooming into the dope thing for so long. It was an experiment that went on too long, but in a way that kept my feet on the street when I could have just become some brat-ass, rich rock ’n’ roll superstar bullshit and done myself in another way. I said, ‘No, I want to put my foot in a deep puddle, because I don’t want to hang out up there in that stratosphere with the Maharishi and Mick and Paul McCartney.’ It was almost a deliberate attempt out of it. I almost forced myself into that in order to counterbalance this superstar shit that was going on around us. It was almost a deliberate sort of attempt to get out of it. Like letting the broken tooth hang for five years—deliberate anti!"
“Music and drugs—I don’t really correlate one thing with the other. One is what you’re putting out and the other is what you’re putting in."
“It’s really difficult to kick it. But it ain’t impossible. It’s not like getting your leg blown off."
“You can sit twenty people around this desk, give them each five whiskies, and see how differently it affects these people. Some will be under the table, two will be completely sober, and another might be slightly tipsy."
“Narcotics are passed from one generation of musicians to the next."
“I was sort of into De Quincey’s opium eaters a century too late."
“For at least five years, undoubtedly, I was the weak link in the chain."
“The only reason methadone’s such a big deal in America is because a lot of people are making millions on it."
“Look at the astronauts. They’re completely chemically regulated from the minute they start that thing until they come down."
“Somebody going into the last stages of the colors of the rainbow … That’s really a drag."
“When a rock star dies, it’s got a very romantic tinge to it, but actually it’s very sordid."
“You know, during World War II the number of junkies in America dropped to almost zero because they just policed the fucking ports properly. Which means they can do it if they want to, if they really wanted to stop it. But you can make more money out of heroin than you can out of anything else."
“When I listen to what I did under the influence—ten years of work—I don’t think it either enhanced or impaired me. It didn’t have that much to do with it. Some guys think dope is great for their music. Bullshit! I took drugs because I wanted to hide."
“The only recurring dreams I can remember are all on cold turkey, and it was always that the dope was hidden behind the wallpaper. And in the morning, you’d wake up and see fingernail marks where you’d actually tried to do something about it."
“I never thought I was wasted, but I probably was."
“I don’t encourage anybody to do what I do, you know? Why should you? More for me!"
“Nobody’s got the right to judge over what I am putting into my body, apart from myself."
“I learned how to puke properly."
—in response to a question about what
his greatest accomplishments are
“I’m happy to be off it … I have become a lush."
—on heroin
“I looked upon myself, in a sort of romantic and silly way, as like a laboratory."
“There are drug overtones in about 1 percent of the band’s songs, and Mick wrote them, not me."
“I’m glad it stopped when it did because I’ve really enjoyed going the other way."
“… and miraculously, due to abstinence and prayer, my teeth grew back!"
EMPIRE
“You realize how paranoid they must be, that if they get rid of a guitar player