Keith Richards Quotes

30 Sourced Quotes

And then I think we realized, like any young guys, that blues are not learned in a monastery. You've got to go out there and get your heart broke and then come back and then you can sing the blues.

Keith Richards
Everything they'd been brought up not to do, they could do at a rock-and-roll show.

Keith Richards
There's a certain moment when you realize that you've actually just left the planet for a bit and that nobody can touch you...When it works, baby, you've got wings.

Keith Richards
Most guys I know are assholes. I have some great asshole friends, but that's not the point. Friendship has got nothing to do with that. It's 'can you hang, can you talk about this without any feeling of distance between you?' Friendship is the diminishing of distance between people. That's what friendship is, and to me it's one of the most important things in the world.

Keith Richards
Some of my most outrageous nights- I can only believe actually happened because of corroborating evidence. No wonder I'm famous for partying! The ultimate party- if it's any good- you can't remember it.

Keith Richards
I was in awe sometimes listening to Mick Taylor. Everything was there in his playing - the melodic touch, a beautiful sustain and a way of reading a song.

Keith Richards
But I've always felt very comfortable on stage, even if I screw up. It always felt like a dog, this is my turf, piss around it. While I'm here, nothing else can happen. All I can do is screw up. Otherwise, have a good time.

Keith Richards
The big rules of knife fighting are (a) do not try it at home, and (b) the whole point is never, ever use the blade. It is there to distract your opponent. While he stares at the gleaming steel, you kick his balls to kingdom come--he's all yours. Just a tip!

Keith Richards
It's one thing to play a Muddy Waters song. It's another thing to play with him.

Keith Richards
I can sustain the impetus over the long tours we do is by feeding off the energy that we get back from an audience. That's my fuel. All i've got is this burning energy, especially when i've got a guitar in my hands.

Keith Richards
Preaching is tax free. Very little to do with God, a lot to do with money

Keith Richards
A gut-string classical Spanish guitar, a sweet, lovely little lady. The smell of it. Even now, to open a guitar case, when it's an old wooden guitar, I could crawl in and close the lid.

Keith Richards
This morning on Dartford station a guy I knew at primary school came up to me. He's got every record Chuck Berry made. He is called Mick Jagger.

Keith Richards
There are certain guys that are band players and there's certain guys that ain't. If there's anybody lazier than me, it's Eric (Clapton).

Keith Richards
Rap — so many words, so little said. What rap did that was impressive was to show there are so many tone-deaf people out there. All they need is a drum beat and somebody yelling over it and they're happy. There's an enormous market for people who can't tell one note from another.

Keith Richards
I'd play whenever I could get my hands on an electric guitar; I was trying to pick up rock'n'roll riffs and electric blues-the latest Muddy Waters. I'd spend hours and hours on the same track, back again, and back again.

Keith Richards
[John] Belushi was an extreme experience even by my standards.

Keith Richards
What interested me about Chuck Berry was the way he could step out of the rhythm part with such ease, throwing in a nice, simple riff, and then drop straight into the feel of it again. We used to play a lot more rhythm stuff. We'd do away with the differences between lead and rhythm guitar. You can't go into a shop and ask for a "lead guitar". You're a guitar player, and you play a guitar.

Keith Richards
There's something beautifully friendly and elevating about a bunch of guys playing music together. This wonderful little world that is unassailable. It's really teamwork, one guy supporting the others, and it's all for one purpose, and there's no flies in the ointment, for a while. And nobody conducting, it's all up to you. It's really jazz__that's the big secret. Rock and roll ain't nothing but jazz with a hard backbeat.

Keith Richards
I don't think rock'n'roll songwriters should worry about Art…As far as I'm concerned, Art is just short for Arthur.

Keith Richards
I was number one on the Who's Likely To Die list for 10 years. I mean, I was really disappointed when I fell off the list.

Keith Richards
It's unbelievable how prolific [Mick Jagger] was. Sometimes you'd wonder how to turn the fucking tap off. The odd times he would come out with so many lyrics, you're crowding the airwaves, boy.

Keith Richards
I'd been an expert at taking beatings. Then I had a lucky break where I did a bully in, by total sheer luck.... One minute I was the mark, and with just one swift move, I put the big man in school down.... Once he was down, the whole atmosphere in the schoolyard changed. A huge cloud seemed to be lifted from me.... I'd never been aware the cloud was so large.

Keith Richards
I looked upon myself, in a sort of romantic and silly way, as like a laboratory.

Keith Richards
The idea of retiring is like killing yourself. It's almost like Hari Kari. I intend to live to a 100 and go down in history.

Keith Richards
I thought rock and roll was an unassailable outlet for some pure and natural expression of rebellion. It used to be one channel you could take without ever havin' to kiss arse, you know?

Keith Richards
I've been through more cold turkeys than there are freezers.

Keith Richards
I thought it was ludicrous to take one of those gongs from the establishment... it's not what the Stones is about, is it? I don't want to step out on stage with someone wearing a fucking coronet and sporting the old ermine. I told Mick, It's a fucking paltry honour.

Keith Richards
I actually slipped on a hamburger in Hamburg once, and almost fell off stage.

Keith Richards
I don't encourage anybody to do what I do, you know? Why should you? More for me!

Keith Richards