Skip to main contentSkip to navigationSkip to navigation
Keith Richards: ‘It was time to quit. Just like all the other stuff.’
Keith Richards on quitting drinking: ‘It was time to quit. Just like all the other stuff.’ Photograph: Peter Foley/EPA
Keith Richards on quitting drinking: ‘It was time to quit. Just like all the other stuff.’ Photograph: Peter Foley/EPA

Keith Richards gives up drinking (almost), saying 'I got fed up with it'

This article is more than 5 years old

Hard-living Rolling Stones guitarist says he hasn’t been on the hard booze for about a year

Keith Richards, the legendarily hard-living guitarist of the Rolling Stones, has quit drinking – almost – saying he “just got fed up with it”.

Despite inspiring an industry of memes celebrating his unreconstructed lifestyle, Richards has told Rolling Stone magazine that he has more or less quit the booze.

“It’s been about a year now,” Richards said. “I pulled the plug on it. I got fed up with it.”

Richards, 74, who has said his favourite tipple for decades has been Jack Daniels whiskey or vodka, said he still had a glass of wine occasionally and a beer.

Keith Richards was known for his love of Jack Daniels whiskey. Photograph: Gary Gershoff/Getty Images

“It was time to quit. Just like all the other stuff,” he told the magazine, referring to his past addiction to cocaine, heroin and other hard drugs. Richards has previously said he quit drugs after being arrested for heroin possession in Canada in 1977.

His bandmate, Ron Wood, who battled alcoholism for years, said Richards was easier to work with since giving up drink.

“Much more mellow. He’s open to more ideas,” Wood said in the interview, published on Wednesday.

“I think the Keith that we used to know and love had this cutoff point where if he had one more, he’d go over the top and he’d be nasty. The cutoff point became shorter and shorter, you know, and he realized that,” Wood added.

The Rolling Stones will launch their next North American tour in April.

More on this story

More on this story

  • ‘A new door opens’: Keith Richards says arthritis has changed how he plays guitar

  • Mick Jagger hints at bequeathing back catalogue to charity instead of his children

  • The Rolling Stones: Angry review – Jagger’s a hoot in strutting, barnstorming return

  • ‘We were lazy!’ The Rolling Stones unveil new original album Hackney Diamonds after 18-year wait

  • The Rolling Stones sneak cryptic teaser ad for new album in local London newspaper

  • Gimme sculpture: new statues of Jagger and Richards are a dud – but here are eight of Britain’s best

  • Symphony for the devil: Mick Jagger’s 80 greatest moments, on his 80th birthday

  • Rolling Stones cancel Amsterdam show after Mick Jagger tests positive for Covid

  • Rolling Stones threaten to sue Donald Trump over use of songs

  • After 50 years, Glastonbury festival is a triumph of eccentric English culture

Comments (…)

Sign in or create your Guardian account to join the discussion

Most viewed

Most viewed