http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2010/jan/26/sober-keith-richards
Posted by Paul Moody Tuesday 26 January 2010 guardian.co.uk
Can rock'n'roll exist with a sober Keith Richards?
The Rolling Stones guitarist has apparently given up drinking. It's the end of rock'n'roll as we know it ...
The Rolling Stones guitarist has apparently given up drinking. It's the end of rock'n'roll as we know it ...
Shocked by the public disintegration of his band mate Ronnie Wood, the 66-year-old has, so we're told, been teetotal for the last four months.
"There's no guarantee he'll stay off it, but he's been doing really well so far," says, er, a source. What a lightweight. After almost 50 years on the alcoholic frontline, throwing the (beer) towel in at this late stage makes about as much sense as the prisoner in George Orwell's A Hanging, who sidesteps a puddle on the way to the gallows. As recently as 2007, the Human Riff scoffed at suggestions he should quit, announcing: "I've had about three doctors who told me, 'If you carry on like this, you will be dead in six months'. I went to their funerals."
Keef, sober? It's just not right. In a pop universe groaning with moral guardians and cosmetically enhanced pop stars, we could always take comfort in the fact that, at some point, a craggy Keef would emerge from his Connecticut lair and regale us with tales of nine-day binges or snorting his dad's ashes, all the while swigging on his favoured tipple, "Nuclear Waste" – a pint-sized cocktail of Stolly and Sunkist.
"There's no guarantee he'll stay off it, but he's been doing really well so far," says, er, a source. What a lightweight. After almost 50 years on the alcoholic frontline, throwing the (beer) towel in at this late stage makes about as much sense as the prisoner in George Orwell's A Hanging, who sidesteps a puddle on the way to the gallows. As recently as 2007, the Human Riff scoffed at suggestions he should quit, announcing: "I've had about three doctors who told me, 'If you carry on like this, you will be dead in six months'. I went to their funerals."
Keef, sober? It's just not right. In a pop universe groaning with moral guardians and cosmetically enhanced pop stars, we could always take comfort in the fact that, at some point, a craggy Keef would emerge from his Connecticut lair and regale us with tales of nine-day binges or snorting his dad's ashes, all the while swigging on his favoured tipple, "Nuclear Waste" – a pint-sized cocktail of Stolly and Sunkist.
Without Keef at the helm, the entire rock'n'roll lifestyle seems to have lost its lustre.
Photograph: Peter Foley/EPA
