Johnny Depp once admitted that his Pirates of the Caribbean character was loosely based on The Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards, but Richards has now admitted to giving up drinking.
Richards, who turns 75 on December 18, spoke to Rolling Stone Magazine about how the 2019 North American Rolling Stones tour will be different than the others.
Keith Richards has been off heavy drinking for almost a year in time for his 2019 tour, and admits it’s now a different experience when he performs live.
“It’s been about a year now. I pulled the plug on it. I got fed up with it,” Richards says of drinking. “I don’t notice any difference really – except for I don’t drink… I’ve done it. I didn’t want that anymore.”
But in true Keith Richards fashion, he admits, he’ll still have a glass of wine or a beer now or then.
“It was interesting to play sober,” Richards says, who is known for living the so-called rock-and-roll lifestyle.
Rolling Stones Bandmate Ronnie Wood says, “We’re much more aware of the gaps and the spaces between. We’re in our seventies, but we’re still rocking like we’re 40-year-olds, you know?”
“[He’s] much more mellow [now],” Wood says, “He’s open to more ideas whereas before I’d kind of grit my teeth and go, ‘He’s gonna give me some shit for saying this.’ Now, he’ll say, ‘That’s cool, man.'”
Wood also added, “It just wasn’t working anymore, you know. 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 realised that.”
The Rolling Stones is currently working on an LP, their first since 2005’s A Bigger Bang.
