http://www.torontosun.com/2013/05/17/keith-richards-keeps-rolling-with-the-stones

Ask Rolling Stones' lead guitarist Keith Richards -- who turns 70 this year -- if he's a birthday guy, and he pulls no punches.

"The more there are -- the less I am," jokes Richards in a Canadian exclusive interview from "an undisclosed island" location.

"I love OTHER people's birthdays."

Talk of finality is only natural. After all, with the veteran British bad boys of rock currently touring North America -- including three Canadian dates starting Saturday at Toronto's Air Canada Centre -- everyone wants to know if this is the group's farewell trek.

Like that 1965 Rolling Stones song, The Last Time, so perfectly put it: "Well this could be the last time, This could be the last time, Maybe the last time, I don't know."

(Significantly this was the band's first single to be written by Richards and singer Mick Jagger, who is also 70 this year.)

One thing Richards knows for sure is that the group is constantly being reminded about their half-century together on the 50 & Counting Tour -- named for the band's 50th anniversary trek -- which actually started last fall with a handful of shows in Paris, London and the New York area.

"I don't know how much the guys really think about it but we're obviously made aware of the fact that it's 50 years," Richards says.

"If the guys didn't carry a calendar, which they don't, I don't think they'd be so much aware of it. Just saying (instead), 'Hey great. We're just going on the road. Fantastic!' "

The Rolling Stones multi-media 50th anniversary celebration began last year with a hardcover coffee table book, 50; a documentary, Crossfire Hurricane; and a greatest hits compilation, GRRR!, featuring two new Richards and Jagger songs, Doom and Gloom and One More Shot.

Richards says he always keeps his hand in songwriting.

"It's an ongoing process -- you write songs, even when you don't want to," he says.

"Ideas come and you gotta jot that down and then you sit around. Songwriting still continues. I've been doing some stuff with (drummer-producer) Steve Jordan, I've been keeping my hand in with all of that. I haven't been absolutely not playing or doing anything. I made that record (2013's My True Story) with Aaron Neville too. I've been working as a session man lately."

Still, Richards says he can see himself releasing a solo album at some point sooner than later.

"I wouldn't want to cloud the issue with the Stones thing going on but maybe at the end of the year or whenever the Stones collapse again. Maybe, yeah, I've got some stuff and I'd like everybody to hear."

As for guitar playing, it will always be in his blood.

"I just did that last night," Richards says when I suggest I can see him playing acoustic guitar on a beach.

"Always keep a hand with the acoustic. You're a musician, every time you play, it's sort of a little bit special. It doesn't matter for who or where it is. Some of my best stuff, I've only played for myself. I could never quite get it over again but that's one of those things about being a musician. I'm stuck with it honey!"

Perhaps all of the original Stones -- the only other one is drummer Charlie Watts, 71, since longtime member and guitarist Ronnie Wood, 65, joined the band in 1975 as a replacement for Mick Taylor (who is also part of 50 & Counting) -- Richards is the one who always seems keen to play live.

And yet he says he waits for the others to call him to duty.

The Stones' initial 2012 dates were two years in the works, says Richards.

"It takes that long to wind everybody up into the right frame of mind," he says.

"I basically wait for a couple of phone calls and one has to come from Mick and one has to come from Charlie Watts. And when they both say yeah, I say, 'You're feeling itchy huh? Let's scratch it.' But I'm always ready."

So far, since the official May 3 launch at the Staples Centre in L.A. -- preceded by a surprise club show -- A-list guests on the 50 & Counting Tour have included Keith Urban and Gwen Stefani in L.A., Tom Waits in Oakland, John Fogerty and Bonnie Raitt in San Jose and Katy Perry in Las Vegas.

The North American tour features the same iconic lips and tongue stage that was used in the 2012 shows.

"There's not too many gadgets this time," Richards says. "I mean, the only gadgets are us!"

Once the Stones cross the pond in the summer, they'll play the Glastonbury festival June 29 for the first time and two shows at London's Hyde Park July 6 and 13. The last time they played at Hyde Park was in 1969 following the shocking death of founding guitarist Brian Jones two days earlier; he was replaced by Taylor.

"It is really sort of an English thing," Richards says.

"Glastonbury is one of those places we always wanted to play but never been there when it's on ... So, at last, this year it seems like we stitched it up. And I'm looking forward to that. Even if it pisses with rain. The usual mudpile."

And Hyde Park, obviously has major significance.

"For the Stones, it's a sort of touch base thing," he says. "It was an amazing show in '69, half a million people there, and at the same time, Mick Taylor and I, it was our first time on stage together. It was a whole mixture of emotions and worries and at the same time, great fun. It was a great show, it turned out." :smilestu

Interesting that he's considering a solo album over a proper Stones album.  It could be typical Keith BS but to think that he's written enough new songs for a new solo project and yet the best song he gave the Stones was "One More Shot?"...hmmm...this solo album shall be very...um..interesting.

Great article, I get the impression that Keith is just going along with what every body else wants, if he's got songs that's interesting, I think the days are over for a Stones new album, I could be wrong, but I get that impression.

Keith's birthday is more than six months away.  The reporter couldn't come up with a better lede than that?  :whydontcha


Besides, it's well documented that Keith always parties hard on his birthday.  Sheesh.

Enjoyed the article - thanks for posting.

You know what I love about this interview? Keith had four days' rest from the tour, and apparently sneaked away to an island. #GoodToBeAStone

:interestingstuffronnie

Keith Richards solo album due around same time Halley's comet comes back.

Hyde Park: "It was an amazing show in '69, half a million people there, and at the same time, Mick Taylor and I, it was our first time on stage together. It was a whole mixture of emotions and worries and at the same time, great fun. It was a great show, it turned out."

KEEF remembered Hyde Park 1 was his first gig with Mick T so it is fitting that Mick T will also play Hyde park this time round. Fill circle, sort of.

Bitch wrote on May 24^th, 2013 at 5:07pm:

Hyde Park: "It was an amazing show in '69, half a million people there, and at the same time, Mick Taylor and I, it was our first time on stage together. It was a whole mixture of emotions and worries and at the same time, great fun. It was a great show, it turned out." KEEF remembered Hyde Park 1 was his first gig with Mick T so it is fitting that Mick T will also play Hyde park this time round. Fill circle, sort of.

I'm glad this is happening too Ellen.

horrible interview…. almost seems culled from a very short talk, and mostly made up…

Bitch wrote on May 24^th, 2013 at 5:07pm:

Hyde Park: "It was an amazing show in '69, half a million people there, and at the same time, Mick Taylor and I, it was our first time on stage together. It was a whole mixture of emotions and worries and at the same time, great fun. It was a great show, it turned out." KEEF remembered Hyde Park 1 was his first gig with Mick T so it is fitting that Mick T will also play Hyde park this time round. Fill circle, sort of.

It is, apart from the bit about it being a great show. Their most iconic gig it may have been, but they played fucking awful. Still made for great viewing though.

I think its nice that I'll be able to walk out of the Hyde Park show this year and say 'much better than they were when they played here in 1969'. Not many Stones fans can say that sentence with a straight face!