One guy can ruin an instrument. Jimi Hendrix, bless his heart - how I wish he was still around - almost inadvertently ruined guitar. Because he was the only cat who could do it like that. Everybody else just screwed it up, and thought wailing away (on the guitar) is the answer. But it ain't; you've got to be a Jimi to do that, you've got to be one of the special cats.
Keith RichardsBut I'm not here just to make records and money. I'm here to say something and to touch other people, sometimes in a cry of desperation: "Do you know this feeling?
Keith RichardsI've always been suspicious of TV, I've always found music and video to be an unhappy marriage.
Keith RichardsI consider my job [being a musician] is to have a little idea and nurture it and put it in some form that everybody else can understand and then sort of pass it on. It's really a passing through. In other words, you receive and you transmit.
Keith RichardsI was number 1 on the who's likely to die list for 10 years...I was really disappointed when I fell off that list.
Keith RichardsIn fact, I take the view that God, in his infinite wisdom, didn't bother to spring for two joints - heaven and hell. They're the same place, but heaven is when you get everything you want and you meet Mummy and Daddy and your best friends and you all have a hug and a kiss and play your harps. Hell is the same place - no fire and brimstone - but they just all pass by and don't see you. There's nothing, no recognition. You're waving, โIt's me, your father,โ but you're invisible. You're on a cloud, you've got your harp, but you can't play with nobody because they don't see you. That's hell.
Keith Richards