ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: The Rolling Stones are releasing an album of covers calledBlue & Lonesomeon Dec. 2.
Is it true you recorded it in just three days?
KEITH RICHARDS:Actually, I think it was about five days.
Credit: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images
For the Stones, that is express!
It wasnt planned to be such.
We just went in the studio last December, and for some reason we were overtaken by the blues.
It was an album the Stones had to make but would never have planned to make.
Its like they got the blues off their chest at last!
What
was it like to play Havana?
Cubas incredible, man.
We were playing to a million-odd people.
And they were all saying, The times they are a-changing.
Just one great incredible rush of adrenaline and joy.
Never thought Id get there.
Mind you, I didnt think Id get to Moscow, either!
But its incredible to go to places that have been so isolated from us all for so long.
How did the Stones museum retrospective Exhibitionism, which opened in New York City this month, come about?
These people who do exhibitions said, We think it would be an interesting idea.
Youll see what a hovel we lived in!
One of the instruments in the exhibit is a Gibson Les Paul guitar that you hand-painted.
Whats the story there?
I must have been on acid.
[Laughs] Yeah, I remember doing that.
I think I was waiting to go to jail.
Theres not a lot to do when youre waiting for a trial.
Thats the sort of thing that happened!
I used to paint my kids shoes.
You give me some paints, Ill paint anything!
Whats the vibe among all the Stones members these days?
Oh, absolutely as it should be.
[Laughs] No, were all getting along real well.
Just got off the road.
I want to get them back in the studio as soon as possible.
What do you think about Bob Dylan winning the Nobel Prize in Literature?
Itll be me next, I think.
Remember, folks, Keith Richards is (apparently) indestructible.
Watch a trailer for the Rolling Stones retrospective, Exhibitionism, below.
