Keith Richards Still Loves to Get High, Annoy Mick Jagger
Falling out of a tree was enough to convince Keith Richards to give up cocaine, but he's managed to hang on to a few of his other favorite pastimes — including smoking a daily joint and bugging Mick Jagger.
"Mick and I joust with each other all the time," Richards says of his longtime Rolling Stones bandmate in a new Mojo interview (via Classic Rock Magazine). "From my end it’s never been a fight. Mick’s a control freak – it’s necessary for him to believe he’s ‘numero uno.’ Most of the time I go along with it, unless I think he’s making a really wrong decision affecting the Stones. ... I wake up in the middle of the night sometimes and jot down a line: ‘I’ll save that one for him.’"
Discussing his daily marijuana habit, Richards said, "I smoke regularly, an early morning joint. Strictly Californian." He added that he's observing expanding efforts to legalize the drug in the U.S.: "One of the most pleasant things to watch is a map of America, where it goes green ... green ... green. Whether it's a good thing in the long run, I don't know."
Richards may have an opportunity to visit some of those green spots on the map if he follows through on plans to tour behind his upcoming solo effort, Crosseyed Heart, which is due Sept. 18 and available for pre-order now. And once that's behind him, he and Jagger seem likely to resume jousting again, with plans for a new Stones album already looming on the horizon.
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