If there’s one constant in the story of the Rolling Stones, it’s Keith Richards’ love affair with the guitar.
He owns more than a thousand of them – although he only plays a select few on stage – and, even as he approaches 80, the star is still bewitched by the instrument.
“The fascinating thing is that the more you play it, the less you know it,” he says. “It provides you with endless questions. You can never know the whole thing. It’s impossible.”
He’s back on fiery form on the Rolling Stones’ new album, Hackney Diamonds. There are hard-rocking riffs (Angry, Depending On You), sinewy country blues (Dreamy Skies) and semi-improvised gospel stomps (Sweet Sounds Of Heaven).
But while the Stones sound ageless as ever, Richards’ hands are gnarled with arthritis. Has it affected his playing?
“Funnily enough, I’ve no doubt it has, but I don’t have any pain, it’s a sort of benign version,” he says. “I think if I’ve slowed down a little bit it’s probably due more to age.
“And also, I found that interesting, when I’m like, ‘I can’t quite do that any more,’ the guitar will show me there’s another way of doing it. Some finger will go one space different and a whole new door opens.”And so you’re always learning. You never finish school, man.”
Hackney Diamonds is the Rolling Stones’ first album of new material in 18 years. Not that they’d been resting on their laurels. Sessions had come and gone, tours had been staged, a covers album released. But, for whatever reason, the band weren’t happy with the material.
“There’s a lot of stuff in the can which is pretty damn good,” says Keith, “but it’s not an album. It’s just a lot of tracks.”
The turning point came at the end of the band’s 60th anniversary tour last year. Rather than retreat to their individual bunkers, Mick Jagger wanted to go straight to the studio.”He hit me in the right spot,” says Richards. “I’ve always wanted to record the band as soon after we get off of the road, because the band is lubricated.”
Where previous sessions had been exploratory and unfocused, these recordings came with a deadline: Jagger wanted the basic tracks finished by the end of the year.He was helped by producer Andrew Watt, a 32-year-old who has made pop hits for Post Malone and Miley Cyrus, and overseen grizzled rock rebirths for Iggy Pop and Ozzy Osbourne.
A massive Rolling Stones fan (he wore a different band t-shirt every day), he was nonetheless determined not to defer to his heroes.
“We had a referee, which is something we lacked since the Jimmy Miller days,” says Ronnie Wood, referring to the producer of 1970s classics like Sticky Fingers and Exile On Main Street (both of which pre-date his time in the band).
“We needed someone tightening up and kicking us. He disciplined us and said, ‘Come on, you’re not going to do that tomorrow, you’re going to do it today’.”
“I can understand Ronnie seeing it that way but the real referees are Mick and me,” argues Richards.”Andrew just had the right amount of energy and the right amount of know-how to pull it off.”
