The Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards is back with his first solo album in 20+ years, Crosseyed Heart, a new documentary out on Netflix and a run of dates early next year in South America with the Stones. Sufficed to say that Richards likes to stay busy, and recently, he sat down with Patrick Doyle of Rolling Stone at New York’s Germano Studio and Richards’ favorite dining spot in Connecticut to discuss his 1967 pot bust, the current affairs of the Stones, his memories of first touring America, the music industry, Led Zeppelin, The Who and what he sees for the future of rock and roll. Here are a few excerpts from the interview below:

After being arrested at his home in 1967 for allowing pot to be smoked on his property, Richards uttered “We are not old men, and we are not worried about petty morals.”

Ah, man. That one just popped out of my mouth! I had been looking at some judge who obviously was looking at some degenerate, and I also happened to know that he comes from a famous family that makes fish paste. It’s my first time in court. This is sort of surreal theater to me. They brought up this thing about Marianne Faithfull dressed only in a rug, which would’ve covered a tribe, let alone her [laughs]. I mean it was like “she was only wearing a fur rug.” And she may as well have been wearing a fur coat or a whole tent! So when [they] brought that up, it just popped out. “I’m not interested in your petty morals ….”I knew I wasn’t doing myself a favor by saying that. But at the same time, sometimes at those points, you’re like, “OK, well, am I going to suck [it up] and say, ‘I’m sorry, your honor, and blah blah blah?'” I wasn’t sorry, so I’m going to just say what I think: “I’m not interested in your petty morals.” 

On how the United States has changed since the Stones first toured the States in 1964:

Well, it’s a pleasure to see no “No Colored Here” or “White Only” signs, which is what I saw when I first arrived. But obviously things that have been happening lately with Ferguson and Baltimore, and that’s just the two obvious ones … One could say James Blake being hit last week is another pointer that you don’t get rid of racism with the stroke of a pen. “OK, that doesn’t exist anymore!” It’s not that simple. And obviously, it’s going to be generations and generations before it actually becomes a fact rather than just a point of law. Folks is folks, and they’re weird — in America, especially, maybe because nobody is quite sure where they come from. Everybody with their names — “I’m Polish … Italian …” — which is the great thing about this country: Everybody comes from somewhere else. Except the poor Cherokees and the Apaches, which nobody bothers [with]. “Oh, give ’em a casino.”

But this country is made of immigrants and people getting together and trying to live together, which is what I’ve, in my mind, always thought what America was great at — this acceptance of other people. At the moment, it’s a little dodgy because some people want to build walls and stuff [laughs]. I thought the whole idea of this country was no walls. America is an incredible experiment, really. You know? In historical terms, this is a flash in the pan. A couple hundred years ain’t nothing. Especially next to my house in England that was built in 1450. Einstein got it right there — time is relative. 

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Richards thoughts on the music industry today and the future of rock and roll:

It used to be simple — you signed a deal with a record company and OK, there was one outlet and that was them. Now there’s a million other ways. I think things are in a state of experimentation, flux. I don’t say anything bad about it. It’s a bit confusing to me. At the same time, I think music is something that will always be there. The enormous machine called the music business is a whole different kettle of fish…

Well, as a term [rock and roll], I’m not sure. Will the hip outlast the hop [laughs]? Or the rock outlast the roll? I really think a lot of these terms, and we live by them because it makes things easier, but to me, it’s just music. You really don’t hear the name rock & roll very much. It’s usually rock, you know? I suppose it’s for people to be able to put everything in its pigeonhole. I mean, you’re not going to call Mozart rock & roll are you? No, you’re going to call him classical, so you know what box to put him in. You’re going to put a rap artist in the rap box. But these are boundaries I think more for the audience than for the artists. I mean, Ray Charles will go from country to jazz to rhythm and blues.

On Led Zeppelin:

I love Jimmy Page, but as a band, no, with John Bonham thundering down the highway in an uncontrolled 18-wheeler. He had cornered the market there. Jimmy is a brilliant player. But I always felt there was something a little hollow about it, you know?

After acknowledging that he prefers Robert Plant’s work now, Richards connects the dots between Plant’s project with Alison Krauss and The Who:

I heard that and thought [Plant & Krauss], “Finally, he’s getting his chops!” But no. Also I don’t want it coming out like  [Richards pauses, then smiles and continues] … I mean, I always thought [Roger] Daltrey was all flash. And I love Pete Townshend, but I always thought the Who were a crazy band, anyway. You would say to [Keith] Moon, if you were in a session with him, “Just give me a swing,” and he [couldn’t] … He was an incredible drummer, but only with Pete Townshend.

He could play to Pete like nobody else in the world. But if somebody threw him into a session with somebody else, it was a disaster. There’s nothing wrong with that; sometimes you’ve got that one paintbrush, and you rock it. I just was never really interested in that many English rock & roll bands actually, at all. I mean, I usually like guys like Johnny Kidd and the Pirates, and that was before I was even recording. But there was something [about] the Yes’es and the Journeys and all them that just left me a bit cold.

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On whether the Stones will be touring the States again anytime soon:

It wouldn’t surprise me at all. Up to now, I’ve gotten as far as South America at the beginning of next year, and I know up to then. But after that, who knows? See how the boys feel.

As for getting back into the studio:

I hope so, yes. It looks closer since I last saw you. I don’t know where, and I don’t know when yet, but yeah. I was in London last week, and all the boys, we had a little chat. We’re playing South America in February of next year. We were just talking and were like, “Well, we’ve got to get back in the studio. That’s agreed? Agreed. Right, OK boys. Where? When?” We scratch our heads. That I don’t know quite yet. I would say off the top of my head, I would say after the South America thing, but you never know. We might try and get in the studio before Christmas, maybe. I think that’s sort of doubtful, because Christmas, and you know, that build up. But hopefully it’s in the works.

[Via Rolling Stone]