Keith Richards Speaks Out On Rolling Stones Hiatus

Years without Stones is 'purgatory'   21-Oct-11

Amidst the recent talk of a possible 50th anniversary Rolling Stones reunion, Keith Richards has said that he feels as if he is in "purgatory" when the Stones are not together.

In a recent interview, 'Keef' also spoke about his relationship with Mick, claiming that the famous songwriting partners are just "two guys divided by love".

In recent months, the individual members of the band have all commented on the possibility of a 50th anniversary reunion, and The Stones have also been one of the various bands rumoured to be playing at the 2012 Olympic ceremony (we now know that this is just hot air).

Ronnie Wood, and Keith Richards have both supported the idea of a reunion, whilst Mick appears to be less than keen on the idea, simply saying "Don't hold your breath".

Keith recently told GQ magazine (referring to life without his band mates):

"A lot of it's purgatory. Luckily I have a few other distractions: 'Oh, I'm in purgatory—come on, honey, let's go to bed.'"

The guitarist then went on to talk about the reunion rumours:

"Next year is sort of up for grabs... It's almost an overwhelming power — it'll be fifty years. So there's that sort of pressure. If I can pull them together, I'm there."

Keith recently released his autobiography Life, in which he discusses his relationship with Mick in great detail. He also discusses the (lack of) size of a particular part of Mick's anatomy, which caused another rift between the pair.

Pete Townsend was just one of the stars who defended Mick's member, claiming that Richards was wrong. Keith has now said that the remark was just a joke:

"I mean, I've never seen it. I only heard. It was a joke. Between friends a joke's a joke, and if you can't take a joke..."

(On a side note, if you saw the Some Girls concert in the cinema recently, you would have seen Mick prancing about the stage in a pair of very revealing red plastic pants/trousers, enlarged on a 30ft screen, which probably puts any rumours firmly to bed).

The band recently released a trove of new tracks in the re-release of the Some Girls album, check out the Rolling Stones website for the full details on this, and all their latest updates.

Rich Beech
@sonicamped

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