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Who, What, Why: How is Keith Richards still alive?
BBC ^ | 10/27/10 | staff

Posted on 10/28/2010 1:15:04 PM PDT by pissant

Keith Richards on drugs and relationship with Mick Jagger

The Rolling Stone's autobiography reveals a lifetime of substance abuse. Why on earth hasn't it killed him?

His name is synonymous with rock 'n' roll excess, his memoirs detail a lifetime spent ingesting a Herculean quantity of illegal drugs and he only gave up cocaine, aged 62, after he split his head open falling from a tree while foraging for coconuts.

At 66, Keith Richards' continued survival is a source of widespread bafflement. Continue reading the main story In today's Magazine

* 11th hour for the wristwatch? * Do you say 'haitch' or 'aitch'? * A straight civil partnership? * Your Letters

According to addiction expert Dr Robert Lefever, director of the Promis recovery centre in Richards' native Kent, there is only one possible explanation for his longevity: "He must have the constitution of an ox."

But Richards' own memoirs suggest he may have been more careful with his intake than his bacchanalian public persona implies.

The autobiography, Life, is candid about the scope of his notorious drug-taking during his lengthy career as the Rolling Stones' lead guitarist and co-songwriter.

"I used to walk down Oxford Street with a slab of hash as big as a skateboard," drawls a typical passage.

(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Health/Medicine; Music/Entertainment
KEYWORDS: dopersrights; keithrichards; rollingstones; scofflaw
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To: shadeaud

My brother in law was good friends with the stones, had a motel in Tahiti and a few other businesses, they have heart and do a lot of folks good in their charities...
and as far as hash the size of skateboards, well the old cedar tree stamps and temple balls were something else.....
legalize it eh? If a man wants to wrinkle up, he has that right...I don’t beleieve God is so petty in His judgements..


41 posted on 10/28/2010 1:42:52 PM PDT by aces
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To: subterfuge

Some folks are virtually immune to narcotics.

Back when I had a ruptured disc in my back, I could take enough oxycodone AND morphine AND demerol (at the same time) to kill the average person, and not only did it not kill me, I didn’t even get much pain relief. When I finally went in for surgery, the nurse at the prep station literally turned white when I told her what I’d taken that morning before coming to the hospital.

And I had absolutely no trouble stopping after surgery. I hate that stuff; makes me itchy and nauseous. I have a hard time imagining how anybody could become addicted.


42 posted on 10/28/2010 1:43:03 PM PDT by Renfield (Turning apples into venison since 1999!)
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To: subterfuge

Some folks are virtually immune to narcotics.

Back when I had a ruptured disc in my back, I could take enough oxycodone AND morphine AND demerol (at the same time) to kill the average person, and not only did it not kill me, I didn’t even get much pain relief. When I finally went in for surgery, the nurse at the prep station literally turned white when I told her what I’d taken that morning before coming to the hospital.

And I had absolutely no trouble stopping after surgery. I hate that stuff; makes me itchy and nauseous. I have a hard time imagining how anybody could become addicted.


43 posted on 10/28/2010 1:43:14 PM PDT by Renfield (Turning apples into venison since 1999!)
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To: Lancey Howard
Heroin addiction in and of itself isn't all that damaging to the body. If, and it's a big if, one can get a long term supply of pure heroin and then stick to a regular 'delivery' schedule people can function at a surprisingly high level in spite of their addiction.

The damage comes from repeated episodes of withdrawal, infections from dirty needles, impure product, etc.

L

44 posted on 10/28/2010 1:43:26 PM PDT by Lurker (The avalanche has begun. The pebbles no longer have a vote.)
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To: 537cant be wrong; Aeronaut; ßuddaßudd; bassmaner; Bella_Bru; Big Guy and Rusty 99; Brian Allen; ..

How is Obama still in office?


45 posted on 10/28/2010 1:46:37 PM PDT by a fool in paradise (The establishment clause isn't just against my OWN government establishing state religion in America)
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To: Lancey Howard

Hell, every Jazz great who died of old age... HERR-ON.


46 posted on 10/28/2010 1:47:00 PM PDT by The KG9 Kid
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To: 537cant be wrong; Aeronaut; ßuddaßudd; bassmaner; Bella_Bru; Big Guy and Rusty 99; Brian Allen; ..

How is Obama still in office?


47 posted on 10/28/2010 1:47:00 PM PDT by a fool in paradise (The establishment clause isn't just against my OWN government establishing state religion in America)
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To: 537cant be wrong; Aeronaut; ßuddaßudd; bassmaner; Bella_Bru; Big Guy and Rusty 99; Brian Allen; ..

How is Obama still in office?


48 posted on 10/28/2010 1:47:00 PM PDT by a fool in paradise (The establishment clause isn't just against my OWN government establishing state religion in America)
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To: Beowulf9

#5. 90% of what we saw was all show for street cred.


49 posted on 10/28/2010 1:50:44 PM PDT by rickb308 (Nothing good ever came from someone yelling "Allah Snackbar")
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To: AnAmericanMother

Keef put a book out this week. It’s all hype.


50 posted on 10/28/2010 1:52:16 PM PDT by a fool in paradise (The establishment clause isn't just against my OWN government establishing state religion in America)
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To: pissant

OMG! How horrible. How do you know he isn’t dead? He looks like a zombie.


51 posted on 10/28/2010 1:52:59 PM PDT by MrsEmmaPeel (a government big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to take everything you have)
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To: AnAmericanMother

“You forgot one:
5. He’s been dead for years, but the Grim Reaper is afraid to get near him.”

He’s suddenly in the news because his new book came out October 26.


52 posted on 10/28/2010 1:53:19 PM PDT by Beowulf9
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To: rickb308

Pretty much. When he fell off of a bookcase ladder at his home in Connecticut, people quickly forgot about it.

But falling out of a cocoanut tree on cocaine, people remember.


53 posted on 10/28/2010 1:53:38 PM PDT by a fool in paradise (The establishment clause isn't just against my OWN government establishing state religion in America)
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To: pissant

Why would you think eyeliner is necessary at that point? I don’t even think botox injections could help that. Not even the most radical, cutting edge plastic surgery could put a dent in that.


54 posted on 10/28/2010 1:54:05 PM PDT by riri
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To: Kenton

LOL!!


55 posted on 10/28/2010 1:54:21 PM PDT by pissant (THE Conservative party: www.falconparty.com)
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To: blondee123

“And what kind of hash. Lebanese? Turkish?
Corned beef?”

Mmmmmmmm. Corned beef hash.


56 posted on 10/28/2010 1:54:28 PM PDT by rickb308 (Nothing good ever came from someone yelling "Allah Snackbar")
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To: AnAmericanMother
Also . . . what's it with Richards being suddenly in the news? The New Yorker had a feature article on him this week.

He just published his autobiography.

57 posted on 10/28/2010 1:55:16 PM PDT by Lurking Libertarian (Non sub homine, sed sub Deo et lege)
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To: AnAmericanMother

“Also . . . what’s it with Richards being suddenly in the news?”

I think he’s making the rounds promoting his book.


58 posted on 10/28/2010 1:56:46 PM PDT by Boogieman
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To: mass55th

I guess that explains why he bit the head off a chicken. Coffee. The Demon Bean.

Next movie, “Java Madness.”


59 posted on 10/28/2010 1:57:36 PM PDT by DPMD (~)
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To: pissant
I met Keith Richards at a Tom Waits show in NYC about a dozen years ago. He was sitting in the row in front of us and was there long before the show started. He would chat or pose for a picture with anybody who came by. Very nice guy.

Joe Strummer and Elvis Costello were also in our row, but they came in when the house lights went down and didn't really interact with anybody.

60 posted on 10/28/2010 2:00:48 PM PDT by dead (I've got my eye out for Mullah Omar.)
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