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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...

KEITH Richards wants to “road-test” any new drugs that are invented. The Rolling Stones rocker — who admits to have using numerous illegal substances over the years, including heroin and cocaine — doesn’t take drugs anymore, but he would if something new came on the market. “I’ve given up everything now — which is a trip in itself,” Keith said. “I’m just waiting for them to invent something more interesting, ha ha. I’m all ready to road-test it, when they do.” Keith gave up heroin in 1978, and was forced to quit cocaine in 2006 after accidentally falling from a...

James Brown's daughter has claimed the singer's body has gone missing from its crypt. LaRhonda Pettit, 48, alleges the body of Brown, who died in December 2006 aged 73, is being hidden to prevent a full autopsy being carried out. Ms Pettit said the official cause of death, which was said to be a heart attack brought by pneumonia, is not the real reason behind the Godfather of Soul's passing.

LONDON (AFP) – Famously drug-addled Rolling Stone Keith Richards turns 65 this week, but he remains tightlipped about any wild party plans he might have to celebrate becoming a pensioner. The legendary guitarist, songwriter and archetypal wild rocker will reach the landmark age -- more usually associated with gardening and cardigans -- only a few months after Stones frontman Mick Jagger, who turned 65 in July. "He wants to keep it very private," was all a spokesman for Richards would say when asked how the musician would mark his birthday on Thursday. Named by Rolling Stone magazine as the tenth...

Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger is a "power freak" who is also a "bit vain", bandmate Keith Richards said in an interview set to be published Thursday. Speaking to Uncut magazine in an interview to promote a Martin Scorsese documentary about the band, "Shine A Light", the guitarist also said he would have told his younger self to "lay off" drugs. "Mick's a maniac. He can't get up in the morning without knowing immediately who he's going to call," the 64-year-old Richards said. "Meanwhile, I just go 'Thank God I'm awake' and wait for three or four hours before I...

A live UK music venue today dodged a fine after members of the Rolling Stones lit up cigarettes on stage in defiance of the smoking ban. The Stones are rounding off their two-year Bigger Bang world tour with a trio of dates at London's O2 Arena. On the first date, officials had to tell the band to stub out their cigarettes after the guitarists, Keith Richards and Ron Wood, performed while smoking.

Two Swedish tabloids have provoked the ire of Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards. In what the veteran rocker claimed was the first time he had publicly reacted to a review, he lashed out at Aftonbladet and Expressen's reports on the band's performance at Gothenburg's Ullevi stadium earlier this month. The papers both gave the Stones two stars. An article in Expressen was headlined "Keith was very drunk," and gave the star a personal zero stars. "This is a first! Never before have I risen to the bait of a bad review. But this time... I have to stand up for...

LONDON - Keith Richards was joking when he claimed to have snorted his father’s ashes along with cocaine, a spokesman said Wednesday. “It was an off-the-cuff remark, a joke, and it is not true. File under April Fool’s joke,” said Bernard Doherty of LD Communications, which represents the Rolling Stones. Doherty declined to say any more about why Richards made the statement in an interview with NME, a pop music magazine. “The strangest thing I’ve tried to snort? My father. I snorted my father,” the 63-year-old guitarist was quoted as saying. “He was cremated and I couldn’t resist grinding him...

LONDON (AP) - Keith Richards has acknowledged consuming a raft of illegal substances in his time, but this may top them all. In comments published Tuesday, the 63-year-old Rolling Stones guitarist said he had snorted his father's ashes mixed with cocaine. "The strangest thing I've tried to snort? My father. I snorted my father," Richards was quoted as saying by British music magazine NME. "He was cremated and I couldn't resist grinding him up with a little bit of blow. My dad wouldn't have cared," he said. "... It went down pretty well, and I'm still alive." Richards' father, Bert,...

LONDON - Keith Richards has acknowledged consuming a raft of illegal substances in his time, but this may top them all. In comments published Tuesday, the 63-year-old Rolling Stones guitarist said he had snorted his father’s ashes mixed with cocaine. “The strangest thing I’ve tried to snort? My father. I snorted my father,” Richards was quoted as saying by British music magazine NME. “He was cremated, and I couldn’t resist grinding him up with a little bit of blow. My dad wouldn’t have cared,” he said, adding that “it went down pretty well, and I’m still alive.” Richards’ father, Bert,...

Excerpt - ~ snip ~ The governor pardoned the following people: ~ snip ~ Keith Richards of New York, New York, who was convicted in the District Court of Fordyce in 1975 of reckless driving and sentenced to pay a $162.50 fine, which was paid in full. The Parole Board voted to recommend the granting of the application and Sheriff Donny Ford has no objections to the request. ~ snip ~

PALMDALE - "Pirates" fans might want to keep a weather eye open for Johnny Depp and other stars of their favorite swashbuckling adventure flick. Filming of "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End," the third installment of Disney's hit franchise, has relocated to Site 9 in Palmdale from Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, unit publicist Michael Singer confirmed Monday. Contrary to media reports that circulated over the weekend, Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards did not make a slightly tipsy cameo appearance as Capt. Jack Sparrow's father at the former aircraft production hangar at 30th Street East and Avenue P. Filming...

Rolling Stones star says he has finally given up drugs - because they are too weak to give him a high. The group's guitarist has complained that modern drugs lack power, claiming that dealers and chemists have reduced their strength. The 62-year-old former heroin addict told The Sun that modern drugs such as ecstasy "mess with the brain". He said: "I really think the quality's gone down. All they do is try and take the high out of everything. "I don't like the way they're working on the brain area instead of just through the blood system. "That's why I...

A not terribly sober Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones has filmed his cameo as Johnny Depp’s swashbuckling dad in "Pirates of the Caribbean 3," which is shooting somewhere in Southern California in a place called Palmdale.

TUESDAY, Aug. 29 (HealthDay News) -- Alcoholics who can stay sober regain most, if not all, brain function despite years of heavy drinking, new research suggests. "We've looked at long-term abstinence among middle-aged people who stopped drinking in middle age and found virtually full recovery," said study author George Fein, a senior scientist and president of Neurobehavioral Research Inc. (NRI), based in Corte Madera, Calif. and Honolulu. The findings are reported in the September issue of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. The work was funded by the U.S. National Institute of Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse and conducted by Fein's team...

Keith Richards, lead guitarist for the Rolling Stones, has been promised a pardon for an old traffic offense -- courtesy of a fan, Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. Richards was fined $162.20 (88 pounds) for reckless driving in 1975 after being stopped in tiny Fordyce, 70 miles (113 km) south of Little Rock, between shows in Memphis and Dallas. His car swerved when he tried to adjust the radio, Richards explained, but police said they smelled marijuana and took him and three others to jail. All were freed after a Stones lawyer posted bond, and Richards paid the fine by mail....

Excerpt - LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - As the bass guitarist for an obscure rock band, Mike Huckabee is unlikely ever to have the pleasure of giving the downbeat to world-famous Keith Richards, lead guitarist for the legendary Rolling Stones. But, as governor of Arkansas, Huckabee can at least give Richards the satisfaction of knowing that the state of Arkansas no longer considers him a reckless driver. The state Parole Board has approved a pardon application prepared by Huckabee and his chief lawyer. The board posted its official notice Tuesday; within 30 days, the pardon will be forwarded to Huckabee for...

London: His near-death experience has apparently made Rolling Stone guitarist Keith Richards think about his after life, for he’s just cut an album of religious songs. The guitarist, more famous for Stones songs such as ‘Sympathy For The Devil’ and the album ‘Their Satanic Majesties Request’, cut a CD called ‘My Soul Is A Witness’ of African-American spiritual music with his sister-in-law, concert singer Marsha Hansen. A source said that Richards’ turn to religion is making him the butt of jokes among some of his pals back home in the UK. “Some of Keith’s friends back in Britain have been...

Close window Published online: 5 July 2006; | doi:10.1038/news060703-9 Rats taking cannabis get taste for heroinStudy suggests cannabis-users may be vulnerable to harder drugs.Michael HopkinNeuroscientists have found that rats are more likely to get hooked on heroin if they have previously been given cannabis. The studies suggest a biological mechanism — at least in rats — for the much-publicized effect of cannabis as a 'gateway' to harder drugs. The discovery hints that the brain system that produces pleasurable sensations when exposed to heroin may be 'primed' by earlier exposure to cannabis, say researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm,...

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - Doctors are concerned Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards could suffer from brain damage after undergoing two surgeries following a fall while holidaying in Fiji, the New Zealand Herald reported on Wednesday. The newspaper said Richards had undergone an operation at a hospital in New Zealand on Monday to relieve a blood clot on the brain which involved drilling a hole through the skull. Subdural hematoma can be caused by mild knocks to the head. His London publicists confirmed on Monday that he had surgery but did not disclose the details. They said it was a success and...