Keith Richards may be best-known for the time he spent in The Rolling Stones, but the rocker is still going strong at 71 years old. Though Richards has spent a lot of his life in the limelight, there are still some facts about him that have slipped through the cracks. Here, we present our list of 12 facts you probably didn’t know about Keith Richards. Check out part one below, and stay tuned for part two, coming soon!
Number Twelve: Keith Richards Has Been Musically Adept Since Age Three
Richards claims that he first felt an attraction to music when he was just three years old. He began appreciating classic artists like Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, and Sarah Vaughn.
Number Eleven: He Was a Boy Scout
Though you might think of Richards as a cool rocker guy, he actually was a Boy Scout when he was growing up. He said, “It was mainly a chance to swagger around with a knife on your belt.”
Number Ten: He Likes the Sound of a Flushing Toilet
When the Stones first started playing together, they created a makeshift recording studio out of a bathroom. They did this not because of the acoustics, but because Richards thought the sound of a toilet flushing mimicked applause.
Number Nine: His Dressing Room Was Camp X-Ray
While on tour, each member of the Stones would get his own dressing room. Richards decided to name his “Camp X-Ray” which appears to be a Guantanamo Bay reference.
Number Eight: He Drinks Nuclear Waste
Richards is well-versed in booze, but his drink of choice is quite interesting. He likes to mix two ounces of vodka with one ounce of orange soda and plenty of ice.
Number Seven: He Is Crazy About Shepherd’s Pie
According to Mick Jagger, there were two rules for when the Stones went on tour. The first rule is that nobody plays on the snooker table unless he has been asked, and the second: “…you never, ever, take the shepherd’s pie unless Keith Richards has broken the crust first.”
Number Six: He Almost Burned Down the Playboy Mansion
Richards and saxophone player Bobby Keys accidentally set a bathroom in the Playboy mansion on fire at a party in the 1970s. He was so drugged up that he did not realize what was going on when the mansion’s staff broke into the bathroom.
Number Five: He Used to Live in a Nazi Mansion
The place where Richards and partner Anita Pallenberg moved in France was actually a local Gestapo headquarters during World War II. When the two arrived, swastikas still adorned the radiators.
Number Four: He Enjoys Hugs
Apparently, Richards would rather hug and kiss than do anything else. He has written that he would go to bed with a woman just for the company.
Number Three: He Never Makes the First Move With Women
Richards has written that, in regards to approaching women, “I just don’t know how to do it. I’m tongue-tied.” Apparently, he seduces women by creating an environment of “insufferable tension.”
Number Two: He Once Mistook Police for Uniformed Dwarves
During the 1967 Redlands drug bust, Richards was extremely high on LSD and actually thought the police officers who came to his home were uniformed dwarves.
Number One: He Was Part of a Pirate Nation
Richards has described the plane the Stones used to get around as “a pirate nation,” and his flag was the iconic tongue.