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 15 things you probably didn’t know about Keith Richards. Check out part one below, and stay tuned for part two, coming soon!
Number Fifteen: He Does Not Sleep Very Much. In his autobiography, Richards wrote that he only slept for about two nights every week for many years. This gave him a lot of time to be creative when most people were fast asleep.
Number Fourteen: He 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 Thirteen: 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 Twelve: 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 Eleven: 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 Ten: 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 Nine: 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.”