Keith Richards Explains How Arthritis Changed His Guitar Playing

Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards spoke about how arthritis has affected and changed his playing in a new interview with the BBC. He also revealed why it took 18 years for the band to release its latest album, and how they won’t be calling it quits anytime soon.

Richards reported that while he’s certain arthritis has affected his playing, he doesn’t really notice. “Funnily enough, I’ve no doubt it has, but I don’t have any pain, it’s a sort of benign version [of arthritis],” he told the outlet. “I think if I’ve slowed down a little bit it’s probably due more to age.”

The legendary shredder has found that, if he can no longer execute a certain move, his body will often rewire itself and find a new way of doing it. “I found that interesting, when I’m like, ‘I can’t quite do that anymore,’ the guitar will show me there’s another way of doing it. Some finger will go one space different and a whole new door opens.”

Richards continued: “The fascinating thing is that the more you play it, the less you know it. It provides you with endless questions. You can never know the whole thing. It’s impossible.

“And so you’re always learning. You never finish school, man.”

Richards is out promoting The Rolling Stones’ new album Hackney Diamonds. It marks the band’s first album of new music in nearly two decades. “From my point of view, the essential thing about making a record is that the singer has to want to sing the material,” Richards told the BBC “jovially.”

“Mick, given a song that he’s not interested in, can really make it bad,” he confessed. “And that’s maybe one of the reasons it took 18 years because Mick’s waves of enthusiasm come and go.”

Despite the extended waiting period for new material, Richards says: “We’re not looking at each other and saying, ‘time’s up’…Of course, it’s going to end sometime, but there’s no particular rush. We’re having great fun doing this.”

Hackney Diamonds is available on October 20.