The Night Time Is the Right Time Keith Richards' Lost Weekend

I learn a lot from my kids, and my grandkids about solidarity,

about, you know, that you are part of something.

Is it the family, Beaver Patrol, Rolling Stones?

That you're part of something has always been important to me

and my kids prove it.

I mean, they could have turned out totally different, you know, but...

Good mums...which is absolutely the most important thing.

I mean, your dad, one thing, OK.

He might be there, you know, provide support and that

but it's really the mother.

God bless their hearts.

So what you got from your mum comes around

in the way you deal with your kids?

Yeah. It's got to. It must. Your kids and grandkids.

You know, it's a pass-it-on affection for each other.

Woo!

Any moment now there's going to be a fierce outbreak of ska.

And ska is the new beat from the West Indies, from Jamaica.

The new sound to replace, perhaps, the Mersey Sound.

In fact, you might call this the Mersey-less Sound.

# It's good to be wise when you're young

# Cos you can only be young but for once

# Enjoy yourself and have lots of fun

# Serve God and live, my friend and it will never done

# Enjoy yourself

# It's later than you think

# Enjoy yourself

# While you're still in the pink

# The years go by as quickly as you wink

# Enjoy yourself, enjoy yourself

# It's later than you think

# Get wisdom, get knowledge and understanding

# Those three were given free by the maker

# Go to school, learn the rules don't be no faker

# It's not wise for you to be a footstool

# So enjoy yourself

# It's later than you think

# Enjoy yourself

# While you're still in the pink

# The years go by as quickly as you wink

# Enjoy yourself, enjoy yourself

# It's later than you think. #

Daylight's come

and I want to go home

but all they want to do is ska.

Merle Haggard also died in this year.

Yeah, one of the great country singers of all time.

And a hell of a guitar player. Yeah.

I'm going to miss you, pal.

COUNTRY MUSIC

# I got a barrel of flour Lord, I got a bucket of lard

# I got a barrel of flour Lord, I got a bucket of lard

# I ain't got no blues Got chickens in my back yard

# Got corn in my crib Cotton growin' in my patch

# I got corn in my crib Cotton growin' in my patch

# I got that old hen a sittin' waitin' for that old hen to hatch

# Yodel-ee-oh hard times

# I'm gonna hitch up my mule and take a holt of my line

# I'm gonna hitch up my mule and take a holt of my line

# Lord, I can't be bothered with all those old hard times... #

Go ahead and pick one.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

# I can make more money with my pick and plough

# I can make more money with my pick and plough

# With my one-eyed mule and my good ole Jersey cow

# Yodel-ee-oh hard time blues. #

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE Thank you.

Merle Haggard.

Always admired Merle throughout...

About ten years ago...

I'm doing a TV show

with Jerry Lee Lewis and Willie Nelson

and there's another guitar player

with a straw Stetson and a grizzly beard and...

..and he's playing, man, you know.

Woo.

I just turn round,

we look and we smile and nod...

and as I turn back, I...

"Jesus Christ. That's Merle Haggard."

HE LAUGHS And we took another...

We're still playing, you know.

And we give each other a nod and a wink.

So, when the rehearsal's over, we went backstage

and it was like old friends who had never met.

GUITAR PLAYS

# My momma told me

# She said, Jerry Lee

# That old graveyard's a mighty lonesome place

# They send you six feet under

# Shovel the dirt directly in your face. #

History always interests me.

I always want to know who did what and why because...

in that case I might not make the same mistake.

HE LAUGHS You can learn from it, yeah?

It seems like a lot of kids today don't know their past.

Or even have a...even have a wish to know their past.

This is where it's weird to me.

I'm still finding out about my maternal grandparents.

Reprobates, all of them. HE LAUGHS

Cos if you don't know the past,

you can't do anything about the future, can you? No.

You've got no point of reference, right?

I remember when I first met you, you were halfway through

Gibbon's Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire.

Yeah, I never finished. THEY LAUGH

You got that far. I got through the decline, the fall - I left out.

Talking of empires, America - damn big country.

HE LAUGHS

That sense of space,

John Ford Westerns,

I mean, even though he used the same set forever -

Monument Valley.

Looks like you've got yourself surrounded.

Yeah, and I figure on getting myself un-surrounded.

You can't go wrong

with Monument Valley, you know?

Amazing.

Modern America was also incredibly fascinating.

Everything that was any good was coming out of America

and especially music.

Hank Williams.

His influence, I mean, goes on and on.

I mean, a great songwriter -

his songs get recorded through generations.

And, you know, you're not just, like, for your time,

your stuff transcends.

An amazing songwriter.

So simple, so heartfelt.

I've got a song here that I'd like to do

that's been awful kind to me and the boys.

It's bought us quite a few beans and biscuits.

This is the best song we've ever had...financially.

A little tune called Cold Cold Heart.

# I tried so hard, my dear, to show

# That you're my every dream

# Yet you're afraid each thing I do

# Is just some evil scheme

# A memory from your lonesome past

# Keeps us so far apart

# Why can't I free your doubtful mind

# And melt your cold, cold heart?

# Another love before my time

# Made your heart sad and blue

# And so my heart is paying now

# For things I didn't do

# In anger, unkind words are said

# That make the teardrops start

# Why can't I free your doubtful mind

# And melt your cold, cold heart?

# There was a time when I believed

# That you belonged to me

# But now I know your heart

# Is shackled to a memory

# The more I learn to care for you

# The more we drift apart

# Why can't I free your doubtful mind

# And melt your cold, cold heart? #

APPLAUSE

Hank wrote the future for country music

in a matter of a couple of years.

The guy was dead at 29.

I mean, a lot of his songs are very, very optimistic -

"Hey, good lookin', Whatcha got cooking?"

You know, at the same time the man is in agony.

You know what I mean?

And, believe me, I know all about agony.

What about Jimi Hendrix?

I first heard him in New York City at a club somewhere under the...

buried under the Brooklyn Bridge.

And he did a version of Wild Thing...

HE LAUGHS ..live.

And, you know, I was there with Mick and Brian, I think...

"Whoa, boys, time to get on your toes."

HE LAUGHS

"This cat is one..." You know, it was a pack of dynamite.

INTRO TO VOODOO CHILD

# Well, I stand up next to a mountain

# I chop it down with the edge of my hand

# Hey!

# Well, I stand up next to a mountain

# I chop it down with the edge of my hand

# Yeah

# I pick up all the pieces and make an island

# I might even raise a little sand

# Hey, baby

# Cos I'm a voodoo child, child

# Lord knows I'm a voodoo child, baby

# Yeah

# I'm not going to say another thing

# I didn't mean to take up all your sweet time

# I'll give it right back to you one of these days

# I didn't mean to take up all your sweet time

# I'll give it right back one of these days... #

Man, try to top it off.

# If I don't meet you no more in this world

# I'll meet ya on the next one

# And don't be late

# Don't be late

# I'm a voodoo child, child

# Lord knows I'm a voodoo child, baby... #

I still... I mean, I am not a great guitar player.

I can create sounds that nobody can dream of, but as...

I'm no Segovia, or...

or a Jeff Beck, even.

You know?

Because I don't work at it that way.

I try to create something I hear inside,

and it's always been inside me

and, you know, I keep trying to get it out!

HE CHUCKLES

I've no, like, real recollection of thinking about it.

I just wanted that thing in my hands to see what I could do with it.

Because I was hearing other people

do wonderful things with that instrument, and it was...

It was something that came fairly easily to me. It felt natural.

I could not tuck a violin under my chin,

and I certainly could never blow into saxophones

or any other wind instrument,

because I've got to talk when I'm playing.

HE LAUGHS

Maybe the shape's got something to do with it.

HE LAUGHS

You know, it's beautifully feminine.

It was and still is a continual...

.."learn me" thing. You know, that you don't stop.

The book doesn't... There's no "The End".

Usually, the most lurid creations of the world of pop music

have been the first to vanish.

The most shocking and the most outrageous disappear

as their shock value is absorbed.

Very few have lasted the pace over two whole decades.

What's remarkable about the Rolling Stones

is that they were more shocking than most, and as original as any,

and they're still around and more popular than ever.

Tomorrow, they return to London, their hometown,

for the first concerts in six years.

All 144,000 seats for the two shows have long since been sold out.

The guitarist Keith Richards has been shy of publicity

because, for ten years, he was a heroin addict.

Now, in a rare television interview,

he discusses both the group's future plans

and his own past struggle with heroin.

Keith Richards only comes out at night.

On the night before the Stones' Paris show,

he met us for a rare television interview.

I have an apartment here, and...

So it's kind of handy if I'm around Europe,

I sort of gravitate towards Paris and, er...

As much of a base as anywhere, as you say.

But do you live very much at night? I mean, it's almost midnight now.

Yeah, it seems to work out that way.

It's night-time.

I generally keep the curtains drawn.

The Stones' ambition, as far as it went when it started,

was to have three or four good club gigs around London -

just enough to keep the amplifiers going

and keep yourself in guitar strings -

and play rhythm and blues...

..to English audiences. Up until then, we considered,

that nobody had really done that, you know, and...

But we couldn't see it getting any bigger

than three or four back rooms of pubs, you know.

And we certainly weren't in it for the money!

You know, we wanted to preach the gospel of rhythm and blues.

It's like, idealistic kids, you know.

The thing is, in this band,

everybody supports - happily - everybody else, you know. And, er...

Which is probably one of THE main reasons

that we're still playing together, you know.

We actually enjoy playing together.

And still it's fun for us.

It's like a very well-paid hobby!

MUSIC: Honky Tonk Woman by The Rolling Stones

He may have been playing it for 13 years,

but Keith Richards still crashes enthusiastically

into Honky Tonk Woman.

# Hey

# I met a gin-soaked bar-room queen in Memphis

# Yeah, she tried to take me upstairs for a ride

# The lady covered me in roses

# She blew my nose and then she blew my mind

# It's the honky tonk, honky tonk woman

# Gimme, gimme, gimme the honky tonk blues... #

All right, sister.

For fellow musicians and Stones enthusiasts,

Keith Richards is one of the great guitarists.

For the public at large, he's been the Rolling Stone

most often in trouble, almost always for drugs.

For ten years, he seemed to be in and out of court.

Redlands, his house in West Wittering, was raided in '67,

and police said "various substances" were found.

He was jailed for a year, but released after an appeal.

Ten years later, in Canada, it was even more serious -

he was arrested in Toronto and charged with trafficking in heroin.

The fans around the courtroom knew that if he was jailed

for a lengthy period, it would be the end for the Stones.

He's not like everyone of us, he's different.

He's Keith.

In the event, he was given a suspended sentence,

told to continue his treatment to cure heroin addiction,

and ordered to perform a concert for the blind.

After the Toronto incident, Keith Richards says he gave up heroin.

Eventually...

..in Toronto, yes. The very fact that I was...

..a total junkie for almost ten years...

..leaves me now realising that it didn't worry me too much then

because of the very nature of heroin, you know.

Nothing worries you.

HE LAUGHS

It's a very gradual thing to get into.

It's a very easy thing to take and get into,

and very incredibly difficult to get off.

The black market, especially in heroin,

is very, very dangerous because they're totally unscrupulous,

and they have nobody to answer to.

So you could find yourself

taking just one great big dose of strychnine. I mean, that's...

I mean, that's why there's such a high fatality rate

amongst musicians, especially, because...

..it is...

It goes along musicians' lives and always has done, you know,

because of the ups and downs, the adrenaline, the energy,

the making the gig the next day when you're totally drained and it's...

it's passed on from one generation of musicians to the next, you know.

And looking back on it, I'm amazed that you...

get onto it a lot earlier, you know.

Getting off of it takes so long because by the time it's got you,

you don't... As I say, you're not thinking clearly about things.

Toronto made me realise that this was it, you know what I mean?

This time...

If I made a break with it and got...

..out of the court hassle, another time, it would be it,

and I was jeopardising the lives and the future of my children,

the guys in the band and not just myself.

That made me realise it wasn't just me,

it was going to affect everybody that I care about, you know.

And so, in a way, they did me a favour. God bless the Mounties.

There were a couple of times in New York...

These people have incredible set-ups that work out, you know,

look out for the cops and suddenly some paranoid junkie would scream

that they're coming and in a couple of seconds,

bullets would flood into the wall and just...

"Oh, forget it! I'll cold-turkey."

But, yeah, New York can be real rough on that.

So you'd have to wander out among these guys

after a concert or whatever? And the next time,

you'd take a gun with you. HE CHUCKLES

That was it, you know, I carried a piece in those days.

How long did you carry a gun for?

Till I stopped being a junkie, you know,

until I didn't have to deal with that any more.

That's just a vital part of self-preservation, was it?

Yeah, because you'd buy the stuff,

walk down the stairs and they'd have their mate waiting down the stairs

to stick you up and take it back again, you know.

So, can't have that, can you?

Has your whole approach to life in general changed

over the last five years or has it...?

Well, it's given me more time to live a slightly more normal life

and to be interested and to be able to follow through interests.

I mean, I can now sit there and read a book occasionally or...

go out and see other acts rather than being stuck in

a basement somewhere waiting for the man to come, you know.

Against many expectations,

Keith Richards hasn't just survived the '70s,

he's survived in excellent form.

On stage, his guitar sparring partner is Ron Wood,

another distinguished veteran rock 'n' roll raver

who tends to go around with Richards when they're on the road.

# Gimme the honky tonk blues. #

Oh, yeah!

'He's setting more of an example...'

Thank you!

'..to me these days than I am to him.'

When I first met him, he used to be, like, the...

..guy up there somewhere who you often couldn't communicate with

unless you had a baked-bean can and a piece of string or something.

But, no, he was hard to get through to

if you weren't on his wavelength

so I've seen him when he was really heavily into the dope,

which everyone knows about, and now that he's not,

he makes me feel guilty, you know.

If I have too much to drink, he's like, "Oh, Woody, keep it together."

"Oh, my God."

Do you have any ambitions left after 20 years with the Stones

or has that fulfilled most of it? I never had any...

..definite ambitions in the first place.

I guess the one, if there is a general one, it's connected

with the band in that we're still trying to make the Stones...

..a better band, we're still trying to get better,

and I guess we all think we are because we wouldn't get these guys

to do it if they thought that they'd reached the point of no return,

if it was just there, you know,

"Oh, here we go, let's just do the Rolling Stones."

They go on every night, I know every one of them does,

with the idea of making this show

a little bit better than the one before...

which is admirable, I think.

They're very good boys... HE CHUCKLES

..in a way.

What would you do if the Stones, or when the Stones, as they must,

eventually broke up?

Well, I don't know... Just keep playing?

I actually read something the other day which said

after the first Scottish gigs, which sort of suggested that there was now

no reason why the Stones couldn't beat Sinatra and Bing Crosby,

which I thought was an amazing kind of comparison...

But you see, the thing is, with rock 'n' roll,

is that nobody's ever done it that long enough for the idea of...

older people to play it, you know,

which no doubt people thought about jazz in the '20s.

It would be inconceivable...

Nobody thought that Louis Armstrong could keep going more than...

Exactly. ..25 or 30.

But I mean, I played with Muddy Waters, for instance,

in Chicago, and he's no young guy any more

but he's playing as good as anybody, and if he can do it, sure I can...

..given the few obvious things

like not having my hands chopped off or anything like that.

STATIC CRACKLES

MUSIC: Love Overdue by Keith Richards

# Listen, darling

# Who's gonna hold and squeeze me tight

# Now that she's gone out of my life?

# Who's gonna make me feel the way she used to do

# Now that my love is overdue?

# Now that my love is overdue

# I'm all alone in the wilderness

# Searching to find some peace and rest

# She wasn't the best girl

# But she brought happiness into my world

# And now I'm a prisoner of loneliness

# Yeah

# Now I'm a prisoner of loneliness

# Now I'm a prisoner That's what I am

# Now I'm a prisoner Mm-hm

# Now I'm a prisoner of loneliness

# Listen, darling

# Whose voice is gonna say goodnight

# Now that she's gone out of my sight?

# Who's gonna tell me lies and let me think they're true

# Now that my love is overdue?

# Now that my love is overdue

# Now that my love is overdue

# I just don't know what to do, honey, yeah

# Stop making me blue

# Making me blue Stop it, babe

# Now I'm a prisoner Yeah

# Stop making Me blue

# Now I'm a prisoner

# Yes, I'm a prisoner Making me blue

# Now I'm a prisoner Just stop making me blue

# Making me blue

# Now I'm a prisoner

# Stop it, baby Making me blue. #

People are more interesting at night.

In the daytime, it's just the grind, you know,

and it's at night-time that people, whoever they are

and wherever they come from, relax, express themselves more openly.

MUSIC: Mal Eleve by Raoul Guillaume Et Son Group

There are rhythms and sounds to the night that you're not going

to get in the day and it depends where you are in the world

but in the Caribbean, for instance,

I mean, those frogs start honking and those cicadas -

that's a whole different kind of music and a different rhythm,

you know, and you get affected by it.