23/11/2012 The One Show

Good evening. When we were given the chance to record the One Show

backstage at the rehearsals with the Rolling Stones, how could we

turn it down? Exactly. Charlie is practising the drums behind that

wall. Mick and Ronnie are downstairs, chilling out, and

sitting opposite us, Mr Keith Richards. It is only Keith

Richards! How are you? Very well. Have you ever had a letter about

the knighthood? They have not mentioned it lately. Would you say

yes? I wouldn't contemplate it, know. Plain and simple, what has it

been like being in the Rolling Stones for 50 years? It feels like

100. Joking aside, it is quite amazing. You do not think about

these years. I think at the beginning of this year, we were

starting to get some fans saying, what are you going to do? We

finally had a meeting and we said, what are we going to do? We have to

do something. And it built up from people out there that actually made

this happen. We hear a lot about these meetings. Is it in a house,

on a plane? We meet in meeting rooms. And it is also ludicrously

formal. A table, with a pen and a pad. And a couple of lawyers. And

then it usually degenerates into a farce. And then you say yes.

signed off and that is that. It is amazing you can remember any of

this. Did you not top a poll as the next celebrity most likely to die?

I was at the top of the charts longer than most people on that

category. But I dropped off the perch a long time ago. You are

looking all right. There are times when I wake up in the morning and I

do not believe I have woken up. What was that period like? Kind of

hazy. I have a good memory, but there is that spot that is a bit

hazy. But in actual fact, I functioned perfectly well. I was

being harassed with my own demons and then the cops. So it was

turmoil, really, but I got used to it. Having the Beatles there at the

same time, did that make you the band that you are? There was no

competition. But in the greater world, they were the Fab Four. That

is wearing the white hat. The only other place to go is to wear the

black cat. -- the black hat. At the same time, we were pretty natural.

We did not showbiz ourselves up. pivotal point was when you

scampered off to France together, and here is what you had to say

about it. I felt a lifting of the weight that I did not realise was

on me. 9-10 at night, until seven or eight in the morning. The idea

of playing a note before the sun went down was ludicrous. It was

like Dracula. We were actually basically forced, economically, out

of the country. Because I think they had given up trying to put us

in jail. It just wasn't working. They scratched their heads. They

didn't like us. The idea was to split us up, which they did, but at

the same time they kept us together. They just learned how to work on a

global scale, I guess. The Rolling Stones are obviously big business,

big money. If you had to send a member of the band out to bat for

you, negotiating, who would you send out? Definitely Mick, but with

Charlie in reserve. The quiet assassin. Let's talk about Ronnie

Wood, your other arm. Do you agree that had he not joined when he did,

the Rolling Stones would never have got to be the supergroup that they

were in the 1980s? Definitely, without Ronnie Wood we would not

have had the cohesion to stick together. He came along just at the

right time. With a guy like that around, you have to hang around,

because he is so damn funny. He is a lovely man, isn't he? There is a

great feeling in the band right now. Kind of weird. You keep waiting for

the bubble to burst. Keith Richards, everyone! Three more to come.

ask for your stories about you and the Stones, here is what you said.

My stories about Mick. I am the number one fan of the Stones, and

Mick, I still think you are tasty. In 1963 a young girl in Surrey was

starting a fan club. I got my membership card back, and I was

delighted to see her was number one. I got the opportunity to meet them.

My biggest thrill was kissing Mick Jagger. I did not wash my lips for

weeks after that! My story is about Keith in the 1970s. On one bank

holiday, I went to West Wittering, where he has a home, to get a copy

of a biography signed. Keith was there. That was the good news. The

bad news was that he had a rifle with him and a bottle of Jack

Daniels. An interesting combination. I am looking down the barrel with

my hands in the air, clutching my book. There cannot be many people

who could point a gun at you and you still end up loving them. Keith

Richards is a diamond geezer. story is about Ronnie Wood. We was

at school together. He was a brilliant artist at school. My

husband bought me this beautiful painting. It is a painting of Pete

Townshend and Keith Moon of the Hu, that Ronnie did. I never thought I

would get one of your drawing is. That is my pride and joy, and I

love it. My story is about Charlie Watts, who I first met when I

worked at WH Smith in 1965-66. He came in one morning, as he always

did, to get his papers. He gave me an envelope which I assumed was a

cheque for his account. When I opened it, there were two tickets

inside for Wembley. The New Musical Express pop poll Winners Concert.

What a bill. I was very fortunate to be there and I want to take this

opportunity, Charlie, to thank you for the wonderful memories that

that show gave me. Hear hears, the hero of that film,

Mr Charlie Watts. -- here he is. heard about the tickets being given

away free gig when it was here, when it was called the Empire Pool.

You have hired out Wembley Arena, just to rehearse. That is a nice

thing to be able to do. It is very extravagant. In fact, this was our

catering when we played at the stadium, so we have gone down in

scale. The whole thing? Yes. When I was a boy, I used to come here ice

skating. I did not ice skate, but I watched the others, and ice hockey.

So I know this part of the world since I was five. We have a picture

of you when you were quite young. Have you seen this before? No. I

drew that on the front. That was supposed to be Buddy Rich. That was

the first drum kit my dad bought me. How old were you? 12. That was

taken by Nick Rayner, who played at your first public appearance.

remember Nick Rayner. He lived four doors away from me. When you are

putting live dates back together, is in a phone call to you that is

the dangerous one? We are only doing five shows up to Christmas,

but to do those, you have to rehearse as much as you would to do

150 to get to the same... If you do not play a lot, which we do not,

your hands of to get used to playing. This seems a lot of effort

for five shows. It is a lot of effort. Bloody hard work, actually.

Are there any plans past these five shows? My thing is, if we are

standing at Christmas, we will see. This is the 50 thing. I always said

to Mick that we are known for playing, so we should play

something. And it has got up to five now. By Christmas, who knows

what we decide? What do you do when you go off? Nothing. But I never do

anything. So I don't know. A wife always says, you don't do anything.

And I don't, actually. When I say, I'm leaving, Keith says, what are

you going to do? I think, what am I going to do? So you are caught,

really. Do you think you are miscast in the Rolling Stones?

should have been a singer? perhaps you should have been in

another banned altogether. I have never fallen into celebrity rock

star thing. I have always looked at other people who lie in that world

with much more than rock'n'roll style. Charlie Watts, everyone.

is not just on stage the people raise hell. Here is Ruth Goodman

remembering an F1 driver that took rock'n'roll to the racetrack.

right! In this house in Sutton lived a

child who did just that, driving, and fast. And James Hunt became

just as famous for the playboy life he led in the other fast lane.

James Hunt had privilege written all over him. A and a life mapped

out. After A-levels, medical school was supposed to lead to a medical

career. But the wilful teenager was having none of it. He ditched the

Korea plans his parents had, after a trip to Silverstone on his 18th

birthday. The visit saw him change track, with dreams of becoming a

racing driver. The road outside would be his Test circuit. Quiet,

leafy Sutton had never seen anything like it. This neighbour

remembers it well. He used to drive up and down this road like a maniac.

I don't know what speed he used to do, but it was quite something. We

used to come out and say, James is off again. He made it to Formula

Three, where they nicknamed him Hunt the shunt. A wealthy sponsor

would take him to Formula One. What he lacked in motor racing knowledge,

he made up for with plenty of dosh. Murray Walker remembers the

excitement picks side. -- in the pits. We had never been and -- seen

anything like it. He would turn up with a picnic in the back and

champagne for everybody, and the flamboyant James Hunt. They were

totally different from anything we had ever seen in Formula One.

Andrew James knew how to party. had two daughters, and they went

out with him. I don't know what went on. I don't think I want to

know what went on. But my elder daughter said to me, mummy, James

should never get married. Anywhere he was, there was sure to be a

group of keen to please female fans. On the track, James was pleasing

the crowds, and his sponsors, too. In 1974, he won his first Formula

One race. Really tremendous! years later, he was crowned world

champion. I had always wanted to be a winner in life, as it were, and I

could never have called myself a winner if I did not win the World

Championship, because that was what I set out to do. When you achieve

what you set out to do, it is a good feeling. He had got his dream

but it soon became the stuff of his nightmares. He physically threw up

before every race, before he got in the car. It was a combination of

him losing interest and being all too aware of the danger Formula One

represented at that time. James retired from Formula One in 1979

after just five years. He got a job commentating at the BBC, but he was

never one to conform. Even royalty could not get him into a suit. He

became a millionaire, but lost most of it on the Stock Exchange in just

over a decade. At 45, his life was cut short by a massive heart attack.

If ever any body not only burns the candle at both ends, but in the

middle as well, it was James Hunt. In which case, James had packed

more into 45 years than I will ever pack into 90. There is little here

to honour their world racing car champion. So here is a plaque to

And James Hunt there, a rock-and- roll racer, and now a rock and

roller, Ronnie Wood. Where we would like to start his you getting a job

in the Rolling Stones, maybe the best of a guitarist could wish for?

Yes, not bad. It's all right. I have feathered and my nest. Jeff

Beck said he was in the Rolling Stones for a number, and I said,

some might! And that Bill Weimann said, so my! To do realise how much

The Rolling Stones needed to as a guitarist, but also to be a

galvanising figure. You may have saved the Rolling Stones. Yes,

without doubt, on a few occasions. It was a fragile ship when I joined.

They had been through many ups and downs and there was a bit of a grey

cloud. At the beginning, you were just an employer -- employee on a

salary, so how long did it take to feel like a fully-fledged member?

After an apprenticeship of 17 years, which I might add, to you

struggling musicians, went by it like that. Although it was not

labelled an apprenticeship, I felt out of respect that I would see p

in by osmosis into the Rolling Stones world -- seep in. You refer

to them as them, not we. I still look at it from afar. It is very

surreal for me to be in this unit that used to run home -- I used to

run home and watch on the television. Is it true that at a

party at Mick Jagger was in the middle, and Mick Taylor was there?

Yes, he leaned across and said he was leaving the group, and I leant

across, and I think he said he was leaving the group. And he got up

and walked out, and Mick Jagger said, what am I going to do? Have

patience! How soon after that way you in the studio? A year. How did

you feel doing the first gig with them? Even though I knew the music

I had never played the songs. At one point Keith Richards and I

hardly slept and we went through the songs. All of his songs go

through my head, and then on 1st June, in that on ruche, 1975, that

was my opening gig -- baton Rouge. Throw Tami! Whatever you've got. --

throw it at me. In at the deep end, but it was great. You have a couple

of new songs on the album, and you # I had a dream last night I was

piloting a plane. # What's it all about? #Set me in the dirt, feel it

OK, Mick Jagger still to come, and some people may have thought the

Rolling Stones were the harbingers of doom, but two sailors, it was

another creature, the storm petrel. Long before the shipping forecast

fishermen at sea warned them -- relied on a small bird to warn them

of impending storms. The aptly- named bird spends most of its time

where to see, but is pushed towards land during extreme bad weather. As

a result, sailors saw them as harbinger of -- harbingers of doom,

but they are called storm petrel because they appear to walk on

water, but as Peter was said to do with Jesus. Even seabirds have to

come to land to breed at some point. This gives the naturalist a small

window to study a bird that lives out on the open ocean. I am on the

Isles of Scilly with Jon Brown, who spent 30 years checking on the

population of the storm petrels. Of all the birds you could study, why

them? It is a magical bird. It lies miles be on the horizon of any head

land and it feeds out there and only comes to Land of an evening,

or a dark night. At nesting time they tend to be closer to shore,

which is why we are out hoping to catch a glimpse of them on the wing.

This consists of well-rotted macro. Storm petrel stock birds have at an

acute sense of smell. As soon as we put the charm of a man - the charm

and out, there Roberts coming like gannets. And then suddenly, one of

the smallest seabirds, about the size of a sparrow, skins into view.

Quite often it is choppy on the boat, and the birds keep their

distance. Luckily though, there is a chance to get closer. For just

three or four days a year, John catches the birds to check on the

health of the population and he does it as -- at night as they go

back to their nests. He needs to trick them to lure them in. That is

a bizarre call of nature. Why are they calling? They won the other

birds into the colony -- want the other birds. You can call them up

from about two or three miles by using the speakers. Storm petrels

only produce one chick per year, which has been left alone while the

parents feed it out at sea, returning with food when it is dark.

It is 10:30pm and we have caught our first storm petrel in the net.

Look at that. Then they are tiny. And you can see some of the

features, the beautiful white rump. The end of the winger, you can see

the white stripe. These tiny birds have been known to live for over 30

years. Compared with most garden birds that live for less than a

decade. They are incredibly adapted to living life at sea with nostrils

that can extract salt from the water and very special feed. The

most amazing thing is the feet. Astonishing that something that

small can survive out at sea. Marginally larger than a house

sparrow, almost impossible to see in the wild. What a stunning,

And what would be your favourite spot in the UK? The Isles of Scilly

look lovely. You can't get much further west than that. I've never

been there. It looks great. Where else can I go? You like Wales?

Our you fit for the big gig? You never feel really fit, it's not the

Olympic Games. Value-for-money is required like never before. People

would be bored to death. It would need to be so long. When you get

together and start rehearsing for a big tour, like now, do you think

you wonder what cracks will appear? If you are a professional, you pay

back over them. But in terms of you doing things that you were doing

aged 19. Now I'm not. I don't do those things any more! You are

still fronting a band. Don't make me do the splits any more. Do you

worry about it will do you think it will be great? You can't do things

like when you were 19th when you were my age. 50 years does give the

lie. What I want to do is make the show as energetic as I can. We have

been watching a documentary, and one of the stand-out scenes was

when you were being driven home from jail after spending a night

after a three-month sentence, and you're in a Bentley. How did that

feel for that morning? Being driven home from prison in a Bentley.

that was my car. You talked about getting no satisfaction and you

talk about dissatisfaction. Let's It's very easy if I feel

dissatisfied with something, I can write about it. Why are your

generation dissatisfied? Be as most young people are dissatisfied.

with? With that the generation they think is running their life. What

are you are dissatisfied with? generation that runs our lives.

you ever see yourself as a political figure? Know. I was never

keen on joining a political party. When I was at college I was at a

very left-wing College, and I never felt the joining of it. I like

football and I support Arsenal, but I'm not a rabid supporter. I am not

a staff wear. You say in that book and the documentary but there was a

time when a lot of people hated due, but then everybody loved you, and

it's sort have stayed that way. And it happened before you turned 40.

Was this the beginning of you been the establishment? He which did you

prefer, being the hero or anti- hero? In a funny way we didn't

really have a choice. OK, I will be an anti- hero, now I won't be. I

had no idea that our kind of slight scruffiness would turn into this

anti-heroic Act. In some ways we were swept along with the tide of,

but we helped ourselves to propel ourselves along. You have got to 50

years, but looking back, which decade of the Rolling Stones would

you keep? All of them. It is hard to choose. You have to pick one,

it's a quick show. Do I get a prize? The 60s was hilariously

funny. A complete mess, but the seventies was also very hedonistic

and lovely. Got some really good close. I've still got a lot of them.

Deduce style yourself? Yes, I went to shops and by the maddest things.

Later in the 70s I used to get designers involved making weird

things. You know the chaos and conflict that has existed in the

band, if he ran smoothly, you would get bored, I suppose? A at the

beginning of the Korea you're always together all the time. Then

after a while, you don't want to be together any more. How bad did the

get? Awful, awful. There are a lot of groups a lot worse than this

band. You hear the stories and you wonder how it was that bad. There

are so many. All of these bands hate each other. It's unbelievable.

It's far worse than us. A lot of people say that Keith is the one

that forces you to go off -- forces you back to work and go on tour. A

That's funny, where did you hear that? That's not right. The easy

your decision? I think, to be kind, it is a kind of group decision.

You'll have to want to do it to some extent. I always thought that

the 50th anniversary was a good time to say, OK, we want to do

something. Does everybody want to do something? And what would that

be? I suggest we just limit ourselves and don't take on 100

cities on a tour, we do something small and see how that goes.

what about the 60th anniversary then? Well, the Queen has managed

it. She had a good party. She did have a very good year and she has

stood row very long time, God bless her. If you want me to stand there