Keith Richards doesn’t own a mobile phone as he thinks it’s a “drug” – and hates pop music and ‘wokeness’.
Keith Richards doesn’t own a mobile phone as he thinks it’s a ‘drug’ – and hates pop music and so-called wokeness
The Rolling Stones veteran, 79, said he prefers to lose himself in a book as it keeps him “sane” instead of listening to the charts and trying to pander to the modern version of ‘political correctness’.
He told The Daily Telegraph newspaper: “I don’t want to start complaining about pop music. It’s always been rubbish. I mean, that’s the point of it.
“They make it as cheap and as easy as possible and therefore it always sounds the same; there’s very little feel in it.
“I like to hear music by people playing instruments. That is, I don’t like to hear plastic synthesised Muzak, as it used to be known, what you hear in elevators, which is now the par for the course.”
He added about rap: “I don’t really like to hear people yelling at me and telling me it’s music, AKA rap. I can get enough of that without leaving my house.”
The Stones have paid attention to so-called wokery as in 2021 the group announced they would no longer play their 1971 single ‘Brown Sugar’ after it was criticised online for its take on slavery and rape.
But Keith said: “We’re all trapped in that (wokery) – it doesn’t matter whether it’s music or not.
“I mean, there’s some things you can't do any more, because people are frightened.
“They’re frightened of saying the wrong thing. They’re frightened of upsetting anybody. Fear will do amazing things to people.”
He added he considers mobile phones a “drug” everyone is “stuck” on.
Keith told the Telegraph he doesn’t own a cellphone, blasting: “It’s a strange old world that we’re left with, until it washes away and we drown in our own c***.”
He went on about how he prefers to escape now he’s given up drugs and only drinks occasionally: “I've always got a book on the go. It keeps me sane.
“And, you know, it’s possibly somewhere I hide.
“I’m not cut out to be a pop star, and I have to deal with it, but it is a pain in the ass sometimes, quite honestly.
“And so, now and again during the day, I just retreat into books.”
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