The Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards has said he’s had to adapt his guitar playing as a result of his arthritis.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, the 79-year-old admitted that he has “no doubt” the condition has affected his playing ability, noting: “I don’t have any pain, it’s a sort of benign version.
“I think if I’ve slowed down a little bit it’s probably due more to age.”
He added: “I found that interesting, when I’m like, ‘I can’t quite do that any more,’ the guitar will show me there’s another way of doing this.
“Some finger will go one space different and there’s a whole new door just opened here.”
The Stones musician owns more than a thousand guitars and has decades of experience in the music industry under his belt, but humbly insisted that he’s still “always learning”.
“You never finish school, man,” he said.
Keith, who plays on the band’s forthcoming new album Hackney Diamonds – the legendary rockers’ first studio album in 18 years – also told the BBC 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,” he said.
However, Richards did recently reveal the two musical genres he just can’t get on board with, going so far as to call one “rubbish”.
The first reviews of Hackey Diamonds will be music to every fan’s ears, with Elton John, Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder and Lady Gaga all featured on the new release.
Hackney Diamonds is the Stone’s first new record since the death of drummer Charlie Watts, who died in 2021, aged 80, after being with the rock group since 1963.