Keith Richards explains how arthritis has changed his guitar technique
The Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards has discussed how his style of guitar playing has changed since his arthritis diagnosis.
Ahead of The Stones releasing their new album Hackney Diamonds on October 20th, which includes the singles ‘Sweet Sound of Heaven’ and ‘Angry’, Richards has detailed the difference in his guitar playing on the LP due to his health problems.
Although Richards has suffered from arthritis for many years, it hasn’t prevented him from playing with The Stones. However, he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme in a new interview: “Funnily enough, I’ve no doubt it has, but 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.”
The guitarist continued: “And also, 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. And so you’re always learning. You never finish school, man.”
The Rolling Stones founder has been playing the instrument for almost the entirety of his life, and earlier in the interview, he claimed he’s still yet to master the guitar. “The fascinating thing is that the more you play it, the less you know it,” Richards said. He added: “It provides you with endless questions. You can never know the whole thing. It’s impossible.”
The legendary rock ‘n’ roll group recently shared their new single ‘Sweet Sounds Of Heaven’ with Lady Gaga and Stevie Wonder. It’s the second track to be released from their forthcoming album.
Keith Richards provided an insight into the making ‘Sweet Sounds Of Heaven’ during the inaugural episode of the new BBC Sounds podcast Sidetracked with Annie and Nick, hosted by former BBC Radio 1 DJs Annie Mac and Nick Grimshaw. He recalled: “Lady Gaga came in and had definitely not been to bed, she was beautifully chaotic, and was like ‘I want to play you my new music and I was like ok, great!”
“Thinking, another time. And she took me into another studio and played me a song, and stood really close to me, which is my hell, and sung all her songs to me, in my face and she’d not been to bed and I had, and was like ‘oh yeah!’ trying to get into it. And it was good and I love her but it was just too much to handle,” Richards added.
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