The release of the 25th Rolling Stones studio album, Foreign Tongues, is just three weeks’ away, which means rounds of interviews for the three remaining core members of the band. And, right on cue, Keith Richards has been sharing his thoughts on where the Stones are at in 2026, his relationship with Mick and technology.
So, what do we find out? Well, regarding the latter, you’ll be unsurprised to hear that Keith is not a fan of modern tech. The 82-year-old guitarist says he's “had it up to here with technology… I mean, personally, I think the world would be better off without the damn phone. AI is killing me, you know. Do I fear for the future of music? I fear for the future of everything. They don’t know what the hell it does, so now we all dangle and wait.”
His relationship to tech extends to “an electric kettle and that’s about it, pal”.
He and Jagger don’t cross swords as much these days either, he suggests: “There’s not as much jousting. He’s broken his sword, he’s broken his lance. It’s another thing that Mick and I gave up, probably down to age. Or at least he hasn’t come at me for a while, so I presume we have.”
“Mick’s been very prolific lately,” he says, “which is one reason this album has come out so quick, because he won’t bloody stop. And the momentum from Hackney Diamonds was such that this is basically carrying on in the same breath. I was just letting it roll – we had enough stuff if we wanted to keep pushing, and so Mick and I gave each other the usual wry look and said: ‘Yeah, let’s keep pushing.’”
Hilariously, Keith seems to have no idea Robert Smith of The Cure is one of the guests on Foreign Tongues: “How did it happen? Don’t know. I wasn’t there. Andrew [Watt, producer] said: ‘Do you mind if I put in so-and-so?’ And I said: ‘No, man, if it’s a piece that’s necessary, do it.’ So that’s how he got slipped in.”
He’s more at ease waxing lyrical about Chuck Berry, whose Beautiful Delilah the Stones cover as the album’s closing track: “There’s something about those early records of his,” he says. “They have an ease about them and a sophistication in a way, particularly in the lyrics, which always made me think that rock ’n’ roll didn’t always have to be the way that everyone used to think about it.”
“I loved his naturalness when he was playing, the way he moved – his whole body became part of the guitar. He made me focus on what was possible for me, at the time, which made my mother shell out for an electric guitar. I just felt a natural affinity for him, even though he was a cussed bugger.”
“He punched me once, years ago, in the 60s, I think,” he reveals. “We were in his dressing room, I was having a peek at his guitar and I was just about to stroke it, and he went: ‘Nobody touches it!’ And bam! Quite right, Chuck! I would have done the same.”
