Rolling Stones Legend, 82, Reveals the ‘Childish’ Bad Habit He Quit After More Than 50 Years

Keith Richards has kicked his last bad habit after deciding it made him look “childish” in his 80s.

The Rolling Stones guitarist, 82, looked back on his eight decades and what keeps him going in an interview with The Guardian published on Friday, June 19.

Keith, who plays alongside Ronnie Wood and Mick Jagger, smoked heavily for more than five decades before he decided to stop.

Talking to the outlet, Richards reflected on his long life.

“I tended to listen to my body just before it screamed for help,” he said. “I mean, I wasn’t far from the end of the runway before I screamed for help. But you tend to slow down if you want to keep going; you pace yourself.”

The Stones cofounder added, “Suddenly, I felt like after all these years of smoking, because, you know, a man smokes, I was sat around with this silly thing in my mouth thinking: how childish. It was that that put me off more than anything, although I smoke a lot of weed.”

Looking back on his career and his life so far, the guitarist said he is getting older but has no plans to “mature.”

“I mean, you do suddenly turn around and say: Christ, I’m 82. It’s a long thing to look back on. But it’s a fascinating thing, especially now we go into the whole great-grandkids thing. They suddenly give you another mirror to look into where you’re from. I don’t know: is it called maturing or something like that? God forbid,” he said in the same interview.

Richards has spoken about the change before. In a 2022 interview with People, he said the habit no longer crosses his mind.

“It’s funny, I don’t think about it much anymore,” he said.

“Sometimes, you know, a bell rings and something inside says, ‘Hey pal, enough.’ I just put the hammer on it. Luckily, I don’t miss it, and that makes me feel good. Until I started rehearsing for the tour last August, and then I realized that I had 10 times more wind.”