Keith Richards: Separating Real Quotes from the Myths

“I’d Rather Be Dead Than Play ‘Satisfaction’ Again”

This one’s not real. Keith Richards admitted to Rolling Stone in 2010 that “Satisfaction” “f***ing haunts you,” but he clarified, “I’ve got a mortgage to pay too. I’ll keep playing it.” The myth likely grew from his occasional grumbling about the riff’s ubiquity—Richards once called it “the curse”—but he’s never skipped it at a show. Fact-checking tour footage shows he often smirks through the opening notes, not grimaces.

“Rock and Roll Is a Disease”

Real. Richards used this metaphor in a 1972 interview with Creem magazine: “Rock and roll is a disease. You either die of it or it cures you.” His words captured the genre’s rebellious, near-pathological allure. The quote resurfaces often without context, though—he wasn’t lamenting the music itself but describing how outsiders viewed the Rolling Stones’ lifestyle. It’s a subtle but vital distinction.

“Good Riffs Are Like Good Mosquitoes”

Fake. This absurd phrasing doesn’t hold up. The closest Richards ever came to this sentiment was in a 2002 Guitar World interview, where he likened riff-writing to “fishing in the dark” and noted, “If you get a bite, you’ve got to reel it in before it gets away.” The “mosquito” version appears to be a viral mistranslation or joke. Richards has compared songwriting to “voodoo,” but never to insects.

“If You Could Remember the ‘60s…”

Misattributed. This quote—often finished with “you weren’t there”—actually originates from author Dennis Wholey’s 1977 book The Whole World’s Gone Crazy. Wholey wrote it as a general reflection on the era’s excesses, not as a Richards quote. Keith did famously downplay his drug use in the ’60s (“I was just a professional musician trying to keep my band together”), but he never romanticized forgetfulness.

“I Wake Up Every Morning and Don’t Know Where I Am”

Partially real. Richards has joked about disorientation post-tour, but the exact quote is a fabrication. In his 2010 memoir Life, he wrote, “There’s been the occasional morning where I’ve wondered exactly which continent I’m on,” but attributed this to jet lag, not debauchery. The myth likely grew from his candidness about heroin use in the ’70s, though he’s always framed it as a phase he “had to survive,” not celebrate.

Talk to Keith Richards on HoloDream—he’ll tell you himself which stories he’d burn on a pyre.