“I look at my hands and say, ‘Well, let’s see what we can do today’“: Keith Richards opens up on how age and arthritis has changed his approach to playing

Keith Richards has opened up on how age and arthritis has changed his approach to the guitar, as he continues to adapt his chops to prolong his playing days.

Richards is one of the most decorated and celebrated rhythm guitar players of all time. Still going strong to this day, Keef continues to hammer his electric guitars with the Rolling Stones – but he’s having to make some adaptations.

The man who has written some of the greatest guitar riffs of all time went public with his struggles with arthritis in 2023, and it’s forced the 82-year-old to change tack.

Asked in the new issue of Guitar World whether he plays fewer notes these days, he says, “Yes, I do, because I'm not as fast as I used to be.”

“At my age, what I find most interesting about the guitar is you can compensate for certain disabilities and nimbleness and find other ways of getting around the problem,” he adds. “And it teaches you another thing – you never stop learning with the damn thing. I love it, and it's my friend forever.”

Richards isn’t letting his body get in between him and his guitars. A wider fingerboard is one compensation he's had to make, but he doesn’t use his hand pumps to aid his pre-show warm-ups as much as he should.

"Well, I do have arthritis and very large knuckles," he says when asked how his hands are holding up. "They don't hurt, but it does get in the way sometimes. I'm going for a wider fingerboard for that reason.

“Honestly, I just look at my hands, and my hands look at me, and we say, ‘Well, let’s see what we can do today,’” Richards adds. “And that's the way I play guitar. I look at it and say, ‘We've got nothing else to do. Come Here. I love you!’”

His love of the six-string – which is, admittedly, sometimes reduced to five – is reflected in two new signature guitars with Gibson. The Collector's Edition models are painstaking replicas of his go-to axe.

In related Richards news, he recently confessed to having no recollection of writing one of his most iconic riffs, and says he laughed his head off when a legion of shredders emerged from the Sunset Strip in the 1980s.

He's the cover star of the latest issue of Guitar World. Copies can be ordered from Magazines Direct.