According to the British tabloids, Rolling Stone guitarist extraordinaire Keith Richards has given up drinking. Richards has apparently not touched a drop in four months. Doctors have been telling Richards to stop drinking for years but he never listened before, famously claiming that he would never stop because he had outlived several doctors who advised him to give up. Even a drinking fueled incident four years ago where he suffered a brain hemorrhage after falling out of a palm tree in Fiji failed to knock some sense into him.
But the 66-year-old finally quit after getting strict orders from his doctor and watching fellow Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood’s life unravel through alcoholism, it has been reported.
A source close to the guitarist told The Sun: “He has always quite enjoyed the fact that he seemed to be able to carry on drinking as much as he liked with no real negative impact on his health. But he has watched Ronnie fall well and truly off the wagon last year and he doesn’t like what he sees. Plus he has started to feel for the first time like it might do him some good to give up the booze for a while.”
A friend also said last night: “There’s no guarantees that he’ll stay off it – but he’s doing really well so far.”
