Posted by 2000 Man on April 05, 1999 at 20:35:43:
In Reply to: A theory posted by Syph on April 05, 1999 at 16:45:41:
I agree with Keno. I'm sure it was more than one event. No one makes a decision to change their lifestyle that much (though Mick may not have changed as much as some would like you to believe). Mick has always been pretty stable and responsible for his own actions. He's the one that was using his opporunities in education to learn somehting useful, while Keith was learning to play guitar and smoke dope. Mick lets people imply whatever they want about him, as long as they write it down. Mick also says what interviewers want to hear. It's the nature of the biznis and he's the master.
Keith even lets things build up without defending himself. It's not hard to do an interview session with rock writers (mostly stupid and in awe of Keith), and set a bottle on the table at noon, and drink slowly while the nervous interviewer gets as plastered as a heavy Saturday night. The interviewer goes off saying "After drink after drink with Richards he still was ready to make the late night recording session." Not that Keith hasn't done an inordinate amount of drugs, but there are ways to make it seem like you're superhuman when you're in a position like Keith or Mick.
Altamont was bad (and I'll post something about that later), but the Stones were used to riots at concerts. The 69 tour was the first one where people weren't being beat up, and were actually listening. If any people could handle a disaster like Altamont, it would be the Stones.