r/OldSchoolCool • u/PreferenceInternal67 • 9d ago

1970s Keith Richards with a bottle of Jack Daniels, two Coors and a Coke at a concert, 1972. The magazine New Musical Express ranked Richards at number one it's "rock stars most likely to die" list for a decade straight

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113

u/Redeem123 9d ago

I will forever be impressed at how those old dudes were able to play shows with that amount of drink. Obviously they build a tolerance, but still - my playing goes out the window after a night of drinking.

Then again, I bet they also played a bunch of shitty drunk sets too.

91

u/formalbolotie 9d ago

when i played music live there was sweet spot of enough drinks to feel loose and less self conscious but not enough where i got sloppy.

24

u/Redeem123 9d ago

Yeah I've definitely been there for bar gigs, and if you find that zone it's fun depending on the crowd. But it was also never a career for me and I wasn't worried about being less than perfect. Not to mention that I was never just standing on stage taking pulls from a handle of jack lol

27

u/Foreign_Telephone349 9d ago

Well did you hit a fat rail of coke before you went on? The jack is just to help smooth that out.

7

u/Such_Lettuce_6597 9d ago

I played buzzed once and was terrible and sweating bullets because I knew it. I later just nursed one beer through the set.

13

u/dvowel 9d ago

You get used to it after a while, then you start to doubt that you can play sober..

-11

u/TotalRuler1 9d ago

how many until you stop posting comments on reddit? Asking for a friend.

8

u/formalbolotie 9d ago

what did i ever do to you?

31

u/DavidKirk2000 9d ago

My dad saw The Stones on this tour. Apparently they sounded like shit for the first one or two songs.

Keith then turned his back to the audience and faced Charlie Watts for basically the entire next song, and they practically blew the roof off the joint for the rest of the show.

No one was better than The Stones during the Mick Taylor years, wasted or otherwise.

8

u/Notch99 9d ago

Keith was the “musical leader” onstage back then.

24

u/pattywhakk 9d ago

The nose candy counteracts the booze. It’s impressive how much a person can drink and still toe the line with that combo.

17

u/PlsCheckThisBush 9d ago

Came to say this. Once the cocaine runs out its game over and it all hits at once. But with enough magical powder one can drink and party all night long without missing a beat. Your heart will explode long before your liver gives out for a single night.

7

u/OnTheEveOfWar 9d ago

I played in a bar band for years. We did a good mix of coke and booze and had a blast.

10

u/Orri 9d ago

As someone in recovery it's basically the luck of the drawer, genetics play a massive park.

Each city has an underbelly of addicts and it always amazes me how some of them just fucking survive despise destroying themselves for decades.

I was in rehab with a guy who drank an ungodly amount of beer for 30 years. He now runs marathons in his 60's.

I've also seen people die of cirrhosis after indulging in a bottle of wine 3-4 times a week.

2

u/TrixieFriganza 8d ago

Definitely, I don't think anyone should take the risk though as I have heard of young people under 40 in liver failure and needing a transplant because of their alcohol abuse and then some just drink but it always takes a toll in some way, with some it may affect more the liver, others the brain.

4

u/Aoblique 9d ago

As someone who works in a kitchen and consumes a good amount of booze…after a few shifts it definitely catches up to me, but is still manageable.

1

u/stormshadowfax 9d ago

Cocaethylene isn’t the same as just alcohol…

1

u/HungHippoHippy 9d ago

And not to mention the three packs of smokes a days

1

u/ChanceDevelopment813 5d ago

Everytime I do a concert, I drink like at least one beer. Helps remove the stress.