At 64, Keith Richards hasn't mellowed. With Shine A Light, Martin Scorsese's documentary on the Rolling Stones, recently released, he could focus on the autobiography he is co-writing with James Fox, the author of White Mischief. Or he could begin cataloguing his 3,000 guitars. Either way, he won't worry much about the planet, despite starring in the recent Louis Vuitton ad, for which service Vuitton donated a fee to Al Gore's Foundation.

I've been invented by the media. I'm just a minstrel. I didn't want to be a rock star, just play music. I realised that to do that, you had to be famous. It has nothing to do with wanting to be a star.

The Stones weren't competitive about what they wore. The tailor Andrew Oldham had worked with the Beatles - he gave them those suits with no collars. We got uniforms to begin with. We threw them out in a week.

Bill Wyman is the biggest dandy. But Charlie Watts is the most stylish member. He spends his time on the beauty and the cut of clothing. There he is on Savile Row, and I'm the fashion icon? When I got older I wore my old lady's clothes. If you notice, all the buttons are the other side.

I wore whatever my mother put me in when I was little. Boring shorts and wee T-shirts. I wore school uniforms. I hated brown shoes. I started dressing up when I had to find what fitted. Fashion thinks more about me than what I think about it. I just wore what I wore and people noticed. The sexiest thing a woman could wear? Being stark f***ing naked.

Show me a woman who is faithful, and I won't believe you.

I don't do underwear. I never do the washing. How would I know whether my clothes stink? I throw them away.

I love books ... a well-dressed mind! Patrick O'Brian, Milton and Shakespeare are my favourite writers. And then the Bible. King Lear is my favourite character who isn't insane. It's only people who are insane who think they're not.

How did I discover the blues? When I first heard Robert Johnson.

Skulls remind us that underneath it all, we are all the same. Beauty is only skin-deep.

I can't say I'm bothered about the fate of the planet. I got a guitar case out of Louis Vuitton. They paid me a lot of money and it's all going to charity. I'm going to charity.

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