Keith Richards: Photos From the Rolling Stones’ Billboard Cover Shoot

Under a poolside garden canopy in West London, Mick Jagger offers me a tongue-in- cheek choice as we sit down: “Should I be polite and English or shall I be rude and New York-like?” The English rocker, who lived in New York for 18 years and was knighted in 2003, is smirking — but one gets the impression he could readily slide into either mode. The Rolling Stones frontman can code switch in a Jumpin’ Jack flash, talking as comfortably about physics and aviation as pop stars and bluesmen.

Forty-eight hours later, when I sit down with Keith Richards in a Manhattan jazz club for a separate chat, he offers no such options: Keef is simply Keef. If the 82-year-old Jagger is polished and detail-oriented (he gives feedback on the placement of our chairs relative to the camera filming our conversation, and notes that an overhead airplane must be “old-fashioned” because he can hear its propeller), Richards, also 82, is relaxed and slyly mischievous, full of rumbling chuckles and one-liners about everything from smartphones (“I feel Toytown eludes me”) to his grandchildren (“there’s these little creatures rolling around that sort of vaguely remind you of somebody”). They may share an obsession with American blues and R&B, but the Glimmer Twins are far from identical. And since their debut recording 63 years ago, that oil-and-water alchemy has fueled the greatest rock’n’roll band in the world.

Read the full Rolling Stones Billboard cover story here and check out Mick Jagger’s Billboard cover photo shoot here. You can watch the full video interviews with Jagger and Richards on Billboard’s YouTube channel.