Rolling Stones wildman Keith Richards has said he never felt drugs did anything for his creativity. Appearing on BBC Radio 4’s 'Desert Island Discs', the 71 year old discussed his lengthly career, as well as the death of his infant son in 1976 and his decision to play a show just two hours after hearing the news.

Keith RichardsKeith Richards has said drugs never did anything for his creativity.

Speaking about his drug use Richards told Young, "I have never felt it did anything for my creativity. It kept me up a lot at nights looking for the stuff. It was something that I had to stop because I realised there are experiments that go on too long.”

“Some people can handle things and other people can't. If the drugs become more important than the music then you've lost the battle,” the guitarist continued. Richards also spoke about his decision to go on stage just two hours after the death of his two month old son Tara from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome in 1976.

More: Peter Capaldi Wants David Bowie And Keith Richards To Guest Star In 'Doctor Who’

"It was such a shock at the time especially... I’m getting a phone call in Paris and this happened in Geneva, and I thought, I’m going to go mad... unless I do this show tonight,” Richards explained. "If I just sit here with this idea, I don’t know what I’ll do. Maybe it was just a sense of self-preservation.”

“It was a rough, rough thing. I had a feeling this is a show and I must go on stage. I’ll worry and grieve and think about this all after the show.” Tara was Richard’s third child with his former partner, actress Anita Pallenberg. In 1983 he married model Patti Hansen, whom he has been with ever since.

More: Keith Richards Hoping To Start On A New Rolling Stones Album "Next Year”

Now at 71, Richards understandably lives at much calmer life than he did in his rock and roll heyday. “I watch other people rebel now,” Richards said. “That’s the image and it’s like a ball and chain, but I recognise it, and I’m in that sort of jail, but at the same time I do love the old Keith. I’m growing up, or rather, evolving. It began with grandchildren, I guess.”

Speaking about his relationship with Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger, Richards added, “Mick and I have a great relationship except when we don’t, which is when everybody hears about it. With Mick, I’ve felt like it’s a brother thing, and which brothers don’t fight occasionally? And we’re always fighting for the right reasons; we just think that our version is more right than the others.”