Creativity Quote by Keith Richards

Keith Richards’ genius here is the shrug. “I never thought I was wasted, but I probably was” lands like a punchline delivered from the back of a limo: half confession, half dodge, and entirely calibrated for survival. The line is built on a sly split-screen. On one side, the self in the moment - invincible, functional, narrating his own legend. On the other, the older Richards letting the reader see the blur without fully re-living it.

The specific intent isn’t repentance so much as control of the narrative. Richards has spent decades as rock’s patron saint of excess, a walking tabloid archetype. If he outright condemns the myth, he risks sounding sanitized; if he glorifies it, he’s trapped as a cautionary cartoon. So he chooses the elastic “probably,” a word that keeps the truth at arm’s length while admitting enough to feel honest. It’s accountability with plausible deniability.

Subtext: intoxication isn’t just chemical, it’s cultural. In the Stones era, “wasted” functioned as both a state and a brand - proof you were living louder than the ordinary world. Richards hints at how that ethos distorts perception: you don’t experience yourself as impaired; you experience yourself as the main character.

Context matters, too: he’s one of the few who made it to old age with the myth intact. The line acknowledges the cost without offering the neat moral arc audiences crave. It’s not redemption; it’s a wry report from someone who outlasted the party and still refuses to let anyone else write the caption.