The Arena Scene Suits Him

“Well, no, actually,” guitarist Keith Richards confesses with a hearty laugh when asked if he would ever pay $300 to see a rock group--which is what thousands of Rolling Stones fans are doing on the group’s first arena tour in two decades.

“That’s the great thing about being in a band,” the legendary guitarist says. “When I want to go to see someone, I just tell ‘em I’m coming and get a free pass.”

On the eve of the Stones’ stops Tuesday and Thursday at the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim, Richards, 55, spoke about what it’s like going back to arenas after years in stadiums, as well as the Clinton impeachment trial and the future of the Stones.

Question: How did you feel when you heard about the ticket scale of $30 to $300 for the new tour? Did you feel self-conscious about that top price?

Answer: I did wonder a bit when the prices first came up, including what effect it would have on the crowds. But it turns out it’s our usual fans. I guess these are just affluent times. You’ve also got to remember that most of the tickets are [way below] $300. We could have charged less, but we wanted to put on a real show and it costs money.

Q: What’s it like going back to arenas after all these years?

A: You can relax a little more. You’re not dealing with that extra element, . . . the weather. It’s a more controlled environment indoors. You can hear yourself better. You also kind of subconsciously scale down your moves and your performance. One always gets the feeling in a football stadium that exaggeration is part of the game, . . . that you’ve got to work at reaching the back rows. Indoors, you can relax more and just enjoy the music.

Plus, one of the things I enjoy about it is that makes it easier for us to change the set list, even if it’s just a psychological thing. We’re doing songs on this tour that we haven’t done in years, such as “You Got the Silver” and “Moonlight Mile.” With a stadium, you feel more [responsibility] to put on this big show, which tends to lead you toward the hits and to stick with the same songs show after show.

Q: Aren’t there some songs, such as “You Got the Silver,” that wouldn’t work outdoors?

A: That’s true. The guys were pushing me to do “Silver” last year on the “Bridges to Babylon” tour, but it’s a very intimate song, . . . a love song, . . . and I was afraid it would get sort of lost in a howling stadium. I felt I needed a more intimate surrounding.

Q: How much do you keep up with what’s happening in the world when you are on tour for months at a time? Did you watch things like the Super Bowl? Follow the Clinton trial in the Senate?

A: You’ve always got TV in the room, so it’s a matter of how much you want to know . . . or what you can’t avoid. I missed the Super Bowl. I must say that’s one piece of American culture that escapes me. I’m into some sports. I can watch basketball and some tennis and soccer. But I’m a rugby fan, which is why I have a hard time with American football.

On Clinton and Monica, the whole thing astounds me. There you are Numero Uno and everybody around the world is looking to you for support and you’re tearing yourself apart over [an act of oral sex].

Q: When do you start thinking about the next tour?

A: By the time this tour ends in London in July, I know we won’t want to do any shows for a bit, but there is already a lot of lively conversation about how to handle the next step. Maybe we won’t do such extended tours, maybe just a month here and a month there. There are all kinds of ideas being floated.

Q: If you ever decide to stop touring, do you see yourself going through a formal “farewell tour”--or do you think you’ll just call it quits?

A: I don’t think we would ever put a name on it because I don’t think we would know ourselves until the end. It could well be that we do a couple more tours and one of them might be the last one. If we got to the point where we felt it was time to stop, we’d probably stop rather than say, “Let’s do another 100 shows and then stop.”

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The Rolling Stones play Tuesday and Thursday at the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim, 2695 E. Katella Ave., 8 p.m. Sold out. (714) 704-2500.