The Last Word

The vocal legend on the price of fame and the wisdom that comes with age

You survived a lengthy bout with Covid last year. How are you feeling now?

It’s terrible. I got long-term Covid, where you get better from the virus, but you have leftover [symptoms]. Apparently, they now think that you do get better from long-term Covid; it’s not forever. That is good.

On your new album, you recite poetry by Keats, Shelley, Wordsworth, and many others. What makes a good poem?

There are certain technical aspects that I really enjoy, like alliteration and really good rhyming. I think a really good poem has a rhythm to it.

Like music, choice of words is very important. It’s quite a big thing, a great poem.

You became famous when you were a teenager. What’s the best part of success and what’s the worst?

The best part is that some people start to appreciate and like your work. The worst part is fame, isn’t it? I think fame is pretty awful. The really, really famous people that everybody loves, they die — like Princess Diana. That’s a very extreme example of what fame can do. And there’s this awful thing I’ve been watching about poor little Britney Spears. Christ. Luckily,

I’ve never been quite that famous or that grand, and certainly not that rich.

And anyway, [my fame] was only for quite a short time. The rest of it has been solid, plugging hard work.

You wrote in your memoir that the law of pop music is you have to give yourself away to get anything. Was anyone ever exempt?

Really, only a couple made so much money that they didn’t get ripped off. The Beatles, the Stones, but both of them had moments where they were being ripped off. Let’s not think about that, for God’s sake.

‘She Walks in Beauty,’ Faithfull’s album with Warren Ellis, is out now.

You managed to beat your heroin addiction decades ago. What did you learn from that time in your life?

I just wish I’d never touched any of that stuff, and cigarettes and even alcohol — actually all of it. I’d be a lot better now.

You’ve recorded your first hit, “As Tears Go By,” three times in your career — first when you were 17, then at 40, and most recently when you were 71. What age is the best for singing that song?

I liked the last one, the one I did on [2018’s] Negative Capability, best. It took me a long time to really get it. I thought the first one was just too bright and breezy and poppy, and the second one was too sad, and the third one is really balanced.

It’s interesting that a song that you sang as a teenager takes on more significance with time.

As you grow up, yes, of course it does. It was a very weird thing to do, to give me that song to sing when I was only 17. Both Mick [ Jagger] and Keith [Richards] were 21 or 22 when they wrote it, but they are very brilliant.

How did dating Mick around that time make you a stronger woman?

I don’t know if it did. It almost destroyed me. Although it was wonderful, it was only four years. It was a wonderful time, and he was great, but I don’t think I fit into that life or what he wanted in a woman,

that’s all. I couldn’t do it.

What did you learn from Rolling Stones manager Andrew Oldham all those years ago?

Oh, God, not much. He obviously gave me something, I suppose; it was through Andrew Oldham that I met Mick and Keith.

You wrote about how he misrepresented your character and turned you into this rich aristocratic kid, which wasn’t you at all.

Oh, yeah. I was “the angel with big tits.” Thanks a lot, man.

What do you feel younger generations could learn from yours?

I would say, ideally, to be kind to yourself and compassionate to yourself and others. Don’t judge yourself too harshly. If you can, stay in the moment. That’s what I did. I mean that gets harder, of course, as you get older, but I still try.