NEW YORK - On a night he was honored for his way with words, Keith Richards was clearly winging it.

"This is one for the books, if you get my drift - you hacks," the 67-year-old Rolling Stones guitarist joked on Tuesday as he accepted the Mailer Prize for Distinguished Biography, a prize earned by his million-selling memoir Life.

Wearing tinted glasses, a long scarf around his neck and a wide red band around his sprawl of salt and pepper hair, Richards stood before hundreds dressed in suits and gowns at the Mandarin Hotel in Manhattan and loosened up as if presiding over a celebrity roast. He chuckled. He swore. He reasoned that since he had been writing - songs - since age 16, his appearance at a literary event was not a total "intrusion".

It had been an evening of earnest speeches about the importance of writing and education, about the disparity of wealth and the lasting lessons of the Holocaust, the latter point articulated by Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, winner of the Mailer prize for lifetime achievement.

"You've heard from some incredible people about some serious stuff," Richards acknowledged, before bringing the subject to his own demons, his longtime heroin addiction. "The only serious stuff I'm interested in I've given up."

The Mailer awards are named for Norman Mailer, who died in 2007, and are sponsored by the Norman Mailer Center and the Norman Mailer Writers Colony.

Former president Bill Clinton, who introduced Richards, was for once a supporting star. Clinton noted that his late mother-in-law, Dorothy Rodham, was an avid fan. "Do you have any idea what it's like to have a 92-year-old groupie living in your home, a woman who lived and breathed for the Rolling Stones?" Clinton said of Rodham, who died on Nov 1.

Not long ago, Richards came to visit with Clinton and family in the Caribbean. He charmed Rodham, who changed her clothes just for the occasion, and made a point of kissing her hello and kissing her goodbye.

No Stones fan in the 1960s, or Richards, could have imagined a former president as his pal or that he would have been associated with the word "distinguished". And few would have believed an encounter between Richards and Tony Bennett shortly before the ceremony.

The 85-year-old Bennett, the kind of pop-jazz crooner the Stones displaced on the charts, approached Richards' table and introduced himself. The two embraced, chatted and posed for pictures. Bennett later explained that Richards had sent him a nice note about his new album, Duets II.

"I just wanted to thank him," Bennett said.

The gap has not entirely closed. Asked if he had any favorite Stones song, Bennett responded that he had never listened to them.

Associated Press

(China Daily 11/10/2011 page10)