Keith Richards snorted cocaine mixed with dad's ashes

Keith Richards, the greatest rhythm guitarist and a founding member of the internationally popular British musical group The Rolling Stones, admitted he has snorted the ashes of his late father during a drugs spree.

Richards made this shocking acknowledgement in an interview with New Musical Express (NME) magazine publicized Tuesday.

"The strangest thing I've tried to snort? My father, I snorted my father," he told the NME. "He was cremated and I couldn't resist grinding him up with a little bit of blow (cocaine). My dad wouldn't have cared, he didn't give a shit,” the Rolling Stones guitarist further told NME.

Richards also told the interviewer that his father's ashes "went down pretty well" and he is “still alive”.

But Richards’ manager, Jane Rose, said the sixty-three-year-old guitarist’s claim that he had snorted his father's ashes mixed with cocaine was "said in jest". Rose further said that she could not believe the claim had been taken seriously.

However, NME interviewer Mark Beaumont is convinced that Richards, whose fondness for drugs has been openly acknowledged for decades, was not joking when speaking to him about the alleged incident.

An NME spokeswoman echoed Beaumont’s claims, saying the story was genuine and not a late April Fool's joke.

Born at Livingstone Hospital, East Hill, in Dartford, Kent, on 18 December 1943, Keith Richards is the only child of Bert Richards and Doris Dupree. His father Bert, who was a factory laborer got slightly injured during World War II, died at the age of 84 in 2002.

The veteran rocker also recounted his worst drugs experience. "It was when someone put strychnine in my dope. It was in Switzerland. I was totally comatose, but I was totally awake. I could listen to everyone, and they were like, 'He's dead, he's dead!', waving their fingers and pushing me about, and I was thinking, 'I'm not dead!'," he recalled.

Richards told the music magazine that his survival was the result of luck. "I've no pretensions about immortality," he added. "I'm the same as everyone ... just kind of lucky,” said Richards, one of rock's legendary wild men.

Richards also told about his accident in April of 2006 which left him facing brain surgery. He was injured in an accident last year while on vacation in Fiji. Although details of the accident are sketchy, Richards says, but it was widely reported he had fallen from the tree.

"I wasn't climbing a tree," Richards said, "I was sitting on a shrub. I was sitting on that shrub again today, but I happened to fall off it the wrong way that day."

In May he underwent brain surgery in Aukland, New Zealand and by the end of May he was back home in England. The Rolling Stones postponed concert dates to accommodate his recovery.

Richards has written and recorded numerous songs for the Stones with his songwriting partner and Stones lead vocalist Mick Jagger. His lineup of numbers includes Satisfaction, Jumpin' Jack Flash, Miss You and Start Me Up.

Currently, the globally popular English rock band, “The Rolling Stones” is in the middle of their A Bigger Bang tour, which will return back to the UK in June.