Richards on Jagger: 'Like a marriage with no divorce'

Keith Richards, co-founder and guitarist for the Rolling Stones, says his partnership with frontman Mick Jagger is still a mystery to him.

The 66-year-old rocker, doing a series of interviews ahead of the Tuesday release of his autobiography Life, revealed he doesn't hang out with the singer outside of work, though the two will always be connected. "It's like a marriage with no divorce," he said.

He said Jagger would probably find him "too serious and idealistic."

Richards also said Jagger at one time "enraged him." It was during the 1980s and, the guitarist said, his pal thought he was "bigger than the Stones."

In an interview with CBS, Richards said Jagger was dismissive of his bandmates, indicating he wanted to go off and do solo recordings.

"He had set himself a separate agenda ... riding on the Stones' fame to do it. And I thought that was a cheap shot."

And in another interview with the BBC, he said Jagger also took control of the band in the 1980s. "In that period I had nothing to do with the running of the Stones. He assumed control, he assumed that he was the leader."

Eventually the two would patch up their differences and the Stones began touring a lot more in the 1990s.

Still, in reference to Jagger, Richards said, "[I'm] still trying to figure who the hell he is."

Blood transfusion story was his

Songwriting partners since their first meeting in 1962, Richards said he can't explain exactly how the two work out songs. Jagger usually comes up with the lyrics.

"They pop off the fingers actually, more than the head," Richards said of his tune-creating style.

Richards has been frank in his book and interviews, admitting how much he used to love heroin and recounting his many misadventures while on the road, including sexual liaisons and his competition with Jagger over the women in their lives.

Though he's given up hard drugs, he never had a problem with drug-taking, "only with policemen," Richards said.

He said he's the one who came up with the story that he had a total blood infusion in Switzerland because his system was so full of drugs.

"I created that myth because people wanted to believe that."

He also revealed his hardest moment came in 1976 when his third child with Anita Pallenberg was found dead in his crib.

"Two months old, I'm on the road and I get the phone call, 'Your son's dead.' That's the toughest thing."