United Kingdom, June 21 -- Keith Richards gave up smoking because he thought it was "childish".

The Rolling Stones rocker quit nicotine six years ago, although he still smokes "a lot of" marijuana, because he knew he needed to start looking after his body if he wanted to stay alive.

He told The Guardian newspaper: "I tended to listen to my body just before it screamed for help.

"I mean, I wasn't far from the end of the runway before I screamed for help. But you tend to slow down if you want to keep going; you pace yourself.

"Suddenly, I felt like after all these years of smoking - because, you know, a man smokes - I was sat around with this silly thing in my mouth thinking: how childish. It was that that put me off more than anything,...