What Keith told his cancer-hit mum about snorting his father's ashes

Yet it has emerged that not everyone was so amused by the grizzled Rolling Stones guitarist's claim.

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Keith's family, who are currently fighting their own very personal battle, are understood to have been so taken aback by the claim, which attracted worldwide attention, that they pushed him to make a retraction.

Keith has now put out a statement claiming that his words had simply been a joke, the meaning of which was "lost in translation".

The reason for such sensitivity within the Richards fold is that Keith's mother has recently been diagnosed as suffering from cancer.

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Five weeks ago she was moved from the small terraced house she shared with Keith's stepfather William in Dartford, Kent, to a private hospital near Chichester where Keith has a home.

Since returning from the Stones's most recent world tour, Keith has kept a bedside vigil. Doris's husband William revealed she first become sick 10 months ago.

Speaking to the Mail last May, at around the same time Keith was undergoing brain surgery after falling out of a coconut tree in Fiji, William spoke of his hope that his beloved Doris would recover.

He said: "This all seems to have happened at the same time.

"When Keith became ill we already had a lot on our plates. But just as Keith is as strong as an ox, so is my Doris and I'm really hoping she'll pull through."

Sadly, Doris's condition is not understood to have improved.

Family sensitivities are understandably running high - and it was against that background that Keith's comments about his father emerged this week.

Richards made headlines around the world with his extraordinary comments in an interview with NME magazine.

He described mixing the cremated remains of his dad, Bert, who died in 2002 aged 84, with cocaine and snorting them during a drugs bender.

Realising the furore his comments had caused, and the resulting upset among his family, Richards backtracked on the claim the very next day.

"The complete story is lost in translation,' Richards said in a new statement.

"The truth of the matter is that I planted a sturdy English oak. I took the lid off the box of ashes and he is now growing oak trees and would love me for it.

"I was trying to say how tight Bert and I were. That tight."

He added: "I wouldn't take cocaine at this point in my life unless I wished to commit suicide."

NME magazine is standing by its story. Mark Beaumont, the journalist who conducted the interview, insisted it had been no throwaway joke.

"He didn't offer the information, I had to ask him a couple of questions to get the information out of him.

"He didn't come straight out with that," Beaumont said.

A source close to Richards said: "In retrospect it was an unfortunate comment.

"And it was not met with too much enthusiasm in the Richards fold, who have their own worries at the moment."