Hanging out with rockers who were five to seven years older than he was, Noone was awestruck by the company he was keeping, but determined not to repeat their mistakes. He took his role with the band seriously and treated himself like an athlete, getting to bed on time so he was ready to perform.

"They (other rockers) were kind to me," he says. "I was tolerated as the cute kid. They were protective. Keith Richards would warn me that he would beat me up if I ever got into drugs. All these people ended up being drunk and foolish, and they're the ones who warned me. That's the thing about drugs — people think they can get away with it. I remember a teacher told me that alcohol was the drug of disappointment. I always remembered that."

Looking back, he says he wanted to be a "cultural anthropologist," exploring the pop-music scene of the era. Here are a couple of his anthropological observations:

• On the Rolling Stones: "They were pretending to be tough street guys, but really they were grammar-school twits. The Beatles were the tough guys. They could've beaten you up if they had wanted to. I remember thinking it would be exhausting to pretend to be someone else your whole life. Mick is a very educated man. He has a degree in economics. If you had dinner with him, you would have a very engaging conversation. But if he's interviewed, he becomes this Johnny Rotten character."

• On the British Invasion: "We had great enthusiasm. We were all kids whose parents had just fought in a war and everything was a mess. There were rations. Children at my school died of diphtheria. Paul McCartney and I can both remember the first time we saw a banana. I know the date and the year. ... So we had great enthusiasm for life and its possibilities. That's what we were all smiling about. People paid us to play music. We traveled the world — people paid us to go on vacation. We were smart enough to be grateful."

As he says this he is staring out the window of his house on a golf course in Santa Barbara. "I can see Oprah's trees from here," he says.

Something tells us he's into something good.

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Doug Robinson's column runs on Tuesdays. Please e-mail drob@desnews.com.