Keith Richards is more interesting than a tree. I have a blog article about a species of tree ready, and I will probably publish it next week, but I have been reading Keith Richards autobiography lately, and his life holds more fascination for me than a tree. I enjoy reading biographies of rock stars because they experienced unfettered lives when they were youthful and had all the money, women, and drugs they desired. Keith Richards has been the guitar player for the Rolling Stones for about as long as I have been alive. (They are going on yet another farewell tour this summer, and Mick Jagger and Keith Richards are 80 years old.) The Rolling Stones are one of the greatest rock bands of all time with a deep catalogue. My favorite Rolling Stones songs include “Can’t you hear me knocking?” “I know (it’s only rock’n’roll but I like it),” “Brown Sugar,” “Gimme Shelter,” and “Shattered.”
Keith Richards grew up in a working-class household in England at a time when the English economy was struggling to recover from World War II. He had a low opinion of the educational system in England at the time he went to school. I’ve also read biographies of Ozzy Osbourne and Bernie Taupin, and they share his assessment. Keith learned to play guitar in his teens and was soon covering Chuck Berry songs. Chuck Berry along with Muddy Waters and Chicago blues artists were his biggest influences. He didn’t live far away from Mick Jagger who was able to get blues albums from Chess Records directly–hard to get items in England at the time. The two of them formed the Rolling Stones and started writing songs together. When the Rolling Stones first toured England they opened for the Everly Brothers, but by the time the tour ended the Everly Brothers were opening for them. This was before the Stones even had any hits and were merely covering Chicago blues songs.
Keith Richards is an exceptionally innovative guitar player with a unique sound. He changed the strings around on his guitar to give him the sound he was seeking. It sounded so good, Ike Turner of Ike and Tina Turner forced Keith at gunpoint to show him how he was playing his guitar. Keith created the famous hit, “Satisfaction,” in his sleep. He says he woke up one morning and played back a cassette. He heard the riff for “Satisfaction,” then 10 minutes of snoring. He also learned he liked the way his acoustic guitar sounded distorted when he played it back on cassette. Songs such as “Jumping Jack Flash” sound like they use electric guitar, but actually Keith was using distorted acoustic guitar. Oddly enough, “Start me up” was originally a reggae song. For years the group couldn’t get it to sound right until they played it as a straight up rock song. It became one of their most popular songs that they usually use to begin their concerts.
On the Stones first tour of the U.S., they played in some southern cities including Nashville and Memphis. Keith recounts how the white side of town would be completely closed by 10:00 pm, so the group would cross the railroad tracks where most of the black side of town was still jumping with juke joints playing music and serving booze all night. He’d wake up in the morning in bed with his face in some black woman’s enormous cleavage, while her mother served them breakfast in bed.
Photos of Keith Richards when he was young and old. Considering his unhealthy habits, it is surprising he is still alive and performing strenuous rock concerts at the age of 80.
The entire band took a great variety of drugs. Keith met a Jewish survivor of the Holocaust who was a fan of the band. He was a shady businessman and owner of drug stores where doctors on the take agreed to send people for recreational drug prescriptions. He supplied Keith with pharmaceutical grade cocaine, a much purer form than could be found on the street. However, it was heroin that got Keith into the most trouble. He was a junkie throughout the 1970’s and early 1980’s. When he was on heroin he would stay up for many days, working on his music. His record for being awake was 9 days straight when he suddenly collapsed, stumbled down some stairs, and finally fell asleep. He was busted for drug possession in several countries including England, France, and Canada. Canadian authorities tried to nail him for distribution (a minimum 10-year prison sentence), but the judge sentenced him to give a free concert to blind people. He finally got the monkey off his back in the early 1980’s.
A more remarkable story involves Keith’s bandmate, Bobby Keys–the saxophone player. On the way home from a tour of Asia the band had to stop at customs in Honolulu. Bobby forgot he had hidden a heroin syringe in his saxophone. The customs agent turned the saxophone upside down to look at the serial number, and the syringe fell out and landed needle side down, like a dart in a dart board, on the customs agent’s desk. They arrested Bobby, but the rest of the band had already left for the continental U.S. The only number Bobby had to call was Mr. Dole, owner of Dole Pineapple who gave him his business card when he caught Bobby fooling around with his daughter in his mansion. Mr. Dole had enough influence to get the charges dropped.
The band members left England to avoid paying an 85% tax rate. They became non-resident citizens to prevent the government from confiscating so much of their wealth.
Keith enjoyed countless groupies, but he had 3 important lovers in his life. His first great love was Anita Pallenberg, actress and former girlfriend of fellow bandmate, Brian Jones. Keith basically stole her from Brian, but that relationship had been falling apart for some time. Keith and Anita had a lot of fun together, and the relationship produced 3 children. She also was addicted to heroin. Their relationship couldn’t survive their mutual addiction. Keith moved on to Lil Wergelis who helped him get over his addiction to heroin. Keith has nothing but good things to say about Lil, but he admits he “dumped” her for Pattie Hensen, a Vogue cover girl model. He is still married to her some 40 years later. At the time he met her Mick Jagger was also dating a supermodel, and in my opinion Keith might have wanted to keep up with Mick.
Keith and Mick are the heart of the Rolling Stones. There was some resentment between them in the late 1980’s when Mick attempted to kindle a solo career but mostly played Rolling Stones songs on his tours. Keith played guitar on tour with a reggae group, then formed his own band known as the X-pensive Winos. Keith and Mick reunited and have played together on many mega-tours since.
Reference:
Richard, Keith
Life
Back Bay Books/Little Brown and Company 2010
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