There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that Keith Richards, rhythm guitarist for that legendary rock and roll band The Rolling Stones, is enormously talented.
The founding member and corner stone of the band since its inception, Keith will have the audiences shuddering with delight at his on-stage, inspired and quintessential guitar riffs. But in the same breath he will have them shuddering with shock at the outrageousness of his off-stage antics.
The poster boy for the debauchery and hedonism that are an inevitable, albeit distasteful side of the rock and roll lifestyle, Keith Richards deserves an award for coming out of it unscathed, a tribute to his sheer longetivity and staying power. The excesses, the decadence of drugs and alcohol that he’d fallen into, would have destroyed a much lesser man.
But Keith simply attributes his durability to “sturdy stock”. Through it all, he’s managed to raise his talent up a notch or two, each time he’s entered the recording studio. Testimony to this is the fact that he’s been voted #10 on the list of the 100 great guitarists of all time by Rolling Stone magazine.
Born on 18 December, 1943 in Dartford, Kent, England, Keith Richards knew even in childhood that music was what made him happy. He was encouraged by his mother to listen to Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong, and his maternal grandfather, who was a touring jazz musician, taught him to play guitar. His all-time favorite musical idols were however Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters.
While in primary school, Keith befriended Mick Jagger who was his classmate as well as his neighbor. But in secondary school, Keith’s family shifted to another part of Dartford and the two boys lost touch. In secondary school, Keith sang with the choir and once, got a chance to sing before Queen Elizabeth II. He calls the experience “his first taste of showbiz”. Keith was expelled from school for playing truant and started devoting all his time to playing his guitar.
The Birth Of The Rolling Stones
In 1961, Keith Richards had a chance meeting with Mick Jagger who was traveling in the same train carriage as him. Keith was impressed with the imported LPs that Mick was carrying. They got down to talking about music among other things. The two rekindled their friendship when they discovered their mutual passion for Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters and bluesy rock and roll. That friendship blossomed into the birth in 1962, of the longest running rock and roll act in history, the Rolling Stones.
In the initial years of its life, the band mainly played cover versions of their favorite musical heroes such as Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters and Buddy Holly. Even in those days, Keith’s eclectic guitar riffs set the band apart from other acts of the era. Taking their cue from the Beatles’ John Lennon-Paul McCartney successful songwriting partnership, Keith Richards and Mick Jagger tried their hand at songwriting and found that the listening public loved the songs that they wrote. There was no stopping them after that and their collaboration spawned some of the greatest hits in rock and roll history.
Hitting The Big Time
In 1965, their singles ‘The Last Time’ and ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’ were released and they immediately shot up the charts to capture the top slots in both the U.K and the U.S. The latter song, said to be composed by Richards in his sleep, centers around one of his most inspired, fuzz-accompanied guitar riffs and is considered by many, to be the greatest rock and roll song ever. Newsweek described the riff as “five notes that shook the world” and the single fittingly set the pace for a string of compelling hits that catapulted the Rolling Stones out of the Beatles’ shadows and into the limelight as the premier band in the world.
The Rolling Stones – I Can’t Get No Satisfaction – Live 2007
Bolstered by the duo’s song-writing skills and spurred by Keith’s enthralling guitar riffs, they had a succession of hits like ‘Sympathy For The Devil’, ‘Honky Tonk Women’, ‘Jumping Jack Flash’, ‘Let’s Spend The Night Together’ and many more. Their success juggernaut was temporarily derailed by the sad demise of their guitarist and co-founding member Brian Jones due to the drug abuse for which the Rolling Stones had become notorious. Quickly replacing him with Mick Taylor, they were back with a vengeance, as successful as ever.
Keith Richards Rock Star Lifestyle
Meanwhile, even as the Stones marched ahead on the music front, Keith Richards was getting deeper into the abyss of drug abuse. He got embroiled in legal matters as controversies flew thick and fast. In 1967, he was arrested for the first time on drug charges that were mostly fabricated. Over the next decade, he was arrested at least ten times for possession of illegal substances. His substance abuse combined with his dependence on drugs and alcohol was coming in the way of his music.
The most serious case leveled against him was when he was caught in Toronto, Canada in 1977 with 22 grams of heroin in his possession. He was let off only on the condition that he perform a benefit concert for the Canadian National Institute for the Blind and undertake treatment for his drug abuse. Keith Richards honored the condition by performing two benefit concerts in 1979 for the blind, one with the Rolling Stones, and one with an ensemble he formed for the purpose, called The New Barbarians. The narrow escape finally managed to sober up Keith and he got back to his guitar, recharged and rejuvenated.
The dawn of the eighties brought the Stones some of their biggest successes in record sales as well as sellout tours. In 1983, Keith married model Patti Hansen and settled down to family life. Patti bore him two daughters Theodora and Alexandra, in 1985 and 1986 respectively. Around this time, major differences started to crop up between Richards and Jagger owing to the latter’s aspirations of going solo. Jagger’s solo career took precedence over his commitment towards the Rolling Stones which hurt Richards no end. He retaliated by going solo and forming a backing band called the Xpensive Winos.
Richards released his first solo album called Talk Is Cheap in 1988, which was quite successful and went gold. In the single ‘You Don’t Move Me’ from the album, he hit out at Jagger for placing his own interests before that of the band. The subsequent tour to promote the record was also very successful. Both warring partners realized that solo performances and individual careers weren’t as satisfying as their mutual partnership and eventually got back together to record the very successful 1989 record Steel Wheels as the Rolling stones. In 1992, Richards released another solo effort Main Offender which again garnered good sales and was critically acclaimed as well.
The Rolling Stones have been going strong since then, releasing successful albums at regular intervals and touring extensively. In 2007, Keith Richards appeared in the third installment of the Pirates series as Jack Sparrow’s father Captain Teague in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End.
Johnny Depp, who is good friends with Keith Richards, has confirmed that the character of Captain Jack Sparrow in the very successful Pirates series has been modeled after Keith, including his personality, mannerisms and appearance.
The Rolling Stones have released over fifty albums of original work and have sold 200 million records in the 47 years of their existence. In the process, they have secured their place as the greatest rock and roll band in history.
Keith Richards has been the driving force behind the band’s phenomenal success story and shows no signs of slowing down yet. Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989 as a member of the Rolling Stones, he has proved time and again, his legendary mastery over the guitar and his amazing songwriting skills. Like old wine, Richards seems to be getting better with age and his fans are waiting with bated breath for some more vintage Keith Richards.
Scotty Smith
Guitarist Rock ©2008-2009
Photos by Photobucket
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Well – whether you like him or hate him Keith Richards has “survived” in the very difficult music industry for so long now which is proof that he must be very good at what he does.
Great band i love there music, the one great thing about this music is that it will never die.
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