Keith Richards

Keith Richards (Dartford, Kent, England, December 18, 1943) is a British guitarist, singer, songwriter, producer and actor. Recognized worldwide for being the founder (along with Brian Jones and Mick Jagger) of the rock band The Rolling Stones, and an uninterrupted part of it since 1962, where together with singer Mick Jagger and drummer Charlie Watts they were the longest association in the history of rock.

Starting in the mid-1960s, he and Jagger became the creative engine of the Stones, composing almost all of the group's songs since then, and on some occasions playing lead vocals. Rolling Stone magazine lists fourteen songs written by the Jagger/Richards duo in its Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Despite the fact that almost his entire musical career has been developed as a member of this English group, like Jagger, he also materialized his solo project X-Pensive Winos and joined the band The New Barbarians along with his partner stone Ronnie Wood. Her solo material, as well as the band's compositions, focuses on rock themes with influences from rhythm and blues and blues i>.

Since the late 1970s, he had major differences with Jagger, a situation that reached its peak during the mid-1980s, which coincided with the release of Talk is Cheap (1988) and later Main Offender (1992). He was chosen by Rolling Stone magazine as number 4 on the List of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time .

With a career spanning over 50 years, his net worth is approximately $900 million, making him the 11th richest rock star in the world.

Biography

Early Years

Keith Richards was born on December 18, 1943 at Livingstone Hospital in the town of Dartford, located in the northwest of the county of Kent, England. He was the only child of the marriage formed by Doris Maud Lydia and Bert Richards, a worker wounded during the landing in Normandy during World War II. His paternal grandparents, Ernie and Eliza Richards were socialists and civil leaders, while Eliza also became a mayor of Walthamstow Borough in Essex in 1941. Her great-grandfather's family were originally from Wales.

His maternal grandfather, Augustus Theodore "Gus" Dupree, who was a member of the jazz band Gus Dupree and his Boys, fostered Richards' interest in the guitar and proved to be one of his early influences. Dupree was the one who gave him his first guitar, which teased the young Richards with a guitar that was on a high shelf that Richards couldn't reach. Eventually, Dupree told Richards that if he could hold the guitar, it would be his. Richards then devised all sorts of ways to reach the guitar, including putting books and cushions on a chair, until finally grabbing the instrument, after which his grandfather taught him the first chords of "Malagueña". He practiced and worked on the guitar. song “like crazy” and his grandfather let him keep the guitar, which he called "the prize of the century".

His mother introduced him to the music of Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington. His father was not too fond of his spending much time on his guitar. One of Richards' early guitar heroes was the guitarist of Elvis, Scotty Moore.

Leaving preschool behind, he entered Wentworth Primary School in 1951, the same school where he met his future classmate Mick Jagger. Mick and Keith were only acquaintances despite living in the same neighborhood. Richards stopped seeing Jagger when he moved to another neighborhood in 1954.

From 1955 he attended Dartford Technical School (now called Wilmington Grammar School), where he was part of the school choir as part of the soprano trio. During this time she made many appearances, including one at Westminster Abbey in front of Queen Elizabeth II. In 1959 he was expelled from school for truancy and moved to Sidcup, Bexley Township, London, to study at Sidcup Art College.

It was around this time that he met Dick Taylor. Keith had plenty of time there to develop and improve his technique as a guitarist, as well as listen to American bluesmen like Little Walter and Big Bill Broonzy; and learning most of Chuck Berry's solos.With his new partner he began early around this time to experiment with drugs.

In 1960, Keith and Mick met by chance at a London train station. While Jagger was attending the London School of Economics, Richards recognized him and they began to talk. Tucked under his arm were Chess Records LPs by Chuck Berry, Little Walter and Muddy Waters because, like Keith, he was a fan of American R&B.

The future singer had mailed these LPs to the United States, which surprised the guitarist as they were so rare in Britain. Shortly afterwards they discovered they had a mutual friend, Dick Taylor, so they they began their friendship and together with Taylor himself they formed the fan group Little Boy Blue and the Blue Boys.

Shortly they moved on to Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated group. Elmo Lewis") after a performance in early 1962. After speaking with him, he joined Blues Inc. accompanied by pianist Ian Stewart and Geoff Bradford.

In mid-1962, Richards left Sidcup Art College to pursue music, moving into a London flat with Jagger and Jones. His parents divorced around the same time, which resulted in him staying close to his mother and staying estranged from his father until 1982.

In the spring of 1962 Bradford left Blues Inc. and soon after the leader of the group, Alexis Korner, also broke ties with the group to start working alone as a producer. Some time later they acquired the services of Tony Chapman, and they made their first presentation as a group on July 12, 1962 at the Marquee Club in London. Chapman left them soon, unable to reconcile the group with his work as a merchant, like Taylor, after a disastrous presentation in Watford.

1960s

The Rolling Stones at Amsterdam Airport, 1964.

When Taylor left them, Brian Jones changed the name of the group to The Rolling Stones, after he heard the song "Rollin' Stone" by Muddy Waters. Bassist Bill Wyman replaced Dick Taylor in December of that year and drummer Charlie Watts replaced Chapman in January 1963. Publicist Andrew Loog Oldham quickly signed a contract with Muddy Waters. the band together with his friend Eric Easton, making Oldham the first official representative of the band. After a concert in the town of Richmond, they were soon signed by the Decca Records label. Oldham removed Stewart from the lineup because he aesthetically did not see him as a teen idol and told Richards to remove the & # 34; s & # 34; of his last name, believing that "Keith Richard", in his words, "seemed more pop", and also pairing it with the last name of Cliff Richard, a star of the British pop of the time. By the late 1970s, he returned to using his full last name. They released their first record material in 1964 under the title England's Newest Hitmakers and this was followed by numerous hits in Great Britain, although they remained almost unknown in America. The resounding success came with the publication in 1965 of the single "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction", whose characteristic riff was the work of Richards himself: one night, while staying at the Fort Harrison Hotel in Clearwater, Florida during the group's third North American tour, he woke up suddenly and played the song's opening riff before going back to bed. The lyrics were almost entirely Jagger's own work, but not the song's title, which was credited to him. to the guitarist. It has been suggested that it may have come from a line on Chuck Berry's 1955 single "30 Days". This composition launched the band on the world music scene, and became their first global hit. >

Richards in May 1965.

On June 25, 1967, Richards, along with Mick Jagger and many other guest artists, participated in The Beatles' live televised broadcast of the song "All You Need Is Love".

In December of the same year they released Their Satanic Majesties Request which was heavily criticized for trying to imitate Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles, the rivals of the Stones, which coupled with the unsatisfactory sales of the production, meant what is until now considered the biggest failure in The career of The Rolling Stones.

From 1968 begins what would be the golden stage of the band. That same year they published the first of what is considered by music critics to be the band's best albums: Beggars Banquet, accompanied by a television program entitled The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus, in which Richards joined John Lennon, Eric Clapton and Mitch Mitchell to form the supergroup The Dirty Mac, who performed The Beatles' "Yer Blues" during their set.

The Beggars was followed a year later by Let It Bleed, which included "You Got the Silver", the first song performed by him as a member of the Stones (the others had been brief contributions like in "Salt of the Earth" where he only performs the first verse). In the late 1960s he began a friendship with country-rock pioneer Gram Parsons, which had a strong influence on Richards' taste for country music and the presence of this genre in some of the band's compositions.

1970s

Richards playing guitar in concert, 1972.

In 1971 they released the album Sticky Fingers, after a long dispute with their previous manager Allen Klein, who had relieved Oldham since 1967, and after concluding their contract with Decca Records.

The album was a success, but despite this, the Rolling were in debt to the British treasury, so they decided to leave England at the end of the year on the advice of their financial adviser Rupert Lowenstein. Keith settled in Villefranche- sur-Mer on the Côte d'Azur in France and the band set out to record their new material. There he rented a château called Villa Nellcôte for himself, for Anita Pallenberg (Brian Jones' ex-partner and his girlfriend since the end of the last decade) and for their son, and whose basement became the band's headquarters and the place where the album was recorded.

The sessions were marked by many problems (during those days several of his guitars were stolen) and by his growing addiction to heroin, which led him to be frequently absent from the sessions. On May 12, 1972, Exile on Main St. was released, considered the band's masterpiece and one of the most important records of contemporary music. "Tumbling Dice" was the first cut, to great success on both sides of the Atlantic, while "Happy" followed in July of that year, being the only single from the band that Richards sings. It became a hit, peaking at number 22 on the American charts.

In December, Keith and his wife Anita were arrested on charges of possessing heroin and allowing use of their home and yacht "Mandrax" for the consumption of said substance, although they were released later.

During 1973 they recorded in Jamaica what would be their next album, Goats Head Soup, which was accompanied by "Angie", one of the biggest hits in the band's history. This song was written mainly by him, inspired by his girlfriend Anita Pallenberg.

Richards in concert with the Stones in 1982.

Between 1974 and 1975, outside of his commitments with the Stones, Richards worked with his friend Ronnie Wood on his solo records. Providing guitars, piano and vocals on Wood's first two records I've Got My Own Album to Do and Now Look. He was also joined on stage for two concerts, at take place in July 1974, to present the first album. In December 1974 Richards made a guest appearance at a Farewell concert for the Faces.

In 1974 they released a new record material It's Only Rock'n'Roll, in which Jagger and Richards were in charge of the production under the pseudonym The Glimmer Twins, due to the serious drug addiction suffered by Jimmy Miller, the band's producer since 1968. In practice, Jagger took over most of the production due to the very deteriorated state of the guitarist.

In 1976 they released another album, Black and Blue, followed by a great European promotional tour, during which Keith was even more deteriorated than in previous years.

During 1976 and 1977, Richards and Jagger participated as co-producers and musicians on the recording of the John Phillips album Pay Pack & Follow, launched nearly 30 years later in 2001.

In 1978 Richards and Ronnie Wood participated in the recording sessions for Ian McLagan's album Troublemaker, released in 1979. They provided guitars and backing vocals for the song "Truly".

At the end of 1978 he released his first solo single, a version of Chuck Berry's "Run Rudolph Run", accompanied on the B-side by another cover of Jimmy Cliff's "The Harder They Come".

Together with his friend and fellow Stones Ronnie Wood, they formed the group The New Barbarians, to serve the sentence that the guitarist had received in Canada for drug possession (See section Personal Life below). They performed the 2 shows on April 22 in Canada and eighteen around the United States between April and May 1979. In August of that year, the band opened for Led Zeppelin for their performance at the 1979 Knebworth Festival.

1980s

Richards next to Steve Jordan during the recording Talk Is Cheap New York, 1988.

In 1981 he played and co-produced on the album Holding Out My Love to You, by reggae singer Max Romeo.

On November 7, 1983, the Stones released Undercover, after an arduous process, largely because this is where Jagger and Richards begin to feel their artistic and personal differences. (See Relationship with Jagger below)

In 1985 he worked for the first time with Tom Waits, contributing guitar and backing vocals to the album Rain Dogs.

That same year, on July 13, he participated in the Live-Aid mega-concert, held simultaneously at Wembley and John F. Kennedy stadiums, in London and Philadelphia, respectively. Due to the frayed relationship between Jagger and Richards, each performed for his part, Mick with his solo project and Keith along with Ronnie Wood backing Bob Dylan on a controversial acoustic show.

On March 24, 1986, The Rolling Stones released Dirty Work, marked by the worst moment of the Jagger/Richards relationship. That same year Keith produced and played on Aretha Franklin's version of "Jumpin' Jack Flash".

In 1987, after Jagger focused on continuing his solo career and touring, Richards formed the band X-Pensive Winos with drummer Steve Jordan, for the making of a documentary celebrating Chuck's 60th birthday Berry, called Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll. The rest of the X-Pensive Winos consisted of guitarist Waddy Wachtel, saxophonist Bobby Keys, keyboardist Ivan Neville, and Charley Drayton on bass. Bernie Worrell, Bootsy Collins and Maceo Parker joined for what would be Richards' first solo album Talk Is Cheap.

Talk Is Cheap, released on October 3, 1988, was met with positive reviews, going gold in the United States. The release was followed by Richards' first North American tour. performed as a soloist. Part of this tour was recorded on the live album Live at the Hollywood Palladium, December 15, 1988.

1990s

Richards together with the Stones at the Voodoo Lounge World Tour, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1995

In October 1992 he released his second studio album, Main Offender, recorded with Steve Jordan and Waddy Wachtell. The sessions were recorded with the group X-Pensive Winos between California and New York in March and September 1992. The album was accompanied by a tour that began in Argentina, went through Europe in the fall of the same year and the United States in beginning of 1993.

During the decade, Richards participated in numerous guest projects. In 1991 he co-produced, recorded guitars and backing vocals, for Johnnie Johnson's Johnnie B. Bad album; he also co-produced; and featured as a musician on "Oh Lord, Don't Let Them Drop That Atomic Bomb on Me" on the 1992 Charles Mingus tribute album Weird Nightmare. That same year he collaborated for the second time with Tom Waits, providing guitar and vocals on the song "That Fee", from the album Bone Machine .

In 1994 he performed a duet with country music legend George Jones on the song "Say It's Not You", included on the album Bradley Barn Sessions. A second duet from the same sessions "Burn Your Playhouse Down" was included on another 2008 album, Burn Your Playhouse Down - The Unreleased Duets. In 1997 she teamed up with Levon Helm on "Deuce and a Quarter" for the Scotty Moore album All the King's Men.

2000s

with The Rolling Stones, 2008

In 2001 he participated in the tribute album to American country music singer Hank Williams, Timeless.

Richards collaborated with the band Toots and the Maytals in the recording sessions for the album True Love, released in 2004 and which won the Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album. He played the guitar on the track "Careless Ethiopians."

In 2004 he participated in the Gram Parsons tribute concert, performing "Love Hurts", along with Norah Jones, Steve Earle, Lucinda Williams, Dwight Yoakam and John Doe.

In 2005, he contributed guitars and backing vocals, along with other musicians, on About Them Shoes, an album by veteran blues guitarist Hubert Sumlin.

That same year the Stones released the album Rarities 1971–2003, which includes some previously unreleased and limited edition recordings, which Richards described as the "tip of the iceberg". Many of the band's previously unreleased songs and studio sessions are widely released in unauthorized bootleg versions, as are numerous Richards solo recordings, including the 1977 Toronto sessions, some 1981 studio sessions, and tapes made during their honeymoon in Mexico in 1983.

On April 27, 2006, the guitarist was on vacation in Fiji and suffered an accident when he fell from a dead tree branch (the international press erroneously reported that he fell from a coconut tree) and sustained an injury to his head. head. He later underwent surgery to remove a clot from his brain at a hospital in Auckland, New Zealand.

The incident delayed the stones' A Bigger Bang Tour for six weeks and forced them to reschedule several of their shows, going so far as to tour Europe in 2007 to make up for the canceled shows. The revised tour schedule included a brief statement from Richards apologizing for 'falling off my perch'. In a video message in late 2013 as part of the 14 On Fire tour, Richards thanked the surgeons at New Zealand who treated him and commented: 'I left half my brain there'.

Actor Johnny Depp stated that Jack Sparrow, a character he plays in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, is loosely based on Richards and the Warner Bros. cartoon character Pepe Le Pew, and both served as inspirations for the character. This combination of influences raised concerns with Disney executives, who feared that Depp's character would be "drunk and gay," along with Michael Eisner., CEO of Disney until 2005, feared that would end up "ruining the movie". In the third installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End series (2007), Richards played Captain Edward Teague and won the Spike Horror Awards Best Celebrity Cameo Award in 2007. He later reprized the role in Pirates of the Caribbean: Sailing Strange Waters, the fourth film in the series (2011)..

On March 12, 2007, Richards attended the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony to induct The Ronettes; He also played guitar for the all-star show that takes place during the ceremony.

In December 2007, Richards re-released the single "Run Rudolph Run" in a Christmas format available only through iTunes; accompanied on the B-side by a 2003 cover of the famous reggae song "Pressure Drop", featuring Jamaican singer Toots Hibbert backed by original Toots and the Maytals band members Jackie Jackson and Paul Douglas.

In March 2008, the fashion house Louis Vuitton featured an ad campaign featuring a photo of Richards with his Gibson ES-355 ebony guitar, taken by photographer Annie Leibovitz. Richards and the company donated the funds raised to the NGO The Climate Reality Project, an organization that promotes environmental awareness.

On October 28, 2008, Richards appeared at the Musicians Hall of Fame induction ceremony in Nashville, Tennessee, joining The Crickets onstage to perform together "Peggy Sue", "Not Fade Away" and "That I'll Be the Day".

In September 2009, Richards gave an interview to Rolling Stone magazine, where in addition to anticipating a new Stones album, he commented that he had recorded material with Jack White: " I like working with Jack,' he said. "We've done a couple of songs".

2010s

Richards on May 22, 2018, in London.

In 2011 he made his third participation with Tom Waits, for the album Bad As Me.

On February 26, 2012, Richards paid tribute to fellow musicians Chuck Berry and Leonard Cohen, who received the first annual PEN Awards for Excellence in Songwriting at the JFK Presidential Library in Boston, Massachusetts.

That same year, Richards joined the eleventh annual panel of judges for the Independent Music Awards to help foster the careers of independent musicians.

In September 2014, Richards published a children's book with his son Theodora titled: Gus and Me: The Story of My Granddad and My First Guitar. Theodora contributed pen and ink illustrations to the book.

In a 2015 interview with the New York Daily News, Richards expressed his distaste for rap and hip hop, considering them "deaf people" and music as & #34;a drumbeat and shouting above". In the same interview he called Metallica and Black Sabbath "big jokes" and he lamented the lack of syncopation in most rock and roll, claiming that it "seems like a thud to me." He also said that he stopped being a fan of the Beatles in 1967 when they visited Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

In September 2015, and after 23 years, he released his third solo album entitled Crosseyed Heart.

On the weekend of 23 September 2016, Richards, along with filmmaker Julien Temple, curated and hosted a three-night show on BBC Four called Lost Weekend. Richards' picks consisted of his favorite sitcoms from the sixties, cartoons and thrillers, interspersed with interviews, rare musical performances and night images. This 'television trip' it was the first of its kind on British television. Temple also directed a documentary, Keith Richards: The Origin Of The Species, about Richards' childhood in post-war England and his musical roots.

Musical skills

Richards and Wood at a Stones concert in Turin, Italy, 1982.

Guitarist

Chris Spedding calls Richards' playing style "direct, incisive and unpretentious." the "fastest gun in the west". Richards prefers to team up with at least one other guitarist and has rarely toured without one. Chuck Berry was a major inspiration to Richards, who along with Jagger, it introduced Berry's songs into the Stones' early repertoire. In the late 1960s, following Brian Jones' meager musical contributions to the band, Richards began recording all guitar parts on multitrack, including slide guitar. Jones' replacement, Mick Taylor, played guitar with the Rolling Stones from 1969 to 1974. Taylor's virtuosity on lead guitar led to a sharp separation between lead and rhythm guitar roles, especially on stage. In 1975 Taylor was succeeded by Wood, whose arrival marked a return to an interplay of guitars that Richards calls "the ancient art of weaving," which he and Jones had drawn from Chicago blues.

A break during The Rolling Stones European Tour 1967 allowed Richards to experiment with open tunings. These allow you to form chords with one finger, developing a distinctive style of resonant, syncopated I-IV chords. Richards' favorite, but not exclusive, open tuning is the five-string G open tuning: GDGBD, taking the sixth string off your guitar as it just "gets in the way" performance, allowing the band's bass player to take over the lower notes.

Several of his Fender Telecaster guitars are tuned this way. This setting is prevalent on Stones recordings such as "Honky Tonk Women," "Brown Sugar," and "Start Me Up." Richards has stated that the banjo tuning was the inspiration.

Voice and other instruments

Richards sang in a school choir, especially for Queen Elizabeth II, until the effect of adolescence on his voice forced him to give it up. He has performed backing vocals on every Stones album since Between the Buttons (1967) and has been the lead vocalist on at least one song on every studio album by the band except Their Satanic Majesties Request, Sticky Fingers, It's Only Rock 'n Roll and Blue & lonesome.

During the 1972 American Tour, the song "Happy" featuring Richards' vocals entered the main setlist at the band's concerts, and since then he has sung one or two songs at each show in order to give him time Jagger to perform the costume change. Throughout the A Bigger Bang Tour, Richards sang "You Got the Silver" (1969) without playing any instrument.

In more than 50 years of experience with the band, the use of other instruments has not been unusual. During the studio recording of "Sympathy for the Devil" (1968), Richards was the one who suggested the song's "signature samba rhythm".

Leadership

Since the departure of Brian Jones, Richards and Mick Jagger have shared primary songwriting and production duties for the Stones (credited as The Glimmer Twins). Former keyboardist Ian Stewart once said that Richards was the leader of the band; However, Richards has said that his job is simply to "grease the machinery." Unlike many bands where the drummer sets the beat and acts as the song's timer, Richards is the one who fills that role. Both former bassist Bill Wyman and current guitarist Ronnie Wood have said that the Stones are not following Charlie Watts, but are following Richards, as there was "there was no way" not "follow it".

Composer

The Jagger-Richards dupper live

Richards and Jagger began writing songs together in 1963 at the insistence of their manager Andrew Loog Oldham, who did not see much of a future for the band if they continued to play covers. The first Jagger/Richards-written songs were recorded by other artists, including Gene Pitney, whose rendition of "That Girl Belongs to Yesterday" was their first UK top 10 single. They achieved another top 10 hit with the debut single written for Marianne Faithfull "As Tears Go By", in which Oldham also participated, as producer and co-writer.

The first Stones top 10 hit written by the duo was "The Last Time" in early 1965; For his part, "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" (also from 1965) was his first number one international hit. Richards has stated that the riff for Satisfaction came to him while he was sleeping; he woke up long enough to record it on a cassette player he kept next to his bed.

Since Aftermath, released in 1966, most Stones albums have consisted primarily of original songs by Jagger and Richards. His songs reflect the influence of blues, R&B, rock & roll, pop, soul, gospel and country, as well as forays into psychedelia and Bob Dylan-style social criticism. Their work from the 1970s onwards has incorporated elements of funk, disco, reggae and punk. They have also written, recorded and sung slow ballads such as "You Got the Silver", "Coming Down Again", "All About You" and "Slipping Away."

In his solo career, Richards has mostly shared songwriting credits with drummer and producer, Steve Jordan. Richards has stated: 'I've always thought that songs written by two people are better than songs written by one. They have another angle".

Richards has expressed that he feels more like a conduit than a creator when it comes to writing songs: 'I don't have that God aspect of it. I prefer to think of myself as an antenna. There is only one song, which Adam and Eve wrote, the rest are variations on the theme ". Richards was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1993.

Record Producer

Richards has been active as a music producer since the 1960s. He was credited as producer and music director for the 1966 album Today's Pop Symphony, one of Andrew Loog's side projects Oldham, although there are doubts as to how much Richards was actually involved in it.

In 1967, the Stones released Their Satanic Majesties Request, on which the entire band was credited as producer, but since 1974, Richards and Mick Jagger have co-produced the band's records and those of other artists under the name The Glimmer Twins. Since the mid-1980s in collaboration with other producers.

In early 1973, the duo developed an interest in the band Kracker, resulting in a business agreement, whereupon the band's second album was licensed for distribution outside the United States by Rolling Stones Records, becoming Kracker in the label's first band.

Since the 1980s, Richards has been involved in producing numerous projects for other artists including Aretha Franklin, Johnnie Johnson and Ronnie Spector, as well as his own albums with the X-Pensive Winos.

In the 1990s, Richards co-produced and added guitar and vocals to a recording of Rastafarian Nyabinghi chants and drums titled "Wingless Angels", released on his record label Mindless Records in 1997.

Personal life

Richards together with The Rolling Stones, during the 50 & Counting tour, in December 2012.

Journalist and music critic Nick Kent references the epithet "crazy, bad and dangerous to meet" from Lord Byron to Richards. Jagger always thought that Keith's image "has contributed to his becoming an addict". In 1994, Richards said that his image was "like a long shadow...although that was ago." almost twenty years, you can't convince some people that I'm not a deranged drug addict".

The guitarist is an avid reader with a strong interest in history and has an extensive library, in addition to which he has repeatedly declared his desire to be a librarian.

Richards is a fan of Cottage pie, a traditional British dish. Stuart Cable, the former Stereophonics drummer, recalled that Richards once confronted him because he had been served his due piece of cake. The dish was also mentioned. by Richards in his autobiography, advising readers to add more onions after cooking the meat filling to enhance the flavor of the pie.

Richards still owns Redlands, the Sussex property he bought in 1966, as well as a home in Weston, Connecticut, and another on the private resort island of Parrot Cay, Turks and Caicos. His primary home is in Weston. In June 2013, Richards expressed that he would retire with his family to Parrot Cay or to Jamaica if he knew his death was near. However, in November 2016 he said: "I would like to stretch out the he kicks magnificently, on stage".

In August 2006, Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee pardoned Richards for a 1975 reckless driving citation.

With a career spanning over 50 years, his net worth is approximately $340 million, making him the 11th richest rock star in the world.

Family

Richards was romantically involved with Italian actress Anita Pallenberg (died June 13, 2017), between 1967 and 1979. After their breakup they maintained a friendly and cordial relationship. Together they had 3 children: Marlon Leon Sundeep (named after actor Marlon Brando), born 1969, Angela (originally named Dandelion), born 1972, Tara Jo Jo Gunne (after family friend Tara Browne, heiress to Guinness) died at the age of just over two months, of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), on June 6, 1976. Richards was on tour at the time, something that has haunted him ever since. Although he was harshly criticized for appearing at the Stones show that night, he has repeatedly said that this was the only way he could deal with the situation. In 1979 he ended to his relationship with Anita Pallenberg due to their relationship becoming very strained since the 1976 death of their third child and her inability to control her heroin addiction while he struggled to rehabilitate.

Prior to dating Keith, Pallenberg was dating close friend and fellow Stones member Brian Jones. The two became a couple on a trip to Morocco that Jones had to abandon when he fell ill; the subsequent relationship between Richards and Pallenberg weighed heavily on Jones, and he strained his relationship with the rest of the band.

Richards met his wife, model Patti Hansen, in 1979. They married on December 18, 1983, Richards' 40th birthday, and have two daughters, Theodora Dupree and Alexandra Nicole, born 1985 and 1986, respectively. Keith Richards has five grandchildren, three from his son Marlon and two from his daughter Angela.

Doris Richards, her mother, died of cancer at the age of 91 in England on April 21, 2007. An official statement issued by the family representative stated that Richards kept vigil at her bedside during her final days.

Substance Abuse

Richards' notoriety for drug use stems from various episodes he had in the late 1960s and 1970s and his candor about using heroin and other substances. Keith has been tried five times on drug charges: in 1967, twice in 1973, in 1977, and in 1978.

The first trial, the only one involving a prison sentence, took place on February 12, 1967, Keith Richards received a select group of guests at his Redlands country home including Mick Jagger, Marianne Faithfull, George Harrison and his wife Pattie Boyd, art gallery owner Robert Fraser and the "Acid King" David Schneidermann. Outside the property the British drug squad was waiting for them and they were eventually arrested for drug possession.

On June 29, 1967, Mick and Keith were indicted for drug offences. Jagger was sentenced to three months' imprisonment and a £100 fine (he was taken to Brixton Prison in south London) and Richards, to one year's imprisonment and a £100 fine (transferred to Wormwood Scrubs Prison). in West London).

The others found were released on bail. On July 1, The Times newspaper published an editorial titled Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?, portraying Jagger's sentence as persecution, and increased public discontent against convictions. A few days after being behind bars, they were released again on a bail of 5,000 pounds, since the amounts of drugs were minimal and the musicians had no criminal records.

On February 27, 1977, Keith was staying at the Harbor Castle Hilton in Toronto, Canada. In a raid by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, 22 grams of heroin were found in his room. He is arrested on charges of possession and importation of narcotics, a crime that at the time could result in prison terms of seven years to life in prison under the Narcotics Control Act. His passport was confiscated, and Richards and his family they remained in Toronto until April 1, when he was allowed to enter the United States on a medical visa for treatment to combat his heroin addiction. The charges are reduced to "simple possession of heroin", since the Crown prosecutor acknowledged that Richards acquired the drug after entering the country.

For the next two years, Richards lived under the possibility of criminal sanction. Throughout this period he remained active with the Stones, recording their best-selling studio album, Some Girls, and touring North America. He finally stood trial in October 1978, pleading guilty to heroin possession. He was given a suspended sentence and placed on probation for one year, posting $25,000 bail, with orders to continue treatment for heroin addiction and to perform two benefit concerts for the CNIB (an Institute for Assistance to Women). blind people) in Oshawa, Ontario, after a blind fan testified on his behalf. In September 1979, the Ontario Court of Appeal upheld the original sentence.

In an April 2007 interview by journalist Mark Beaumont for NME magazine, Richards was asked what was the strangest thing he had ever aspired to? to which he replied "My father. I snorted my father. He was cremated and I couldn't resist taking a little snort with him (his ashes from him). My father wouldn't have cared. He was pretty good and I'm still alive.” A huge media uproar arose after his statements. His manager came out to clarify that the anecdote was just a joke. Beaumont told Uncut magazine that the interview had been conducted over the international phone and that he had misquoted Richards at one point (reporting that Richards listened to Motörhead, when in fact he had said Mozart), but that he believed the anecdote to be true.

Inspired by these events, musician Jay Farrar of the band Son Volt wrote a song titled "Cocaine And Ashes". The incident was also referenced in the 2017 song "Mr Charisma" by The Waterboys.

In 2016, he stated that he occasionally drinks alcohol and uses hashish and cannabis.

Relationship with Mick Jagger

together with Mick Jagger in 1981.

The relationship between Keith Richards and Mick Jagger is often described as a "love/hate" dichotomy; by the media. Richards himself said in a 1988 interview: "I think of our differences as a family feud. If I yell and yell at him, it's because no one else has the guts to do it or conversely they get paid not to. At the same time, I hope Mick realizes that I'm a friend just trying to align him to do what needs to be done"

The Rolling Stones album Dirty Work (#4 UK, #4 US) was released in March 1986 to mixed reviews, despite of having the hit "Harlem Shuffle." Jagger refused to tour to promote the album due to his poor relationship with the guitarist at the time and instead undertook his own solo tour, which included songs by the band. Richards referred to this period in his relationship with Jagger as "World War 3" and Jagger for his part said that the Stones were “a stone around the neck.” As a result of the animosity within the band at the time, the group came close to breaking up for good.

The war between the two continued for a while, until in 1989 they agreed to a meeting in Barbados to sign peace. "Regardless of what may have happened, Mick and I have a relationship that still works."

Eleven days before the release of his Richards autobiography, Life, the Associated Press news agency published an article claiming that Richards was referring to Jagger in the book as "unbearable" and notes that their relationship has been strained "for decades." Opinion of him softened in 2015, Richards still calling Jagger a "snob"; but he added: "I still love him very much... your friends don't have to be perfect."

Awards and recognitions

He was chosen by Rolling Stone magazine as number 4 on the List of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.

Rolling Stone magazine lists fourteen songs written by the Jagger/Richards duo in its Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

On October 17, 2009, Richards received the Rock Immortal Award on Spike TV's Scream 2009. The ceremony was held at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles; the award was presented by Johnny Depp. "I liked being a living legend, that was cool," Richards said, referring to an award he received in 1989, "but immortal is even better" 34;.

Equipment

Guitar Fender Telecaster

Guitars

Richards has a collection of approximately 3,000 guitars. Although he has used numerous models over the years, in a 1986 Guitar World interview Richards joked that no matter what model plays, "Give me five minutes and I'll make them all sound the same." Richards has thanked Leo Fender and other luthiers on several occasions for making guitars. Some of his notable instruments are:

• Harmony Meteor: This was Richards' main guitar in the early years of The Rolling Stones.
• Gibson Les Paul Standard of 1959: Richards acquired this instrument, equipped with a Bigsby cord, in 1964. The guitar was the first Les Paul "property of a star" in Britain and served as one of the main instruments of Richards until 1966. Later he would sell the guitar to his future partner Mick Taylor. The guitar was probably stolen in Nellcôte in July 1971.
• Epiphone Casino of 1961: He used it for the first time in May 1964, shortly before the first Stones tour in the United States. The guitar (together with the 1959 Les Paul Standard) was frequently used until 1966.
• Gibson Firebird VII of 1965: In the mid-1960s, Richards and Brian Jones often played with their Firebirds at stake.
• Gibson Les Paul Custom of 1957: Acquired in 1966, he hand painted it with psychedelic patterns in 1968. It served him both on stage and in the studio until the end of the The Rolling Stones UK Tour 1971.The guitar was probably stolen in Nellcôte in July 1971 and ended up in the hands of a collector in the mid-1990s.
• He acquired a second "Black Beauty" Gibson Les Paul Custom from the late 1950s in 1969. He used it live in 1969 and 1970.
• Gibson ES-355. He used this semi-bone model on stage during the The Rolling Stones American Tour 1969; It was one of the favorites of the band during the sessions of Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main St. Richards has used it on all tours since 1997. In 2006, he also touched a white Gibson ES-345.
• Gibson Les Paul Junior: He has regularly used single-cut and double-cut Juniors since 1973. The one that has used most often since 1979 is a double-cut yellow nicknamed "Dice". In recent tours he played "Midnight Rambler" and "Out of Control".
• Fender Telecaster of 1953: The guitar most associated with Richards, acquired this Telecaster caramel color in 1971. Apodada "Micawber", by a character of the novel David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, is configured with an open tuning in five-string sun. (-GDGBD), it has a brass bridge, with individual saddles instead of the three that had the original bridge. The tablets were replaced by Ted Newman Jones by a humbucking Gibson PAF and other Fender steel (similar to those of a Fender Broadcaster). "Micawber" is one of his main guitars, and is often used to play "Brown Sugar", "Before They Make Me Run" and "Honky Tonk Women"
• Fender Telecaster of 1954: A second Telecaster, also modified by Ted Newman Jones, nicknamed "Malcolm" and "Number 2". Modified also to work with open 5-string sun tuning with the same setup similar to "Micawber" and Gibson PAF tablets in the mast position. It has a natural finish and wood grain is visible.
• Fender Telecaster of 1967: The third Telecaster, modified to operate with the open 5-string sun tuning, is a model of dark sun rays, which is also equipped with a Gibson PAF tablet. He took the cap off the PAF, uncovering the coils. On stage accompanied the guitarist in many songs, including "You Can't Always Get What You Want" and "Tumbling Says".
• Fender Stratocaster of 1958: he received this guitar as a gift from Ronnie Wood after the band tour in 1982. It's a 1958 Mary Kaye Signature. The guitar is finished in transparent blond and equipped with golden hardware. Live has used it for songs like "You Don't Have to Mean It" and "Miss You".
• Fender Telecaster Custom of 1975: Used for the first time in the Tour of the Americas 1975 and accompanying it in the studio until 1986. Later he adapted it for the open sunny tuning of five strings and reappeared on stage in 2005.
• Ampeg guitar Dan Armstrong Plexi: Gift he received from Armstrong during the American Tour 1969 essays and became one of his main guitars in shows and studio until he was stolen in Nellcôte in July 1971. For the 1972 tour, he bought two new guitars Dan Armstrong, which he only used during the first concerts. Equipped with a custom "sustained" humbucker tablet, he used the guitar with standard tuning. You can listen in "Carol", "Sympathy for the Devil" and "Midnight Rambler" at Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out. On the 1970s tour, Richards used Dan Armstrong's second guitar equipped with a "rock treble" tablet.
• Gibson Hummingbird: acoustics used since the late 60's.
• 5-string Zemaitis: Made in 1974 by British luthier Tony Zemaitis, the nicknamed "Macabre" guitar and "the Pirate Zemaitis" decorated with skulls, a gun and a dagger. Richards used it as his main guitar with open tuning between 1975 and 1978, when it was destroyed in a fire in his rented house in Los Angeles. During A BIgger Bang Tour used a Japanese manufacturing replica.
• Newman-Jones custom guitars: Texas luthier Ted Newman-Jones made several custom five-string instruments that Keith used during the Pacific Tour and the European Tour 1973. I would use another one during the tour with The New Barbarians in 1979.

Amplifiers

His amp preferences have changed repeatedly throughout his career, although he is an advocate of using low-powered amps in the studio, gaining clarity and distortion by using two amps, one larger like a Fender Clean Twin along with a Fender Champ with overdrive. To record Crosseyed Heart, Richards used a Fender Champ with an 8" along with a modified Fender Harvard.

Some of the amplifiers he uses are:

• Table/Boogie Mark 1 A804: used between 1977 and 1993, this combo of 100 watts 1x12" is finished in wood with a shingle. You can listen to the albums of the stones Love You Live, Some Girls, Emotional Rescueand Tattoo Youas in two of his solo albums Talk is Cheap and Main Offender. This amplifier was handmade by Randall Smith and delivered in March 1977.
• Fender Twin: has used it on stage since the 1990s. With a pair of 12" speakers, the Fender Twin was, in 1958, a 80 watt tube guitar amplifier. Use a pair of Fender Twins to achieve its characteristic clean/sucio sound.
• Fender Dual Showman: acquired for the first time in 1964, used it frequently until the middle of 1966. Recorded The Rolling Stones, Now!, Out of Our Heads, December's Children and Aftermath before switching to several Vox prototype amplifiers in 1967 and Hiwatt in 1968.
• Ampeg SVT: with 350 watts, mid-range control, mid-range switch, input pads, sharp control with bright switch shaped the guitar sound of the Stones live in the 1970s. Used live by the Stones for guitar, bass and organ (Leslie) from 1969 to 1978. During a short period in 1972 and 1973, the Ampeg V4 and VT40 amplifiers shared tasks in the study with the Fender Twin and Deluxe Reverb amplifiers.

Effects

In 1965, Richards used a Gibson Maestro fuzzbox to achieve the distinctive riff sound of "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction." Such was the success of the single that it boosted sales of the device and all available stock was sold out by the end of 1965. Since the 1970s and early 1980s, Richards frequently used a wah-wah pedal, phaser, and speaker. Leslie, but it has mostly been based on combining "the right amp with the right guitar" to achieve the sound he wants.

Official discography

Studio Albums

• Talk is Cheap (1988)
• Main Offender (1992)
• Crosseyed Heart (2015)

Live Albums

• Live At the Hollywood Palladium (1991)

Compilation Albums

• Vintage Wines (2010)

Simple

Songs from The Rolling Stones sung by Keith Richards

Lead vocals

Filmography