Rolling Stones. - Life

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As the legendary guitarist for the Rolling Stones, Keith Richards has done more, been more, and seen more than you or I will ever dream of, and reading his autobiography, Life, should awaken (if you have a pulse and an I.Q. north of 100) a little bit of the rock star in you. Believe me, you wont want to miss a thing. The most impressive part of Life is the wealth of knowledge Keith shares, whether hes telling you how to layer an acoustic guitar until it sounds electric, as he did on the classic Stones track Street Fighting Man, or how to win a knife fight. He delivers recipe after recipe for everything rock n roll, and let me say its quite an education. Reading Life is like getting to corner Keith Richards in a room and ask him everything you ever wanted to know about the Rolling Stones, and have him be completely honest with you.

Liz Phair, New York Times Book Review

Compelling, endearing, insightful, action-packed, graceful, generous-spirited, unflinching, and funny. Life distinguishes itself as a singularly entertaining and intelligent kind of music book. If youre reading it in a room with somebody else who cares about rock-and-roll, youll want to read something out loud every page and a half or so. I cant remember ever enjoying a music memoir as much.

Dan DeLuca, Philadelphia Inquirer

Life, a firsthand journey from wartime London through the wilder parts of the 1960s and 1970s and beyond, could as easily be filed among the works of Richardss friend William Burroughs as alongside the memoirs of Bob Dylan or Eric Clapton. Its the rare rock memoir with recipes (for bangers, English sausages), guidelines on street brawling (flash the knife as a decoy, then kick your enemy where it hurts) and staying awake for days. Life is like the ultimate Keith Richards album.

Hillel Italie, Associated Press

Keith holds nothing back. Its funny, gossipy, profane, and moving, and by the time you finish it you feel like youre friends with Keith Richards. Its probably the best rock memoir ever written.

Will Dana, Rolling Stone

Entertaining. A romp through the life of a man who knew every pleasure, denied himself nothing, and never paid the price.

David Remnick, The New Yorker

Remarkable. Life reveals Mr. Richards in far greater depth and detail than any fan of the Rolling Stones or rock music could have hoped for. Mr. Richards writes with disarming introspection about his childhood, family, and fame. And its quite likely that no rock musician has ever written so keenly about the joys of making music. With a warm sense of humor and willingness to share his grief, Mr. Richards in Life defies almost every public perception about him.

Jim Fusilli, Wall Street Journal

Rollicking and raw.

Andrew Abrahams, People

One of the greatest rock memoirs ever. The title of Richardss book is a simple, accurate description of the contents: the 66-year-old guitarists highs, lows, and death-defying excesses, from birth to now, vividly related in his natural pirate-hipster cadence and syntax.

David Fricke, Rolling Stone

The intimate and moving story of one mans long strange trip over the decades, told in dead-on, visceral prose without any of the pretense, caution, or self-consciousness that usually attend great artists sitting for their self-portraits. A high-def, high-velocity portrait of the era when rock n roll came of age, a raw report from deep inside the counterculture maelstrom of how that music swept like a tsunami over Britain and the United States. Its an eye-opening all-nighter in the studio with a master craftsman disclosing the alchemical secrets of his art. Mr. Richardss prose is like his guitar playing: intense, elemental, utterly distinctive and achingly, emotionally direct. He has found a voice in these pagesa kind of rich, primal Keith-Speakthat enables him to dispense funny, streetwise observations, tender family reminiscences, casually profane yarns, and wry literary allusions with both heartfelt sincerity and bad-boy charm. By turns earnest and wicked, sweet and sarcastic and unsparing, Mr. Richards writes with uncommon candor and immediacy.

Michiko Kakutani, New York Times

The twinkle from Keith Richardss eye throughout his autobiography is as distinctive as his famous guitar riffs in Jumpin Jack Flash.

David Hinckley, New York Daily News

Keith Richards has been through quite a lot of phases. And theyre all on the page in Life: the Boy Scout (really); the tyro rocker; the love-struck kid (mad for Ronnie Spector, unbeknownst to Phil Spector); the astonished new star; the heroin-addicted older one; the jaded veteran of countless world tours; and the longtime sparring partner of Mick Jagger. All of this is recounted with straight-up candor. Is there anything new that can be said about the Stones anyway? As Life emphatically demonstrates, the answer is yes.

Janet Maslin, New York Times

An all-encompassing account of what its been like to be one of the coolest rock stars in the world.

Kevin Fallon, Atlantic

Richardss authorial voice is evident on almost every page and, like his singing one, it is both an entertaining and an ever-wandering instrument. Richards not only has the best tunes, he also knows how to tell the best tales.

Clark Collis, Entertainment Weekly

Keith Richards is, after all, the very model of the rock star bad boy: drug addict, bluesman, libertine. But he is also, as anyone who has followed his career knows, exceedingly intelligent, a keen and cool-eyed observer of the illusions that drive the rock n roll machine. Nowhere is that more compelling than when Richards writes about music, which he does with insight and grace.

David Ulin, Los Angeles Times

An artistic genius whose form of expressionguitar playingis nonverbal and thus frequently misunderstood or not even perceived. Richardss gift, like Hemingways, is the gift of unadorned intensity.

Zachary Lazar, Newsday

Fiercely entertaining. Richardss book, written in a loose, conversational style with journalist James Fox, is refreshingly candid and self-deprecating.

John McMurtrie, San Francisco Chronicle

Spellbinding storytelling. A vivid self-portrait and, of the Stones and their musical era, a grand group portrait. Surely thanks in part to his cowriter James Fox, Richards shows a strong, sure authorial voice, acute in detail, passionate about his achievements in music, and nearly always amused by his excesses, not least in having survived them.