Bockris - Keith Richards: The Biography

Table of Contents

Praise for Keith Richards

Rock n rolls own god of druggy decadence is saluted in Keith Richards, a solid straight-ahead look at the Rolling Stones none-too-straight guitar genius.

Rolling Stones fans and music enthusiasts alike will enjoy and respect Bockriss comprehensive biography of a driving force in rock history.... This book can be regarded as an authoritative source.

A subtle portrait providing insight into a wayward but honest existence.... Fascinating reading.

[A] sympathetic biography.... Bockris doesnt skimp on tales of his subjects aggression and heroin addiction, yet he also chooses anecdotes that emphasize the sincerity and amiability behind the musicians fierce stance. Richards emerges as more a tortured artist than a junkie, more a generous party-lover than a materialistic star.

Thorough and affectionate ... [Bockris] reveals a more complex and plausible character than the rough, tough and elegantly wasted rock n roll outlaw of popular imagination.... [A] terrific read.

The years best book about rock music.The Independent

[A] finely detailed portrait.... The book succeeds on a crucial level: it reduces to human scale a figure of near-mythic proportions. Bockris provides the reader with an understanding of the impact this legend has had on Richards the musician and Richards the man. Even hardcore followers of the Stones may be unnerved by the starkly described episodes detailing Richardss nearly fatal drug addiction and repeated bouts with police.... [The story] is plainly told, making the horrors of addiction brutally real to the reader.

The Trenton Times (New Jersey)

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Photo Credit: Shelley Corwin

James Michener once told me the key to being a writer is to maintain a sweet relationship with yourself. This is particularly true, I would think, in biography. I write out of love, admiration, and humor, but that doesnt make the writing easier than if you were writing out of hatred, disgust, and irony. Either way, you find yourself alone, stumbling around in the dark.

For being my lifeline during the three years it took to write this book, deepest thanks to Lisa Krug, Andrew Wylie, Miles, Stellan Holm, and Robert Dowling.

For assistance in constructing and writing the book, thanks to Ann Patty, Steve Messina, and Lydia Buechler at Poseidon in New York, Paul Sidey and Ingrid von Essen at Random Century in London, and my collaborators Lisa Krug, Mim Udovitch, and Robert Dowling.

For interviews with the author I am especially grateful for their generosity and enlightenment to Anita Pallenberg, Linda Porter (ne Keith), Sheila Oldham, Terry Southern, and Albert Goldman. For outstanding interviews with or articles about Keith Richards, I wish to thank Mandy Aftel, Stanley Booth, Roy Carr, Barbara Charone, Adrian Deevoy, Bill Flanagan, Chet Flippo, Bill German, Robert Greenfield, Kurt Loder, Lisa Robinson, and Charles Young. And for outstanding images, Bob Gruen, Michael Cooper, and Gered Mankowitz.

For inspiration, information, and insanity I acknowledge the aid and collaboration of Penny Arcade, Price Abbott, Gini Alhadeff, Isabelle Bannon, Jessica Blue, William Burroughs, Mary Beach, Roberta Bayley, David Bourdon, Bobbie Bristol, Isabelle Baudron, Annie Bingham, Rosemary Bailey, Heiner Bastian, Ted Berrigan, David Courts, James Carpenter, Tei Carpenter, Jim Carroll, Jonathan Cott, Diego Cortez, John Dunbar, Liz Derringer, Ed de Grazia, Rick Derringer, Marianne Erdos, Kim Evans, Steve Finbow, Gisella Freisinger, Mick Farren, Marianne Faithfull, Ed Friedman, Raymond Foye, James Grauerholz, Allen Ginsberg, Craig Gholson, Bob Gruen, John Giorno, Art and Kym Garfunkel, Dr. Joseph Gross, Bill German, Liz Gibbons, Emma Hall, Debbie Harry, Clinton Heylin, Richard Hambleton, Terry Hood, Susan Hill, David Heymann, Mary Harron, Anthony Haden-Guest, Vclav Havel, Paula Igliore, Fred Jordan, Baird Jones, Ray Johnson, Becky Johnston, Jose at 380 Copy Shop, James Karnbach, Mark Kostabi, Justin Krug, Laura Kronenberg, Lawrence Krug, Maria Lexton, Lydia Lunch, John Lindsay, Richard Lloyd, Carl Laszlo, Benjamin Lefevre, Seaver Leslie, Christopher Makos, Legs McNeil, Taylor Mead, Earl McGrath, Steve Mass, Tom Mershon, Charles and Diana Michener, Stewart Meyer, Annabelle McCall, John Michel, Gered Mankowitz, Gerard Malanga, Toshiko Mori, Philip Norman, James Nares, Glenn OBrien, Uschi Obermeier, George Plimpton, Linda Porter, Claude Pelieu, Caz Phillips, Peter Moritz Pickshaus, Robert Palmer, Bill Prince, Marcia Resnick, Josef Rauvolf, Doris Richards, Jane Rose, Chantal Rosset, John Richardson, Jonathan Riley, Walter Stedding, Ingrid Sischy,David Schmidlapp, Chris Stein, Terry Spero, Dieter Steiner, Frances Schnberger, Tim Schultheiss, Liza Stelle, Aram Saroyan, Stuart Samuels, Kate Simon, Joe Stevens, Gus Van Sant, John Telfer, Lynne Tillman, John Tytell, Jeffrey Vogel, Jan van Willigen, Christopher Whent, Peter Wise, Michael Watts, Rebekah Wood, Lee Williams, and Susan Williams.

19431956

Hitler had me marked!

KEITH RICHARDS

On December 18, 1943, at the height of the Second World War, while air raid sirens wailed and flak exploded over the streets nearby, Keith Richards was born a war baby in Livingstone Hospital, Dartford, Kent. At the age of thirty-three, his mother, Doris Dupree Richards, bore the only child of her marriage, which lasted twenty-seven years, for the express purpose of avoiding wartime work. As during most of Keiths childhood, his father, Bert Richards, who was thirty-six when his son was born, was absent for the event, having been called up to serve as an electrician in the army. I dont remember World War Two at all, Keith said on the subject of being born in a crossfire hurricane, nothing except the sirens. I can hear them today in the old movies on TV and the hair on the back of my neck goes right up and I get goose bumps. Its a reaction I picked up in the first eighteen months of my life.... I was born with those sirens. He was also born to the sound of music. Doris would jump up and cut a few fast steps around the room whenever she heard a hot sound on the radio. She spent the majority of her pregnancy bopping to the popular violinist Stephane Grappelli and the big band sound of Billy Eckstine and the singer Ella Fitzgerald. Keith was in good musical company from the outset.