Keith Richards
Keith Richards is the legendary guitarist and singer of The Rolling Stones.
Elvis Presley was his hero as a boy, while growing up he was exposed to the music of Billie Holiday and Duke Ellington by his mother.
His move from a technical school to an art college fed his musical ambitions and love for drugs. A meeting of Mick Jagger a few years later would eventually lead him to playing in a band that would become one of the greates rock and roll bands of all time, The Rolling Stones.
In the music accompanying recent biography Life one can hear his love for rhythm and blues, and get a grasp of his willingness to become both a specialist and innovator in the techniques used by his favourite players.
Besides playing guitar, writing songs and singing them with The Rolling Stones, Richards has played with more bands, including The X-Pensive Winos, who you'll find on Booktunes 15: Life. Keith has been playing non-stop since1962 and even without following the latest news I can confidently predict that they will already be planning a new tour.
Life begins with a tour and, inevitable, glimpse of the habits Keith has become notorious for. And beloved. Because if there is one thing we really need to praise him for is his endurance, and the energy he has as a musician. We at Booktunes respect that, but we think his wish to be a librarian one day will suit him just as well as the pirate hat he has been wearing lately...
text by Erik de Loor / translation by Will Georgi / drawing by Ytje