Keith Richards
Background information
Also known as	Keith Richard
Born	December 18, 1943 (1943-12-18) (age 63) Dartford, Kent, England
Genre(s)	Rock, Blues, Country, Reggae, Rhythm and Blues
Occupation(s)	Musician, Songwriter
Instrument(s)	Guitar, Vocals
Years active	1962 - present
Label(s)	Decca, Rolling Stones Records, Virgin
Associated acts	The Rolling Stones
Website	keithrichards.com
Notable instrument(s)
1952 Fender Telecaster Gibson ES-355

Keith Richards (born 18 December 1943) is an English guitarist, songwriter, singer and a founding member of The Rolling Stones in 1962. With songwriting partner and Stones lead vocalist Mick Jagger, he has written and recorded hundreds of songs. As a guitarist Richards is mostly known for his innovative rhythm playing. In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Richards #10 in its list of "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".

Contents 1 Early life 2 Musical career 2.1 Guitar playing 2.2 Songwriting 2.3 Solo recordings 2.4 Recordings with other artists 2.5 Rare and unreleased recordings 3 Public image and private life 4 Recent news 5 Solo discography 5.1 Albums 5.2 Singles 6 Guest appearances 7 Rolling Stones lead vocals 8 Popular lead vocal bootlegs 9 References 10 External links

Early life

Richards, the only child of Bert Richards and Doris Dupree, was born at Livingstone Hospital, East Hill in Dartford, Kent. His father was a factory labourer slightly injured during World War II, and Richards' paternal grandparents were socialists and civic leaders. His maternal grandfather (Augustus Theodore Dupree), who toured Britain in a jazz/big band, influenced Richards' musical ambitions. Richards' mother introduced him to the music of Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington.

Richards attended Wilmington Grammar School for Boys, and then Sidcup Art College where he devoted more time to playing guitar than his proper studies. As an adolescent, Richards was a teddy boy who played in various skiffle groups as was common at the time. Richards left the College and moved into a flat with Jagger and Brian Jones, the Stones' other guitarist, in 1962. His parents subsequently divorced.

Musical career

Guitar playing

Richards has derived inspiration from Chuck Berry throughout his career. While The Rolling Stones were conceived as a rhythm and blues band, both Jagger and Richards were responsible for bringing the rock 'n' roll songs of Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry to the band. With Stones founding member and guitarist Brian Jones, Richards developed a two-guitar style of interwoven leads and rhythms. Jones was replaced by the virtuoso guitarist Mick Taylor (1969 – 1974), who contributed to some of the group's most well-regarded records. Taylor's addition also led to a pronounced separation in the duties of lead and rhythm guitar. Taylor's replacement in 1975 was the more rhythmically-oriented Ron Wood. Richards says the pairing with Wood has resulted in his most musically satisfying years with in The Stones.

Richards often uses guitars with open tunings which allow for syncopated and ringing I-IV chording that can be heard on "Start Me Up" and "Street Fighting Man." A five-string variant of the open G (borrowed from Don Everly of the Everly Brothers) which uses GDGBD and is unencumbered by a rumbling, lower 6th string, is prominent on "Honky Tonk Women," "Brown Sugar" and "Start Me Up". Though he still uses standard tunings, Richards claimed that his adoption of open tunings in the late sixties led to a musical "rebirth". When Jones' declining contributions left Richards to record all guitar parts - including slide guitar. After Taylor and later Wood, both accomplished slide players, joined the band, Richards almost completely stopped playing slide .

Richards - who has over 1000 guitars, some of which he has not played but was simply given - is often associated with the Fender Telecaster, but his main guitar of late appears to be an ebony Gibson ES-355, and he has often played Fender Stratocasters. It is often hard to detect by ear what guitar he plays. In Guitar World he joked that no matter what make of guitar, he can make them sound the same. On The Stones "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" Richards recorded the first top ten hit to feature a guitar fuzz effect which has since become commonplace. Though in the 1970s and early 80s he used guitar effects frequently, since then he has rarely used effects. Richards considers the acoustic guitar as the basis for his playing, and many Stones hits including "Not Fade Away", "Satisfaction", "Street Fighting Man" and "Brown Sugar" feature acoustic guitar parts.

Richards' backing vocals appear on every Stones album, and since 1969's Let It Bleed, most Stones' releases contained a Richards lead vocal. He has also contributed occasional bass and keyboard parts. Richards has always been active in record production for the Stones and for himself, often in tandem with Mick Jagger (as the Glimmer Twins) and outside producers.

Songwriting

Richards and Jagger began writing songs following the example of the Beatles' Lennon/McCartney and the encouragement of Stone's manager Oldham, who saw little future for a cover band. The Stones had many hits with Jagger/Richards-penned songs; 1965's "Satisfaction" was their first international #1 recording. Jagger/Richards songs reflected the influence of blues, R&B, and rock 'n' roll, and later incorporated soul, folk, pop, country, gospel, psychedelia, and the social commentary that Bob Dylan made prominent on Top 40 radio. Their work in the 1970s and beyond has incorporated elements of funk, disco, calypso, reggae, and punk. Since 1980 with "All About You", Richards has frequently written and recorded slow, torchy ballads.

With scattered exceptions, all Rolling Stones albums from 1966 onwards have consisted of songs credited to Jagger/Richards regardless of how much collaboration occurred. For solo recordings, Richards always credits a songwriting partner, frequently drummer and co-producer Steve Jordan.

Richards was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1993.

Solo recordings

Richards released a solo single, "Run Rudolph Run", and toured with The New Barbarians in 1979, consisting of Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood, Faces keyboardist Ian McLagan, bassist Stanley Clarke and Meters drummer Ziggy Modeliste. Nonetheless Richards resisted sustained ventures outside of the Stones. Consequently his solo recordings are fewer than those of Jagger, Charlie Watts, and even Ronnie Wood.

When Jagger refused to tour behind Dirty Work, Richards actively pursued solo work. He formed Keith Richards and the X-pensive Winos in 1988 (first named Organized Crime) with Steve Jordan, who had drummed on the Stones' "Dirty Work" and on Hail! Hail! Rock 'N' Roll, a documentary of Chuck Berry's 60th birthday concert organized, produced and hosted by Richards.

Besides Steve Jordan, the X-pensive Winos featured Sarah Dash, Waddy Wachtel, Ivan Neville, Charley Drayton and Bernie Worrell. Their first release, Talk Is Cheap produced no Top 40 hits, though it went gold and has remained a consistent seller. It spawned a brief U.S. tour - one of only two that Richards has done as a solo artist. The first tour is documented on the Virgin release Live at the Hollywood Palladium, December 15, 1988. In 1992 Main Offender was released, and the Winos toured again through North and South America as well as Europe.

Richards' solo career put him in the role of frontman, and the Hollywood Palladium concert video showed a more active stage persona than the Richards seen in the documentary of the Stones' 1969 American tour, Gimme Shelter. Jagger and Richards resumed working with the Stones in 1989, the year they released Steel Wheels.

Recordings with other artists

Richards rarely recorded or appeared outside of The Rolling Stones during the 1960s and 70s. Exceptions were Richards playing bass with John Lennon, Eric Clapton, and Mitch Mitchell as The Dirty Mac for The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus TV special, and Keith singing with Mick and several guests on The Beatles' TV broadcast of "All You Need Is Love". In the 1970s Richards played and helped produce John Phillips' solo recording Pay, Pack & Follow, (released in 2001). He also appeared on some of Ronnie Wood's solo recordings in the 1970s. From the 1980s on Richards has more frequently appeared as a guest artist. He duetted with country legend George Jones on the Bradley Barn Sessions, singing "Say it's not You" as an homage to deceased friend Gram Parsons, and on a Hank Williams tribute album Timeless ("You Win Again"). He has also appeared on veteran blues guitarist Hubert Sumlin's About Them Shoes, singing lead vocal on "Still a Fool". He contributed guitar and vocals, and co-produced Johnnie Johnson's release "Johnny B. Bad". In the early 1990s Richards played and produced a recording of Jamaican Rastafarians, The Wingless Angels releasing the collaboration on his own label, Mindless Records. He has also recorded with Tom Waits, playing guitar on several songs on Rain Dogs (1985), and playing on, singing and co-writing "That Feel" on Bone Machine (1992). Richards also played with Toots & the Maytals on the song Careless Ethiopians for their 2004 album True Love.

In 2006, Richards appeared in the video "God's Gonna Cut You Down" as a tribute to country legend Johnny Cash.

Rare and unreleased recordings

The Stones recently released Rarities 1971-2003 (2006), which includes sixteen rare and limited-issue recordings. Richards has described the released output of the Stones as the "tip of the iceberg." Many unreleased songs and studio jam sessions including their BBC recordings from the early 1960s are widely bootlegged. Many bootlegs feature Richards singing, include the post-bust 1977 Canadian studio sessions, 1981 studio sessions, 1983 wedding tapes, among others. Since unreleased recordings often appear as post-career or posthumous releases - and also due to tangled legal complexities with past management - many of these recordings are available only as bootlegs - often as MP3 files on peer-to-peer sharing programs.

Public image and private life

Richards, who has been frank about his habits, has earned notoriety for his drug-related decadent outlaw image. Two famous arrests came ten years apart, the first in 1967 with Jagger and friends at Redlands, Richards' Sussex estate, which placed him in custody and trial before the court of public opinion and Her Majesty. The Times editorial "Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?" portrayed the trial as persecution and helped turn public sentiment against the conviction which was quashed after two days of imprisonment. The case also began a succession of drug arrests for Richards that continued until the late 1970s.

More threatening was the arrest in February 1977 at Toronto's Harbour Castle Hotel (Regina v. Richards) when Richards was arrested by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for "22 grams of heroin" and was charged with importing narcotics, an offence with a minimum sentence of seven years imprisonment according to the Criminal Code of Canada.

For the next three years, Richards lived under threat of criminal sanction as he sought medical treatment in the U.S. for heroin addiction. During this period, The Rolling Stones released their biggest-selling album (eight million copies), Some Girls, which included their last North American number-one pop chart single, "Miss You". After the Ontario Court of Appeal upheld Richards' original sentence, he paid his debt to society by performing two benefit concerts for the Canadian National Institute for the Blind at Oshawa Civic Auditorium on April 22, 1979. Both concerts featured The Rolling Stones and The New Barbarians, a band Ron Wood had formed to promote his album Gimmie Some Neck.

Later in 1979, Keith met future wife and model Patti Hansen. They married 18 December 1983, Richards's 40th birthday, and have two daughters, Theodora and Alexandra.

Richards continues cordial relations with Anita Pallenberg, the mother of his first three children, and often refers to having two wives, although he never officially married Pallenberg. Together they have a son, Marlon Richards (named after the actor Marlon Brando), and another daughter, Angela (nee Dandelion). Their third child, a boy Tara (named after Keith's close friend Tara Browne), died several weeks after his birth in 1976.

Recent news

Doris Richards, Keith's 91-year-old mother lost her battle with cancer and passed away in England on April 21, 2007. In an official statement released by a Richards representative, it was said Richards, her only child, kept a vigil by her bedside during her last days.

In an April 2007 interview with the British music magazine NME, Richards tells other musicians not to follow his example when it comes to drug use, claiming he is lucky to be alive after his years of substance abuse. However, when asked what is the strangest thing he has ever snorted, he said "The strangest thing I've tried to snort? My father. I snorted my father. He was cremated and I couldn't resist grinding him up with a little bit of blow.". Afterwards, Richards' manager pointed out that the statement was untrue and was "said in jest". However, on August 6. 2007, Richards confirmed in another interview with NME that he had, in fact, snorted his father's ashes--with no cocaine mixed in.

Back stage at the March 12, 2007 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame ceremony, Richards was asked about another possible solo album and tour with the X-pensive Winos. He stated that "the guys are calling me up, I have a feeling something might be bubbling. Once again it's all up in the air, but I'd love to do it."

Richards made a cameo appearance as the father of Captain Jack Sparrow (played by Johnny Depp), Captain Teague in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. Depp has stated that he based Sparrow's mannerisms on Richards.

In September 2006, Richards claimed he has quit taking drugs, not for health reasons, but because they were not strong enough anymore.

In August 2006 Richards was granted a pardon by Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee for a 1975 reckless driving citation.

On 27 April 2006, Richards, while vacationing in Fiji, suffered a head injury. On May 22, an official press release confirmed that Richards had returned to his home in Weston, Connecticut. The Rolling Stones announced a revised tour schedule on June 2, which included a brief statement from Richards apologising for "falling off his perch". The band will tour in Europe in 2007 to make up for some missed dates as a result of the accident. The 2007 tour will start in Belgium on June 5, 2007, as confirmed by Mick Jagger.

Solo discography

Albums

• Talk is Cheap (3 October 1988) UK #37 3 wks; US #24 23 wks; Japan #5 7 wks
• Live at the Hollywood Palladium, December 15, 1988 (10 December 1991) Japan #54 4 wks
• Main Offender (19 October 1992) UK #45 1 wk; US #99 10 wks; Japan #18 5 wks

Singles

• "Run Rudolph Run" b/w "The Harder They Come" (December 1978)
• "Take It So Hard" (October 1988) #3 US Mainstream Rock
• "You Don't Move Me" (November 1988) #18 US Mainstream Rock
• "Struggle" (February 1989) #47 US Mainstream Rock
• "Wicked As It Seems" (October 1992) #3 US Mainstream Rock
• "Eileen" (January 1993) #17 US Mainstream Rock

Guest appearances

• The New Barbarians: Buried Alive (recorded 1979, released 2006) – the band's 1979 Largo MD concert (guitar, piano, lead and backing vocals)
• Jerry Lee Lewis: Last Man Standing: The Duets (2006) – "That Kind of Fool" (duet)
• Ronnie Spector: Last of the Rock Stars (2006) – "It's Gonna Work Out Fine" (duet) and "All I Want"
• Les Paul & Friends: American Made World Played (2005) – "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl"
• Buddy Guy Bring "Em In – "The Price You Gotta Pay"
• Toots & the Maytals: True Love (2004) – "Careless Ethiopians" (duet)
• Return to Sin City: A Tribute to Gram Parsons (2004) – "Love Hurts" (duet with Norah Jones), "Hickory Wind" (duet with Jim Lauderdale), "Wild Horses" (with the Sin City all-star ensemble)
• Willie Nelson & Friends: Outlaws & Angels (2004) – "We Had It All" (duet with Willie Nelson), "Trouble in Mind" and "Whole Lotta Shakin Goin On" (with Jerry Lee Lewis, Willie Nelson, et al)
• Hubert Sumlin: About Them Shoes (2004) – "Still a Fool" (lead vocal), "I Love the Life I Lead" and "Little Girl"
• Willie Nelson & Friends: Stars & Guitars (2002) – "Dead Flowers" (with the Lost Highwaymen)
• Alexis Korner: Musically Rich...and Famous: Anthology 1967-1982 (2003) (Guitar on "Get Off My Cloud")
• Peter Wolf: Sleepless (2002) - guitar
• John Phillips: Pay, Pack & Follow (recorded 1973–1979, released 2001) – co-producer, guitar
• Charlie Watts: Charlie Watts - Jim Keltner Project (2000) - guitar
• Timeless: Tribute to Hank Williams (2001) – "You Win Again"
• Sheryl Crow: "Happy" Sheryl Crow & Friends: Live From Central Park (1999)
• Marianne Faithfull: This Little Bird (1998) - guitar with Ron Wood
• B.B. King: Deuces Wild (1997) - guitar
• Scotty Moore: All the King's Men (1997). "Deuce and a Quarter", (duet with Levon Helm)
• Ivan Neville: Thanks (1995) - guitar with Ron Wood, Scrape (2004) - guitar
• Bernie Worrell: Funk of Ages (1994) - guitar
• Bobby Womack: Resurrection (1994) - guitar
• Wingless Angels (1993) – producer
• Jimmy Rogers All-Stars: Blues Blues Blues – "Trouble No More" and "Don't Start Me Talkin'" - guitar
• George Jones: Bradley Barn Sessions (1993) – "Say It's Not You" (duet)
• Ian McLagan: Troublemaker (1993) - guitar with Ron Wood
• Tom Waits: Bone Machine (1992) – "That Feel" (co-composer, backing vocal and guitar), Rain Dogs (1985) - guitar
• Weird Nightmare: Meditations on Mingus (1992) – "Oh Lord Don't Let Them Drop That Atomic Bomb on Me (lead vocal and guitar)
• John Lee Hooker (1991) – Mr. Lucky "Crawling King Snake" - guitar and "Whiskey and Wimmen" - guitar, backing vocal
• Johnnie Johnson: Johnnie B. Bad (1991) – "Key to the Highway" (lead vocal, guitar, co-producer), "Tanqueray" (guitar, co-composer).
• The Neville Brothers: Uptown (1991) - guitar
• Ziggy Marley: Conscious Party (1988) "Lee & Molly" - guitar
• Feargal Sharkey: Wish (1988) - guitar
• Nona Hendryx: Female Trouble (1987) - guitar
• Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll (1987) – soundtrack of Chuck Berry concert film (additional material released on DVD June 2006) – "Crawling King Snake" guitar
• Jumpin' Jack Flash (1986) – producer on Aretha Franklin's version of the title song
• Sun City, Artists United Against Apartheid (1985) – "Silver and Gold" (guitar, co-composer) with Ron Wood and U2's Bono and The Edge
• Max Romeo: Holding Out My Love For You (1981) – recorded guitar and mixed tracks
• Dirty Strangers: Dirty Strangers. (1980) - guitar with Ron Wood
• Ron Wood: Now Look (1975) – "Breathe on Me", "I Can't Stand the Rain", "I Can Say She's Alright" (guitar, backing vocals)
• Peter Tosh: Bush Doctor (1978) – guitar
• Ron Wood: I've Got My Own Album to Do (1974) – "Sure the One You Need" (co-composer, lead vocal and guitar), "Act Together" (co-composer, guitar, backing vocals); guitar and backing vocals on most other tracks
• Billy Preston: That's the Way God Planned It (1969) - guitar

Rolling Stones lead vocals

Richards contributes guitar, piano, bass, backing vocals and lead vocals on Rolling Stones records, as well as producing and co-writing songs. Yet his lead vocals are memorable tracks for many fans and this list identifies those songs:

• "Something Happened to Me Yesterday", (alternates lead with Jagger), "Connection" (co-lead with Jagger) (1967) Between the Buttons
• "Salt of the Earth" (sings first verse) (1968) Beggars Banquet
• "You Got the Silver" (1969) Let It Bleed
• "Happy" (1972) Exile On Main St.
• "Coming Down Again" (1973) Goats Head Soup
• "Memory Motel" (alternates lead with Jagger) (1976) Black and Blue
• "Happy (Live)" (1977) Love You Live
• "Before They Make Me Run" (1978) Some Girls
• "All About You" (1980) Emotional Rescue
• "Little T&A" (1981) Tattoo You
• "Wanna Hold You" (1983) Undercover
• "Too Rude", "Sleep Tonight" (1986) Dirty Work
• "Can't Be Seen", "Slipping Away" (1989) Steel Wheels
• "Can't Be Seen" (live) (1991) Flashpoint
• "The Worst", "Thru & Thru" (1994), Voodoo Lounge
• "Slipping Away" (acoustic live) (1995), Stripped
• "You Don't Have To Mean It", "Thief in the Night", "How Can I Stop" (1997), Bridges to Babylon
• "Thief in the Night" (live) (1999) No Security
• "Losing My Touch" (2002) Forty Licks
• "Happy" (Live), "The Nearness of You" (live), "You Don't Have To Mean It" (live) (2004) Live Licks
• "This Place is Empty", "Infamy" (2005) A Bigger Bang
• "Thru & Thru" (live) (2005) Rarities 1971-2003

Popular lead vocal bootlegs

An incomplete list of some of the most popular bootleg tracks unreleased by the Rolling Stones or Richards in any market world-wide. Verification of the track should be documented by citing some sources, such as The Rolling Stones Complete Recording Sessions 1962 – 2002

• "Sometimes Happy, Sometimes Blue" (early version of "Dandelion") (recorded 1966, unreleased outtake)
• "Gimme Shelter" (recorded 1969, unreleased Let It Bleed outtake, 1969)
• "Rip This Joint" (recorded 1971 – 1972, unreleased Exile On Main Street outtake, 1972)
• "Scarlet" (recorded 1974, unreleased solo demo featuring Jimmy Page from Led Zeppelin on guitar)
• "I Got A Letter" (recorded 1974, unreleased Black And Blue outtake)
• "Holding On" (recorded 1976, unreleased solo demo)
• "Bad Luck" (recorded 1977, unreleased solo demo)
• "Let's Go Steady, Again" (recorded 1977, Toronto sessions),
  • Live version released 2006 on Buried Alive: Live in Maryland.
• "Worried Life Blues" (recorded 1977, Toronto sessions),
  • Live version released 2006 on Buried Alive: Live in Maryland.
• "Apartment No.9" (recorded 1977, Toronto sessions)
  • Live version released 2006 on Buried Alive: Live in Maryland.
• "I Can't Help It" (recorded 1977 – 1978, unreleased Some Girls outtake)
• "I Think I'm Going Mad" (recorded 1982, unreleased Undercover outtake)
• "Crushed Pearl" (1985) Dirty Work outtake
• "Breakin'" (1985) Dirty Work outtake
• "Too Much" (1985) Dirty Work outtake
• "Deep Love" (1985) Dirty Work outtake
• "You Don't Tell Me" (with Bobby Womack) Dirty Work outtake
• "Almost Hear You Sigh" (1987) Talk is Cheap outtake
• "Love is Strong/Strange" (1993) Voodoo Lounge outtake
• "It's Funny" (1993) Voodoo Lounge outtake
• "You Got it Made" (1993) Voodoo Lounge outtake

References

External links

Find more information on Keith Richards by searching Wikipedia's sister projects
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• The Official Keith Richards website (requires Flash)
• Keith Richards at the All Music Guide
• Keith Richards at the Internet Movie Database
• Keith Richards at the Songwriters Hall of Fame
• Keith Richards at Discogs
• Keith Richards at MusicBrainz
• CBC Archives Richards' trial and sentencing in Oct. 24, 1978 and April 16, 1979
• Richards,_Keith at the Open Directory Project

v • d • e The Rolling Stones

Mick Jagger • Keith Richards • Charlie Watts • Ron Wood Brian Jones • Bill Wyman • Mick Taylor • Ian Stewart See also Chuck Leavell • Darryl Jones • Andrew Loog Oldham • Allen Klein • Nicky Hopkins • Bobby Keys • Jimmy Miller • Jim Price • Billy Preston Related articles Discography • The Glimmer Twins • Jagger/Richards • Nanker Phelge • Rolling Stones Records • Rock and Roll Circus Categories The Rolling Stones • Members • Albums • Singles • Songs • Tours • Films