Keith Richards (born 18.12.1943) is an English musician best known for being the guitarist of The Rolling Stones.
Childhood: Keith Richards was born in Dartford, Kent. His parents were Bertrand Richards, a factory worker, and Doris Dupree Richards. When they divorced, Keith remained close to his mother but stopped speaking to his father for a long time. His interest in music began when he was a child and his mother bought him a guitar. He listened to records by Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Scotty Moore. He attended Wentworth Primary School with his friend and neighbour Mick Jagger. He then attended Dartford Technical High School for Boys where he was expelled for truancy and transferred to Sidcup Art College. He did, however, sing in choir at Dartford and even sang in front of the Queen. He reunited with Mick Jagger over mutual musical interests and joined his band Little Boy Blue and the Blue Boys alongside Dick Taylor. It was during this time he met Rolling Stones co-founder Ian Stewart as well as Brian Jones. He soon moved in with his bandmates and dropped out of college.
Career: Keith Richards co-founded The Rolling Stones and signed to Decca Records in 1963. He is considered to be the band leader of the Rolling Stones by both Ian Stewart and bassist Bill Wyman. His guitar inspiration mostly comes from the likes of Chuck Berry, Jimmy Reed and Muddy Waters and he prefers to play alongside another guitarist. He co-wrote much of the music with Jagger with his first international number one being '(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction' in 1965. The riff allegedly came to him in his sleep, after which he woke up and recorded a demo. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1993. He has been producing and co-producing records since the 1970s for artists such as Aretha Franklin, Johnnie Johnson and Ronnie Spector. He owns a record label called Mindless Records. His solo projects include 1978 cover single of Chuck Berry's 'Run Rudolph Run' and Jimmy Cliff's 'The Harder They Come'. He also formed a band called the X-pensive Winos alongside Steve Jordan, Waddy Wachtel, Bobby Keys, Ivan Neville and Charley Drayton. The first record, 'Talk Is Cheap', was certified gold. He did recordings with other artists as part of manager Andrew Oldham's Immediate Records label. He has also recorded with John Lennon, Eric Clapton, Mitch Mitchell, Ivry Gitlis and Yoko Ono for 1968's Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus TV special. He has also worked on side projects with bandmate Ronnie Wood including on his first two solo albums. In 1979, he toured with Wood's band the New Barbarians promoting Wood's album 'Gimme Some Neck'. In 1974, he made an appearance at a Faces show. 1981 saw him feature on reggae star Max Romeo's album 'Holding Out My Love to You'. He has also worked with Tom Waits several times including on his album 'Rain Dogs' in 1985. Keith Richards made an appearance as Captain Jack Sparrow's father Captain Teague in 'Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End' in 2007 and 'Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides' in 2011 opposite Johnny Depp. He published his autobiography 'Life' in 2010.
Personal Life: Keith Richards was notorious for his drug fuelled lifestyle during the Rolling Stones' heyday and has been to court on drug-related charges five times. It began in 1967 when his house was raided resulting in both him and Jagger spending the night in separate prisons; Richards at Wormwood Scrubs, though his conviction was soon dropped due to lack of evidence. In 1977 he was charged with possession of heroin while staying at a Toronto hotel. It was later changed to the lesser charge of simple possession of heroin. In 1978 he was given a suspended sentence and one year's probation for possession of heroin. He claimed in 2007 in an interview with NME that he once snorted his father's ashes. He married model Patti Hansen in 1983 and had two daughters, Theodora and Alexandra. He had three children; Marlon, Angela and Tara; in a previous relationship with Anita Pallenberg, though Tara died as an infant. He owns homes in Sussex; Weston, Connecticut; and Turks & Caicos. He enjoys reading and history and has expressed an interest in being a librarian. In 2006, he sustained a head injury after falling from a tree in Fiji and ended up having cranial surgery.
Biography by Contactmusic.com
Keith Richards has said drugs never did anything for his creativity.
