Life

By Keith Richards

Genre: Rock

How in the hell did this guy live so long? After Jimi and Janis died, all the smart money was on Keith Richard to be Rock n' Roll's next burnt-out flame. He fooled us all. And his secret to a long and exciting life?

He was damn lucky.

Maybe not in his music. He worked hard to be the rock n' roll genius he is. But lucky in that he didn't make a fatal mistake between the drugs and general madness his life style resulted in. I loved his frankness but shook my head a little when he discussed his faults and excused his mistakes. He is quick to admit to his drug excesses but even quicker to state that others were bigger addicts than he was. Three areas of contention for me was his take on girl friends (hot and wild and usually stolen from his band members), his unusual parenting techniques (take your seven year old son with you on tour and put him in charge of cleaning up the drug messes left by the band), and his very unusual heroin addiction cure (a little black box and gallons of Jack Daniels). Richard isn't what I would call a great role model but there is something weirdly impressive about a man who creates so much good music but stayed on the wild side with so much energy if not always class.

But what I really liked about his book is his reflections on the music. It comes alive when he discusses his blues idols like Jimmy Reed and others. He describes how the Stones just wanted to be a blues band and slipped into being a rock band. I especially liked hearing about how he and Mick Jagger created their songs. Keith wrote the riffs and Mick fine-tuned the lyrics. After all, it is all about the music and I think Keith would agree with me. He chuckles at his past and hope you get a kick out of hearing about it, But he really wants us to focus on the music and that super group called The Stones.

Background CD: Keith Richards - Talk is Cheap