Keith Richards: The Biography - Softcover

Bockris, Victor

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0306808153 ISBN 13: 9780306808159

Publisher: Da Capo Press, 1998

Synopsis

For over thirty years Keith Richards has been the Rolling Stones' guitarist, songwriter, and singer, as well as a highly respected solo artist. Keith Richards , based on Victor Bockris's exclusive interviews with the musician, his family, and friends, is not just the only full-length biography of this pivotal and legendary figure but the definitive one.

About this title

About the Author:

Victor Bockris has written about the cultural heroes of the twentieth century for over thirty years. He is the author or co-author of major biographies on Andy Warhol, Patti Smith, The Velvet Underground, and many others. He lives in New York City.

From Kirkus Reviews:

A gushing Keith Richards fanzine and high-bias Rolling Stones history. Richards, Bockris tells us, was the son of a dour working- class father who told his son to ``stop that noise'' and a doting mother who listened to Keith practice in the kitchen for hours. In 1962, Richards joined the newly formed Rolling Stones; he was touring by 1963. Here, Bockris (The Life and Death of Andy Warhol, 1989, etc.) details--mainly through interviews with Richards--the guitar player's studio work, live performances, and personal life, as well as a chronicle of the band that was formed by Brian Jones. To Bockris, Jones is a virtual nonperson, and Richards--whose considerable talent as a songwriter peaked out, by his own estimation, in 1973--is the band's single, irreplaceable driving force. (By contrast, Stones bassist Bill Wyman says in Stone Alone [1990] that ``Brian was the inventor and inspiration of the Rolling Stones'' and that Richards ``screwed up the band with his drug problems for about ten years.'') Much of the portrait here is a depressingly familiar canvas of addiction and denial, with Richards repeatedly arrested, burning down numerous estate houses by nodding off with lighted cigarettes, methodically punching out his common- law wife, Anita Pallenberg, in front of their children, delaying concerts and recording sessions for hours and days while in a stupor or trying to obtain drugs. But Bockris quotes Richards as saying, ``I've never had a problem with drugs--I've had problems with police.'' And Bockris finds it all romantic: ``The drugs helped Richards understand he was living in the midst of a cultural renaissance.'' Interesting, and probably choice fare for Richards fans, but hardly gospel. (B&w photographs--not seen.) -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Da Capo Press
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0306808153
• ISBN 13: 9780306808159
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 416