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Keith Richards - Life

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Keith Cuts Loose In Print

Book from Stones guitarist leaves little out.

Life, the book Keith Richards puts out October 26, proves that the Rolling Stones guitarist is as willing to spill details in print as he is at a press conference or during an interview.  Excerpts from the book about his life in the Rolling Stones describe women as 'peripheral' to the band compared with electricity, food and the compulsion to make and listen to music, but the stories about the women involved with band members and their members has gotten a lot of pre publication play.  A lot of it centers around love triangles involving Anita Pallenberg and Marianee Faithfull Pallenberg originally hooked up with Brian Jones in a relationship Richards describes as abusive, saying Jones expected her to serve as '...his full-time geisha, flatterer, punchbag', and that Jones demanded that she participate in orgies, something he says she refused to do.  Richards says he rescued Pallenberg from Jones rather than stole her.  According to Richards, her appreciation and attraction were expressed orally on him in the back of a Bentley while riding from Barcelona to Valencia, Spain, where the two checked in at  a hotel as Count and Countess Zigenpuss.  Jagger and Pallenberg later had an affair Richards blames on Performance movie director Donald Cammell, who he said '...took delight in screwing things up' between him and Jagger, calling him, '...the most destructive turd I have ever met'.  Richards retaliated against his band mate by sacking Marianne Faithfull, Jagger's partner at the time. He says that to this day Faithfull includes 'I still can't find your socks' in messages she sends him.  Richards writes, 'I was knocking Marianne, man.  While you were missing it, I'm kissing it.'  A lot has been made over the fact Richards is so willing to tell-all, including speculation that the revelations could fracture the relationship between the two and end the band.  Our guess is that nothing Richards writes or says can bother Mick enough for that to happen - and there's probably much more damaging stuff Jagger will appreciate Richards either forgot happened or decided not to include for him to be angry about what is in the book.  Besides, Mick is bound to have the last word.
RollingStone.com   TheTimes.co.uk   Examiner.com