Many fans of Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards wonder how he's managed to survive the last half-century of raucous rock and roll behavior and drug use. This suspicion is only intensified after reading Life, his 2011 autobiography.
Richards has always been just who he is, leaving the facades for others and choosing instead to just be himself. His open honestly is evident in Life, when he discusses not only the tunes made famous by his legendary band but the men behind them. Keith writes about his past addictions at length, and the isolation both his drug use and the band's fame brought. The book even includes many pictures from Keith's personal collection. These are available as a PDF download with the audiobook version on Life.
Richards talks about the early days of the Rolling Stones, when the band did a lot more listening than playing. He, along with vocalist Mick Jagger and fellow guitarist Brian Jones, would sit for hours dissecting and digesting records by Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters. From there, they developed their own sound, and formed a band to play the music the y loved.
Jagger and Richards soon found they worked well together as a songwriting team, and the Rolling Stones were born. He offers a look at their rise to fame and all of the events of the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s that contributed to their legendary status.
Richards wrote Life with help from journalist James Fox. Fox is best known for his book about an infamous 1941 murder in Kenya called White Mischief. His other works include Five Sisters: The Langhornes of Virginia. He has also worked as a reporter for London's Sunday Times.
The Life audiobook is narrated by Johnny Depp and Joe Hurley.
"I leaned my phone on the back of the chopsaw while doing carpentry, played the book in my car hoping for bad traffic, shared with family. The Keith book kept me company - out of body experience drifting through the history of rock and roll, the albums and the women, drug busts, life and death, glory and hardships. I recommend this for all adult ages.
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Nick Danger (5 out of 5 stars)