The indestructible Keef is somehow still Rolling

to figure out what the heck Keef was doing to get those strange, exciting sounds.

Turns out, he often tunes his guitar in a strange open tuning, then throws away the thickest string and uses just five.

This is why we were all playing the right chords but still never sounding like he did.

Richards also uses acoustic guitar more than you might think, and on some of the Stones’ biggest hits, he hammered on an acoustic straight into a little tape recorder, to get an amplified sound.

You can hear it on many of the classics he wrote with Mick Jagger.

The pair have a famously tempestuous relationship, and if it is galling that Mick got a knighthood but Keith didn’t, he has made it plain that he has no interest in such things.

All Keith cares about, it seems, is looking out at huge arenas full of fans thrilled to see the Stones in action, and as he has shown in recent years, the passage of time hasn’t made him slow down much.

Another surprising side of Keith, though, is what he gets up to when he is not recording or performing.

He’s said to be one of the world’s most avaricious readers, a true bookworm with a fascination for history and biographies, which might explain why his own story – Life – is such a cracking read.

Then again, his 75 years and counting have been very eventful.

Happy birthday, Keef!