The indestructible Keef is somehow still Rolling
Rock music is full of shocks and surprises – the fact Keith Richards will celebrate his 75th birthday on Tuesday is one of the biggest!
If you know anything about the Rolling Stones co-founder’s lifestyle, you’ll understand that many in the music industry feared “Keef” would be lucky to reach 50. Or 40. Or 30.
He must, however, be built with a fine constitution, because a lifetime of enjoying, shall we say, all life has to offer, has not done him much damage.
In return, he has given us some of the greatest songs and guitar riffs, countless hit albums and singles, an incredible autobiography and a lot of laughs along the way.
Born on December 18, 1943, in Dartford, Kent, the only child of Doris and Bert, his grandparents were passionate Socialists and his father had been wounded at Normandy.
His grandfather, a guitarist himself, had teased the young Keith, promising he could have a guitar perched high on a shelf – if he could reach it.
Keith put books and cushions on a chair to get his hands on it, and a lifelong love of guitars was born.
He is far from your average guitarist, and many a bedroom strummer (like yours truly) spent much blood, sweat and tears trying 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!