My Life as a Rolling Stone (2022) s01e02 Episode Script
Episode 2
OK, this is Keith, take one.
Can't You Hear Me Knocking
by The Rolling Stones
Every guy I've ever met in my life
wants to be Keith Richards.
He is the epitome of a rock
guitarist.
The original, the one and only.
It's Keith Richards.
Keith Richards has led a life
wreathed in legend.
His attitude and legacy underpin
the whole idea of the Guitar Hero.
What troubled mind would around
wondering
what other people's perceptions are?
I have enough dealing with my own.
I can only imagine what delusions
other people labour under.
More than just a musician,
he's a defiant hedonist and a poster
boy for sheer survival.
Rock and roll has to have an element
of danger
and an element of unpredictability.
And when you look at Keith Richards,
he embodies every element
that you want in your rock and roll
star.
Keith is all about living your life
with no-one telling you how to be.
It's following who you are
fearlessly.
It's really the skin of the teeth.
First off, that it happens to you,
then you've got to survive it,
because you don't know what you're
in for when you start this thing.
I still don't. So many surprises.
I could kid myself that I was
obviously born to play rock and roll
and be an enormous star.
No, I dreamt of that,
that doesn't, that's not the same
thing as knowing, is it?
Do we call that destiny?
What do we call it?
I call it love.
There isn't another guitar
player like Keith Richards.
There's nobody who comes
anywhere close to him.
It was that sound of
the guitar
and the sound of that
guitar
was the creation, I would say,
of the Rolling Stones.
He is definitely the
archetypal
bad boy rock
guitarist personified,
and he's the model
that all of us rebellious rock
guitar players followed from.
Keith Richards wrote the
dictionary version
of what rock and
roll was.
A songwriter, a guitar
slinger, a travelling troubadour.
He's such an encyclopaedia.
You need any advice?
Just go to Keith,
no matter what state he's in,
he'll
Boom, go straight to the heart of
something.
"Oh, OK, that's the answer.
Keith has the answer."
Keith is somethin' else.
He's emotionally
very present.
As present as you
can be
when you're really in the
business of fantasy.
Say you were a rock and
roll fan as a teenager,
you had five kids and you
had to go to work
at the assembly line for the Ford
Motor Company.
Well, if you go to a Stones show
and Keith is standing there looking
badass,
you're visiting the part of you
that you feel is missing.
After 60 years, the Stones are
still Rolling,
playing sell-out shows in all
four corners of the globe.
But at the musical heart of every
gig is one key character.
I think everyone creates a character
for themselves to a certain extent.
I don't know whether Keith's created
a character of himself
which is real or not real.
Keith's got a reputation as a
hell-raiser,
so I think he was very worried,
at one point,
if he was no longer going to be a
hell-raiser,
he's not that character any more,
who are you, then?
I don't think he cares about
that any more.
I don't blame him.
Are you comfortable doing
interviews like this?
I mean, you've been doing
them for a long time.
Is it something you relish?
It depends on the interviewer,
old boy.
I don't mind. You know, it's
I mean, I must say, now and
again, it's a grind,
you know, answering the same
questions.
At the same time, that's
a challenge, because you think,
"Can I come up with another answer
"that means the same thing
in different words?" You know?
So you slip and slide, you know.
If you have a persona, it is
like a ventriloquist act.
It's sitting on your lap,
but it's not you.
I guess you could call it convenient
at times,
but there are also other
times when it's very inconvenient.
We are all hand in glove
in this dastardly scheme
to sell our products. Um
But I consider it as part of the
gig.
So, uhthere we go.
Story so far.
Why are you coming to see the show?
Who are you going to see?
Keith Richards.
I like his hair.
Just his hair? I just like him.
Life in the spotlight hasn't
always been easy for Keith.
He's terribly shy.
I mean, as I knew him
when he was a child
and growing up to be a teenager,
I know what he's really, really
like.
No-one else knows him from that
period except for me, I think.
You can see from the interviews.
He's introverted, naturally.
It's
..hard to define shyness.
I don't know, when it comes
to shyness,
I don't really know where toto
put it.
I mean, I sometimes I think I use
it as a weapon
and say, "Oh, he's shy," you know?
And I guess, in a way, you get shy
of things,
crowds and stuff because,
I mean, I can't go to a movie,
to a cinema any more.
Sometimes, when I have
..I've never felt, like, more sort
of embarrassed in my life,
somebody going, "It's Keith
Richards! It's Keith Richards!"
I've ruined the whole movie
for everybody, right?
I mean And then I go,
"Excuse me," tripping over people.
"I'll leave now."
And, you know, I get shy in
that situation, you know?
And that just comes
with fame and all of that crap,
which loads, throws another load
of stuff at you.
If you're an extrovert in
show business,
I think you're in a good place.
If you're an introvert in show
business,
it will cause you, probably,
some anguish
or discomfort, perhaps, or anxiety.
Most people that are
in bands, guitar players,
maybe they're a little
introverted,
they're a bit awkward,
they can't talk to girls.
Even Jimi Hendrix would just be
at the back of the class, mumbling,
but give him a guitar
and the world lights up.
Keith didn't care,
in the beginning,
about clothes or about his
image.
He was just concerned
with the sound.
This was his way of performing.
He was back there making the sound.
Keith is born in 1943,
18 miles east of London in Dartford,
Kent.
I understand that you two,
of all the five fellows,
you two have been
friends longest, is that right?
You've known each other,
went to school together? Yes.
Little lads. When we were little
boys.
Little bitty boys. And you
were raised around London, right?
Yes.
Is it in London itself, or
No, just outside, about 20
miles. In the suburbs.
The suburbs of London.
What's, what's the, uh, suburb
called?
Dartford. Dartford?
You're right on the edge
of the country,
so you've got, you know,
commuters, heavy industry
and you've got countryside.
Very beautiful, still very
beautiful.
The Dickensian sort of marshes
that go to the Thames Estuary,
described in Great Expectations
so fully.
Dartford? Is that on the planet
Krypton? You know? Um
You were growing up in the residue
of a huge world war,
but you didn't know anything
about it.
It was just the way things were.
Bombsite here, you know?
"No, you can't have that.
"We don't have any ration tickets
left."
I mean, it wasn't unusual.
You didn't feel hard done by it.
It was just the way it was.
The exam called the 11 Plus looms
large,
sorting British kids into the
different educational paths
which will determine their future.
I remember the 11 Plus.
I didn't take it.
I went down with some kind of flu
at the time, or whatever it was.
And so I didn't actually get to take
it, which, I was immense
I think I had a psychosomatic
disease, as I just
Exams are the thing that'll
kill me, you know?
I mean, it's Jesus.
You either became a professional,
basically, of whatever, you know
Or, you know, you dug the ditches
and you do, you know,
what working men do.
And, of course, being kids
at that age, you don't realise
that you're being streamed
..to one aspect of society
and, you know,
you're being dumped,
or you're being elevated.
You have no idea, right?
Anyway, I took the middle
route and got expelled.
Which I
..I recommend heartily to any
red-blooded English schoolboy.
As far as I was concerned at the
time,
they'd heaped humiliation on me
and I weren't going to take
it any more, you know?
You break it with one form
of authority
and maybe after that, you start to
question
..other forms of authority, you
know?
There was always something
about being told what to do,
especially without any reason.
If Rebel Keith is born of a healthy
disregard for authority,
it's his grandfather, Gus Dupree,
an amateur jazz musician,
who fosters an early
enthusiasm for music.
He was the father of seven
daughters.
Well, as far as I'm concerned,
I seem to have been the only
boy he didn't have.
So, in fact, for me, he was
more like a dad or a friend
than a grandfather.
He'd take me into music shops,
but we'd always go in round the
back.
We never went in the front door.
And there was always a little deal
about, you know, some guitar strings
or some violin strings.
But then I would be in the back
of these music stores
for like hours,
watching people make guitars,
violins, repairing things.
It was like magical stuff going on.
He always had his violin
and instruments ready.
He never, ever once pushed me
or tried to interest me.
He would just play music,
you know?
All kinds, you know, jazz,
classical.
And then we'd just live our life
around the music.
Until one day, he noticed
that I was looking at the
guitar on top of the piano.
And, uh "Since you keep
looking at that,"
he said, "you want to have a go?"
And that's how Boom, gave it to
me.
He said, "I'll show you a few chords
here and you're on your own."
And that was it.
Can we just talk
about your first guitar?
I think we've got it here.
I'd love to see you handle it.
So would I! That's all you need to
do. OK.
What the
Careful here. Oh, that's it.
Oh, man.
Yeah. The mice were at it then,
the mice have been at it now.
This
..I believe it is the one
that my grandfather gave me.
But I'm not sure about that.
I don't know, but
Definitely my grandfather.
Wow, you see?
Lovely piece of wood.
Maybelline
by Chuck Berry
# Oh, Maybelline
# Why can't you be true?
# Oh, Maybelline #
As Keith starts out on his musical
journey,
his attention is grabbed by an
irresistible new sound.
Rock and roll.
# I was motivating over the hill
# I saw Maybelline in a Coupe de
Ville
# Cadillac rollin' on over the road
# Nothin' outrunning my V8 Ford #
I was getting an urge for some
country music and some blues.
I was starting to get interested.
Very little that you could get
in England at the time.
I think when rock and roll came
along,
it sort of fused the whole thing
together for me, you know?
Ha! You know, "Where have you been?"
At that age, it was devastating.
# Done got cloudy and started to
rain
# Tooted my horn for the passing
lane
# Rainwater blowing all under my
hood #
That's it. That's where you want
to go. That's
"Book me a room!"
It was an exciting time
to be a musician at that age.
Yeah, it was great. Ha-ha!
It was so completely
different
from anything we'd ever
heard.
And it had an excitement and
a positivity about it, I suppose.
Rock and roll started
whenever it was, '58.
It was Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly
and all that lot that turned our
heads.
That introduced us more into folk,
I suppose, and then into blues
and the blues artists of the day.
It was like collecting rare stamps,
finding good blues records.
The hits were released by
major record companies.
So, if it was a hit R&B track,
or if it made the Hot 100,
these were easy to get.
Major labels released these
records.
To buy the whole album of Muddy
Waters was much more difficult,
and you had to go to a jazz shop
in Charing Cross Road
and pay a lot of money for it.
And we used to order them
from America a bit cheaper
and there was a sort of little
network of people
that had record collections.
And so you would go to their houses
and they would play you music
and you would hear songs perhaps
you'd never heard before.
I was going to Sidcup Art
School. Right.
And Mick, at that time, was going
to the London School of Economics.
But I just get off at Sidcup, you
know?
Meanwhile, I'm sitting in the
carriage and suddenly he walks in.
"There's Mick," who I hadn't seen
in years, you know. "Wow, man.
"What's that under your arm?"
HE CHUCKLES
And he pulls out the
Best Of Muddy Waters
and Rockin' At The Hops by
Chuck Berry.
And these are American pressings,
you know, and you can't get
these records in England at the
time.
Basically, that was the hook-up for
the Stones and for Mick and I,
was just that we had this
same interest in music.
BLUES HARMONICA PLAYING
To know that these guys
were dedicated enough
to send their money
off into the oblivion,
in the hopes that something
would come back,
and then they were, like, obsessed
and live off of that record.
I just think it's just phenomenal.
What was it about a
cricket-playing, football-playing
bunch of characters, who drank
tea at four o'clock,
who loved this music?
Music from other cultures
has a romantic flair
and is kind of exotic.
So for the Rolling Stones,
being teenagers in England,
getting their hands on
authentic American Blues records,
authentic American folk records,
country records.
It carried with it this whole
romantic gravitas.
The thing about the blues
is it felt like it was coming
from some other place.
And it's much more raucous,
it's much more heartfelt,
it's much more vivacious.
It's not being filtered
through all these things.
That's what kind of made us jealous
in England,
was like, "Man, these cats
have got, you know,
"they've got a long stretch on us."
And, you know, we had a lot
of catching up to do.
It was just a fascinating journey.
And these presumptuous 18-year-old
white kids,
who say, "We're going to be the best
blues band in London."
Robert Plant said it to
me best.
He said, "You know, Brian,
"these white boys got a hold
of American black music
"and gave it fist."
The Rolling Stones!
WILD CHEERING
# Said the joint was rocking
# Going round and round
# Yeah, reelin' and a-rockin'
# What a crazy sound
# But they never stopped
rockin' #
I saw that whole
thing go down, man,
with the white blues.
The English were ahead of it.
They spread it.
There was something
really different about it.
There was like this
undulating rhythm happening
and it was sexually charged.
# Goin' round and round
# Yeah, reelin' and a rockin'
# What a crazy sound
# And they never stopped rockin'
# Till the moon went down. #
18, you know, playing your blues.
And within a matter of months, women
are trying to tear your clothes off
and they're jumping off of
balconies.
This is not quite what I
had in mind.
It was mayhem.
They were really good.
My God, as a band,
they were really good.
They had this charisma.
They were so cool and really didn't
give a fuck.
That was their attitude on stage.
# What a crazy sound
# And they never stopped rockin'
# Till the moon went down
# I said the joint was rockin'
# Goin' round and round
# Yeah, reelin' and a rockin'
# What a crazy sound
# And they never stopped rockin'
# Till the moon went down #
The Stones
represented a danger,
a teenage danger that we
hadn't really experienced before.
They were definitely different
than, say, the Beatles.
The Beatles were there
to entertain you.
These guys came for your daughters.
HE LAUGHS
The Rolling Stones connect
with a post-war generation
eager for new music.
But the key to their success
is a reverence for a blues
sound steeped in history.
We did it through researching,
getting really soaked up in the
blues, you know.
We wanted to find out
..where the funkiest, swampiest
damn stuff came from, you know.
Hobo Blues
by John Lee Hooker
Keith Richards' choice of listening
music
is a great musicology course for
anybody.
He had a sort of evangelical drive
to expose people to the blues.
# When I first thought to hoboin'
# Hoboin'
# I took a freight train to be my
friend #
We would have a lot of
listening sessions in
Keith's room
with just all this great
black music.
And I think the Rolling Stones
actually tapping into that.
# You know I hobo'd, hobo'd,
hobo'd #
And expressing it in their way
is the evolution of the music,
as it should be.
# Oh, yeah. #
I think the whole wave
of music
that came out of England
in the mid 1960s
was a reflection of the best of
what we had cooked up over here
over the last 50 years.
They embraced it in the most
beautiful way.
They honoured that music.
# I left home that morning
# My mother followed me down
to that #
Being in America, to find out
that what we'd heard in England
was only the tip of an iceberg
and that you could burrow
far deeper,
and that for every guy that you knew
about,
there were ten others,
easily as good.
Music and the beat and the sounds
came from the motherland.
The black experience that is
soulful, that has a cry,
that has a deep understanding,
that touches hearts,
that communicates deeply.
The Rolling Stones took
it and ran and made it their own.
# Next time I start to hoboin'
# I'm going to have my baby
by my side
# And then I know my night
# It won't be so lonely #
We were just a bunch of guys
that loved our music,
were obsessed with our music,
but in our English fantasy
of America in the '50s,
it just sort of pulled you and
called you.
It was the place to be if you wanted
to be a musician.
Now, oh, something for the
youngsters.
Five singing boys from England
who've sold a lot of albums.
They're called The Rolling Stones.
I've been rolled while I was
stoned myself.
LAUGHTER
So I don't know what they're singing
about, but, uh
..here they are.
APPLAUSE
# I don't want you to
# Be no slave
# I don't want you to
# Work all day
# I don't want you
# To be true
# I just wanna make love to you
# Love to you, baby
# Sweet love to you, baby
# Love to you
# I can tell by the way that you
twist and walk
# I can see by the way that you baby
talk #
The Rolling Stones sang our music
back to us.
But they were singing with us.
You know, I never felt
that they were singing to us.
I felt like they wanted
to be one of us.
I welcomed them.
I think we all welcomed them.
# I don't want you to be true
# I just wanna make love to you,
baby
# Love to you, baby
# Sweet love to you, baby
# Love to you, baby
# Love to you
# I
# Wanna make love
# To you. #
I was really excited
that somebody felt and
loved this music
as much as I did and would
dedicate their lives to playing it
and exposing people to it.
Some people thought they might
have been appropriating,
or this, that and the other thing.
Well, um, 'scuse me,
it's right here in your backyard,
and I don't see you doing anything
about it.
Cos it's been said that
the Rolling Stones
gave black music back to the
Americans.
How do you feel these black
musicians feel about The Stones?
I mean, I know people like
Muddy Waters, etc
..are really grateful, you know,
for
I mean, really, I mean, we did
very little.
I mean, all we said was that
we dug Muddy Waters, you know?
I mean, which happened to have a lot
of an effect for him, you know?
In his own life. It means more bread
for him,
because he got on to the white
college circuit
and things, which wouldn't
have happened, things like that.
But we weren't the only ones
to do it.
I mean, every English band
in the '60s that went to America,
you know, was
Came there and said,
"Well, you know, we've got our
"music from black records."
This is way beyond our dreams
of being the biggest R&B
band in London.
Muddy Waters has suddenly
got a hit record again.
John Lee Hooker is on the charts,
Slim Harpo and all of these people
that were totally unknown two years
before.
And we felt very proud of the
I mean, Jesus, what a mantle
we carry.
I still get a nice warm glow
out of turning everybody back
on to their own stuff.
To find yourself on the bill
with Muddy Waters
Whoa. Victory is ours.
You know, it's cool.
A reworking of music that was
already American
helps the Stones storm the States
and the world.
In just a matter of months,
their sound and image are number one
on both sides of the Atlantic.
We felt it was a gift coming
to America.
I mean, suddenly to be transplanted
from, er
..some wannabe
It was endlessly fascinating,
America.
After Dartford.
We grew into it.
And music grew into us and
..America changed rapidly in '64,
'65.
White America, when we first
came here,
was incredibly old-fashioned to us.
Our idea of America was modernity.
And once you got out there
in the sticks. Whoa!
You realise the incredible gap
there.
America was the Holy Grail.
It really, really was.
And it was to do with
not just
wanting to be big in America.
It was more that their fame
and notoriety
had given them an opportunity.
It was like a laminate,
a pass into American culture.
And I think that was the thing
with Keith.
He saw the Stones as this amazing
laminate
into the fabric of what made
American music what it was.
I think it's the call,
but the Americans were still playing
folk songs and folk music.
Basically through country music,
which always sounds like schmaltz to
a lot of people, I know,
but there's a lot of truth in
country music.
Wild Horses
by The Rolling Stones
I actually think that
The Rolling Stones
are some of the
first proponents
of what's now
called Americana music.
It's ironic, but you listen
to something like Wild Horses.
That's a pretty eclectic blend
of authentic American music styles
that no-one had really touched
on before.
They've written some of
the quintessential
country songs,
as far as I'm concerned.
# Childhood living #
They're so much more than an R&B
band,
and they're also extremely
brilliant pop song craftsmen.
I think they took Jimmy Reed and
Muddy Waters
and George Jones
and Merle Haggard
and brought it back to us with pop
hooks.
I don't know that there is a band
that can write better hooks
than The Rolling Stones.
I love that the Stones
can do that,
that they can take stuff
from their influencers
and do it their way.
They translate it and do it their
way.
That's another wonderful thing
they've taught me,
is how to put a song together.
# Wild horses
# Couldn't drag me away
# Wild, wild horses
# Couldn't drag me away #
One of the things people don't talk
about,
or I don't hear
talked about,
is what a great songwriter
Keith Richards is.
And I think it's because
he's so known as a guitarist
and also because he's so known
to be dissolute, or whatever,
that beautiful thing is that he is,
you know, that people,
I don't think, have really
recognised the extraordinary
contribution that he's made
through his songwriting.
I really remember a
particular,
period as a really
little guy
from Beggar's Banquet, Let It
Bleed, Sticky Fingers,
Exile on Main Street.
That was the period when the Stones
was the background music of my life.
It just kind of adds another
thread between this tapestry
of this marvellous backlog of
material that the Stones have.
It's like
..whoa! You know,
what a legacy and
..lucky dip. Take a song, you know?
Pick it out.
It soon becomes clear, writing,
as well as performing smash hits,
is the name of the game
if they want to be a new kind
of musical superstar.
We were working the clubs in London
and the Beatles just came out
and had a hit -
Love Me Do.
And we said, "Oh,
man, what a great record."
The Beatles suddenly explode.
And there's, there you are going
"Oh. Yeah, but we're a blues band."
The Beatles changed this whole
thing.
Our job was to be like the premier
rhythm and blues band in London,
and we managed that.
But we had no idea of
progressing beyond that stage.
Keith, he'd play The Beatles
all the time.
It'd drive me absolutely batty.
And why he was playing The Beatles
wasn't because he didn't want
to listen to anything else.
Keith wanted to write these pop
songs,
cos we're undeniably
the blues band,
but we
..knew we had to be a pop band.
We were just envious, too,
man, you know?
I mean, they're doing what we want,
you know, they got it.
You know? They can make records.
The Holy Grail was to make records,
to be able to get into a studio.
It was like diamonds!
You know, you'd think it was a gold
mine,
which in a way it was, you know
what I mean?
But you'd think you were invading
Fort Knox,
just to make a record.
Without The Beatles, The Stones
would never have been there.
The reason The Stones existed,
or got, made records,
was because the record industry
couldn't afford to lose another
Beatles.
We'd never have got in a recording
studio without them.
We would've sold,
and I probably did,
sell my soul just to be on
tape, just to get on record,
just to learn how records are made.
Recording is, still is, to me,
the most mysterious art.
I think he could live in a studio.
He just loves music.
Music is always part of his life.
Music is always on.
Music is always the backdrop
of his life.
And the guitar is always there,
the piano is always there.
Always has it right handy
whenever he wants it.
But he loves the process.
I think he loves the process
more than anything.
He loves developing a song.
He likes to write in a studio.
It's a kid's dream come true.
I mean, you're constantly living
those moments of, like,
"I've got a guitar strapped up, in a
studio to
"and we're cutting."
You know, and
..it's a surreal sensation in a
way.
Keith would come to the studio
and he'd have maybe
half an idea,
and he'd sit and play
it and play it
and play it and play
it on his own.
And then, when he got it almost
into shape,
Bill and Charlie would sit with him
and they'd play along with him
to help him develop the riff
into a song.
The Stones have a
great craft of songwriting,
and that is how to present it.
How to record it so that it knocks
your socks off and you go, "Whoa!"
What they've done is epic.
The way they were able to weave
these disparate elements together.
It's a magic trick.
What you do is the job
of a minstrel.
You know, songs evolve,
music evolves.
Keith was not the purist
of the band.
A blues purist.
Keith liked to write pop songs.
He wrote lots and lots of pop songs.
Ruby Tuesday, As Tears Go By.
He also wrote Angie.
I mean, these are not blues
songs as we know them.
These are pop songs that emanate,
really, from Keith, originally.
Keith's talent drives the band's
success,
but he's a reluctant star
Just to tell you
..struggling to handle the adoration
and fame that engulfs the band.
I'd have been quite happy
to make all these records
totally anonymously.
HE LAUGHS
But then, of course,
I mean, that's not possible.
I mean, hey, you've got to get out
there and put yourself out.
And I learnt how to do that and I
quite enjoyed it.
But I guess my refuge was heroin,
was drugs, and there I stayed
as long as I could.
Keith Richards on guitar.
# She drew out all her money at
the Southern Trust
# And put her little boy aboard a
Greyhound bus
# Leaving Louisiana for the Golden
West #
As his star rises,
keeping up with Keith in the 1970s
becomes a deadly game.
And his addiction to heroin
ultimately threatens the future of
the band.
I mean, the thing is,
most people
are kind of shy
and awkward
and they wouldn't have got
on a stage if they weren't loaded.
So it works in your favour
in the initial years,
but when it starts working
against you and you get addicted
to the drugs, cos they're
addictive, then you have a problem.
MUSIC ECHOES AND DISTORTS
Everybody's got a
different metabolism,
a different way of dealing with
that amount of adoration.
I just felt that as long as I kept
myself to myself,
that, er, you know, there was no
reason for them
to make any big fuss about it.
Keith's transformation confirms
him
as an international icon of
rebellion.
And a target for the authorities.
Late in the winter of '77,
Richards is in Toronto
..where the Rolling Stones
are set to perform.
We went to Toronto
to do this concert.
I remember
when the police
were walking up the staircase
..and wondering
what that was all about.
The day before, Keith's girlfriend,
Anita Pallenberg,
arrives at Toronto Airport
and as the Canadian Police
search her belongings,
they find her in possession
of hashish.
An investigation begins
that leads the police
all the way to Keith's hotel room.
Of course, he was found with drugs
and heroin and
all that kind of stuff
because he had a habit at the time
and the history of The
Rolling Stones changed on a dime.
The Rolling Stones is one of
the most famous rock groups
in the world.
A week ago, lead guitarist
Keith Richards was charged
with possession of heroin
for the purpose of trafficking.
It was actually terrifying
because he realised
he was up for, you know,
it could be 20 years of prison.
I think the reason I was taking it
was how to deal with
fame and pressure
and it's one way to run away.
I wouldn't recommend it
to anybody
but there again it's
a personal choice, I don't know,
and it's a rough old world
and sometimes you need something
to blank it out.
And it probably ain't worth
the ride.
It was the realisation in Canada
that I was actually
jeopardising the band.
And if they were going
to put me away,
I mean, it was bye-bye,
you know.
If I get out of this and don't
have to cold turkey in jail,
I'm going to go and clean up.
He just made a commitment,
"I'm going to get this together,"
because, at that point,
it was music or drugs -
and music was far more important
than drugs.
How do you think this conviction is
going to affect you and your music
and The Rolling Stones?
I don't know. I just want to get on
with it now that it's over,
you know, just get on with
what I'm supposed to be doing
instead of worrying about this,
you know.
Do you think it will have
any effect, then?
I don't know.
Might get a song out of it.
STADIUM CHEER
Ladies and gentlemen
The Rolling Stones!
UPROAR FROM CROWD
It's not drugs, fashion
or lifestyle choices
that will define Keith's story.
It's his talent
..that marks him out as
one of the most important
and influential artists of our age.
Keith is all about feel
and instinct.
If he's writing a song,
he may have two chords
and he's perfectly happy to sit
there and play those two chords
for two hours.
And he's just waiting for
the next part of the song to come
but he's not going to force it.
He's going to just keep playing
this mantra until something appears.
And it always does.
I really do like a striking intro
to records,
especially a rock and roll record,
you know,
and I'm talking about
that particular format.
But if an intro can grab you,
you're going to be in
for at least a few more minutes.
And if the riff behind that intro
grabs you, then,
then, you've pretty much got 'em.
MACHINE CLICKS
INTRODUCTION TO GIMME SHELTER
If you listen to
The Rolling Stones' records,
Keith wrote some
unbelievable intros.
Gimme Shelter
by The Rolling Stones
Every guitar player in the world
went, "Wow!"
And, you know, "How did he do that?"
Well, he took off one string.
There's five strings.
I take the bottom string goes off,
and then, you tune the rest
of the strings to the chord of G.
That tuning of his,
there's
something menacing
about that.
Just to weave that
in the centre of the groove.
That is a brilliant guitar sound.
It says so much with so little.
Holy smoke!
There's something about
the intonation of the notes,
the separation and the point
that I would say is almost mystical
that when hitting it the right way
in the right moment,
you know - cheap ride to heaven.
# My very life today
# If I don't get some shelter
# Ooh, yeah, I'm gonna fade away
# War, children #
Silence is your canvas,
for a musician,
and it's how much
you fill in the canvas
and how much light you let through.
It's something you really don't
know, it's almost intuitive.
You do it by feel,
really, on instinct.
# Ooh, see the fire is sweepin' #
There is a Keith Richards' sound
and a Keith Richards'
approach to the guitar
that just is unlike
anything that
I've ever heard from anyone else.
There's a certain type of way that
he plays in the middle of the neck
and a certain hammering, slashing.
# War, children
# It's a just a shot away #
I just love riffs. I just love
a greatconnection of notes
that can repeat themselves over
and over without being monotonous,
without being boring,
and that's what a good riff is.
It's the same old thing
but it keeps changing.
People will still be
trying
to play what he plays
50 years from now.
There won't be another.
GUITAR SOLO
It's tough to characterise
Keith Richards' guitar playing.
I believe it's a really organic
extension of who he is, of his soul.
It's no different than speaking,
it's no different than walking.
It's just a musical manifestation
of who he is
and not all musicians are like that.
Keith's always known
what he wants on the guitar.
The way he plays is
he establishes the sound first -
with Pierre, his guitar tech -
and various ways of achieving
the desired effect.
This is where he picks.
It's so worn out that some
of the dots have come out.
He's lost a tooth here.
HE CHUCKLES
This actually looks scalloped,
but it's not,
it's just for how worn out it is.
He's actually wearing out
the fingerboard here,
and that's typical of where
he strums - up in this region.
It's great when you see
the person
that you listened to so
many years ago
still having a relationship
with their instrument.
You've got five strings.
There's only three notes
because there's two doubles,
two sets of Ds,
two sets of Gs, and a B.
So, the way it rings,
the way certain things ring,
you don't hear that
on a normal guitar.
It's definitely
not about filling it up.
If you're still thinking about
what you can add
instead of what you need
to take away,
you're still at
the beginning stages.
I didn't want to be a guitar player.
I wanted to makenoise
and if it took using a guitar
to do it, I'd do it.
I became a pretty good one
inin some respects.
I suppose, really, I'm saying
that I use the guitar really
as a percussion instrument.
It's a rhythm thing for me.
ErmI do love, you know,
playing solos,
but I've always said to myself
that solos come and go,
a riff lasts forever.
HE LAUGHS
You know, it sort of rounds it off.
It doesn't sound wrong
if it doesn't rhyme.
Play us a quick one.
Really?
KEITH STRUMS GUITAR
MICK VOCALISES WITH GUITAR
Mick and I in those days
used to sit around with guitars
and we'd write, that's what we did.
# I know you find it hard
# To reason with me
# Ba-ba, ba-ba-ba
# But this time it's different, oh
# Ba-ba-ba
# Darling, you'll see
# You got to tell me
you're coming back to me #
Writing songs and making records,
it's like a jigsaw puzzle.
There's always that thing of
not quite knowing
what's going to come up next.
When it all locks into position,
it is quite an incredible sensation
and everybody that's involved
in doing that when it's happening
knows that for a moment you're
in a special place, a special time
and, you know, you feel
actually where you feel very
privileged to actually be there.
Every great song is born
of conversation.
It really takes the two of them to
create that synergy and that energy.
I mean, they're the perfect
yin and yang.
Mick is the guy that brings it.
Keith is the guy that holds it down.
That rhythm is undeniable.
I mean, he's the guy that
took Chuck Berry
and took Johnnie Johnson's
whole thing
and brought it to a rock guitar
and an open tuning.
You can write great songs
with people
but when there is a dynamic there
that's bigger than the two of you,
that's where the great stuff lives.
It's the kind of a band
that was built on "we",
not "me".
It took the chemistry of
all of them to make it work.
You can't say, "Oh, if I wrote
Angie, it's like, listen to this."
And Keith's like, "That's a load of
shit, I want to write blues."
No, it's the other way around.
It's Keith saying,
"Listen to this melody."
And I'm going I could say,
"That's not the blues.
That'sthat's like
"that's bordering saccharine
ballads, you know."
But I didn't say that, of course,
it's a very beautiful song.
So, what I'm trying to say is
that The Rolling Stones
are many, many things.
And one of the good things
about The Rolling Stones is that
they embrace a lot of
kinds of music.
Yes, they're a blues band.
Yes, they're a rock band.
Yes, they did things
like Paint It Black.
Yes, they did like classic rock.
Yes, they did dance songs.
You have to push innovation a bit
sometimes
because people get older, they
just want to stick in one thing.
I think with Mick and
Keith over the years,
they have an acceptance,
you know,
a total respect for each other
in terms of what they both
bring to the band.
And I think it's valid, actually,
to think that
Mick has always been
the one driving them forward.
It's always been Keith
that's been aware of
the credibility of
the music they're making
to make sure
it continues to be rooted.
Keith had said, "Listen,
we are still this blues band,
"irrespective of the pyrotechnics
and 200,000 people in the audience.
"We're still that band that played
The Marquee in 1962 to 100 people."
That is Keith looking back
and holding on to
that rare musical depth
and Mick propelling the band
into whatever the future
may bring for them.
CROWD SINGING
If it comes out of The Rolling
Stones, it's The Rolling Stones.
Now and again, Mick and I
have come up with a song
HE LAUGHS
..looked at each other and gone,
"No, not The Stones, no, no!"
# Please allow me
to introduce myself
# I'm a man of wealth and taste #
There are few
songwriting partnerships
to match Jagger and Richards.
And despite their fair share
of disagreements,
their relationship has endured
against all the odds.
# And I was 'round when Jesus Christ
# Had his moment of
doubt and pain #
You had this image of those two guys
being the first real example
of a lead singer/lead guitar
player relationship.
# Pleased to meet you
# Hope you guess my name
# But what's confusing you
Is just the nature of my game
# Stuck around St Petersburg #
Mick wants to be the
leader.
He's the leader of
the pack.
Keith doesn't give a fuck
about being a leader
but he thinks he really is.
They're completely different.
Mick wants to try new
things.
He is very much a part of
whatever's going on.
Keith is technophobic.
That is one of the things that
still makes the edge between them.
We all have separate lives,
separate identities,
and musically, they're yin and yang.
They're joined at the hip.
Has there been times when
the
disagreements have flared
up?
Of course there has.
But I think you take a deep breath,
you look at each other and say,
"Wait a minute. Last time I checked,
"the whole is greater
than the sum of its parts."
Even at times when Mick and Keith
weren't at their best
relationship-wise,
I would dare you
to get between them.
There's a bond there
that can't be broken.
To do it for this long, Mick and I
both look at each other
HE CHUCKLES
We must be doing something right!
I don't know what it is.
The idea of turning people on
for 60 years is like, whoa!
HE LAUGHS
But the thing is relentless.
It's like being a juggernaut.
# Guess my name #
You see them walk to the stage
as older guys,
and they climb the stairs,
and each stair,
another piece of energy comes up.
And then, they go out.
It's like a shot of lightning.
# Just call me Lucifer #
It's like going to
Never Never Land.
# I'm in need of some restraint
# So if you meet me
# Have some courtesy
# Sympathy and some taste #
The music comes first.
Writing, recording,
performing music -
that's where they're at.
When they finally step off the stage
for the last time,
we will all know that we shall never
see anything like that ever again.
# Yes
# What's confusing you
Is just the nature of my game
# Yes #
CROWD NOISE
Come on!
Yeah!
MUSIC CONTINUES, CROWD CHEERING
I mean, God knows what I'd have been
like if I didn't do this -
my wildest nightmare.
Really, all you wanted to do
was play music,
trying to get it better,
trying to get the band tighter.
MUSIC ENDS, CROWD ROARS
Not many people get
a chance to do this
with thousands of people,
you know, as a job.
CROWD CHEERS
Ole, ole, ole, ole!
You know, when you're exchanging
that much appreciation
to each other,
it is profoundly touching.
Music is a resilient thing.
And sometimes I think,
God, is it the only thing we've got
that we can trust?
HE CHUCKLES
CROWD CONTINUES TO ROAR, WHISTLING
I gave up many years ago
trying to analyse this bunch
and why it works and how it works.
I've found the best remedy is
to put them all together in a room
and say, "It goes like this -
one, two, three, four,"
and all the problems go away.
CROWD CONTINUES CHEERING
Can't You Hear Me Knocking
by The Rolling Stones
Every guy I've ever met in my life
wants to be Keith Richards.
He is the epitome of a rock
guitarist.
The original, the one and only.
It's Keith Richards.
Keith Richards has led a life
wreathed in legend.
His attitude and legacy underpin
the whole idea of the Guitar Hero.
What troubled mind would around
wondering
what other people's perceptions are?
I have enough dealing with my own.
I can only imagine what delusions
other people labour under.
More than just a musician,
he's a defiant hedonist and a poster
boy for sheer survival.
Rock and roll has to have an element
of danger
and an element of unpredictability.
And when you look at Keith Richards,
he embodies every element
that you want in your rock and roll
star.
Keith is all about living your life
with no-one telling you how to be.
It's following who you are
fearlessly.
It's really the skin of the teeth.
First off, that it happens to you,
then you've got to survive it,
because you don't know what you're
in for when you start this thing.
I still don't. So many surprises.
I could kid myself that I was
obviously born to play rock and roll
and be an enormous star.
No, I dreamt of that,
that doesn't, that's not the same
thing as knowing, is it?
Do we call that destiny?
What do we call it?
I call it love.
There isn't another guitar
player like Keith Richards.
There's nobody who comes
anywhere close to him.
It was that sound of
the guitar
and the sound of that
guitar
was the creation, I would say,
of the Rolling Stones.
He is definitely the
archetypal
bad boy rock
guitarist personified,
and he's the model
that all of us rebellious rock
guitar players followed from.
Keith Richards wrote the
dictionary version
of what rock and
roll was.
A songwriter, a guitar
slinger, a travelling troubadour.
He's such an encyclopaedia.
You need any advice?
Just go to Keith,
no matter what state he's in,
he'll
Boom, go straight to the heart of
something.
"Oh, OK, that's the answer.
Keith has the answer."
Keith is somethin' else.
He's emotionally
very present.
As present as you
can be
when you're really in the
business of fantasy.
Say you were a rock and
roll fan as a teenager,
you had five kids and you
had to go to work
at the assembly line for the Ford
Motor Company.
Well, if you go to a Stones show
and Keith is standing there looking
badass,
you're visiting the part of you
that you feel is missing.
After 60 years, the Stones are
still Rolling,
playing sell-out shows in all
four corners of the globe.
But at the musical heart of every
gig is one key character.
I think everyone creates a character
for themselves to a certain extent.
I don't know whether Keith's created
a character of himself
which is real or not real.
Keith's got a reputation as a
hell-raiser,
so I think he was very worried,
at one point,
if he was no longer going to be a
hell-raiser,
he's not that character any more,
who are you, then?
I don't think he cares about
that any more.
I don't blame him.
Are you comfortable doing
interviews like this?
I mean, you've been doing
them for a long time.
Is it something you relish?
It depends on the interviewer,
old boy.
I don't mind. You know, it's
I mean, I must say, now and
again, it's a grind,
you know, answering the same
questions.
At the same time, that's
a challenge, because you think,
"Can I come up with another answer
"that means the same thing
in different words?" You know?
So you slip and slide, you know.
If you have a persona, it is
like a ventriloquist act.
It's sitting on your lap,
but it's not you.
I guess you could call it convenient
at times,
but there are also other
times when it's very inconvenient.
We are all hand in glove
in this dastardly scheme
to sell our products. Um
But I consider it as part of the
gig.
So, uhthere we go.
Story so far.
Why are you coming to see the show?
Who are you going to see?
Keith Richards.
I like his hair.
Just his hair? I just like him.
Life in the spotlight hasn't
always been easy for Keith.
He's terribly shy.
I mean, as I knew him
when he was a child
and growing up to be a teenager,
I know what he's really, really
like.
No-one else knows him from that
period except for me, I think.
You can see from the interviews.
He's introverted, naturally.
It's
..hard to define shyness.
I don't know, when it comes
to shyness,
I don't really know where toto
put it.
I mean, I sometimes I think I use
it as a weapon
and say, "Oh, he's shy," you know?
And I guess, in a way, you get shy
of things,
crowds and stuff because,
I mean, I can't go to a movie,
to a cinema any more.
Sometimes, when I have
..I've never felt, like, more sort
of embarrassed in my life,
somebody going, "It's Keith
Richards! It's Keith Richards!"
I've ruined the whole movie
for everybody, right?
I mean And then I go,
"Excuse me," tripping over people.
"I'll leave now."
And, you know, I get shy in
that situation, you know?
And that just comes
with fame and all of that crap,
which loads, throws another load
of stuff at you.
If you're an extrovert in
show business,
I think you're in a good place.
If you're an introvert in show
business,
it will cause you, probably,
some anguish
or discomfort, perhaps, or anxiety.
Most people that are
in bands, guitar players,
maybe they're a little
introverted,
they're a bit awkward,
they can't talk to girls.
Even Jimi Hendrix would just be
at the back of the class, mumbling,
but give him a guitar
and the world lights up.
Keith didn't care,
in the beginning,
about clothes or about his
image.
He was just concerned
with the sound.
This was his way of performing.
He was back there making the sound.
Keith is born in 1943,
18 miles east of London in Dartford,
Kent.
I understand that you two,
of all the five fellows,
you two have been
friends longest, is that right?
You've known each other,
went to school together? Yes.
Little lads. When we were little
boys.
Little bitty boys. And you
were raised around London, right?
Yes.
Is it in London itself, or
No, just outside, about 20
miles. In the suburbs.
The suburbs of London.
What's, what's the, uh, suburb
called?
Dartford. Dartford?
You're right on the edge
of the country,
so you've got, you know,
commuters, heavy industry
and you've got countryside.
Very beautiful, still very
beautiful.
The Dickensian sort of marshes
that go to the Thames Estuary,
described in Great Expectations
so fully.
Dartford? Is that on the planet
Krypton? You know? Um
You were growing up in the residue
of a huge world war,
but you didn't know anything
about it.
It was just the way things were.
Bombsite here, you know?
"No, you can't have that.
"We don't have any ration tickets
left."
I mean, it wasn't unusual.
You didn't feel hard done by it.
It was just the way it was.
The exam called the 11 Plus looms
large,
sorting British kids into the
different educational paths
which will determine their future.
I remember the 11 Plus.
I didn't take it.
I went down with some kind of flu
at the time, or whatever it was.
And so I didn't actually get to take
it, which, I was immense
I think I had a psychosomatic
disease, as I just
Exams are the thing that'll
kill me, you know?
I mean, it's Jesus.
You either became a professional,
basically, of whatever, you know
Or, you know, you dug the ditches
and you do, you know,
what working men do.
And, of course, being kids
at that age, you don't realise
that you're being streamed
..to one aspect of society
and, you know,
you're being dumped,
or you're being elevated.
You have no idea, right?
Anyway, I took the middle
route and got expelled.
Which I
..I recommend heartily to any
red-blooded English schoolboy.
As far as I was concerned at the
time,
they'd heaped humiliation on me
and I weren't going to take
it any more, you know?
You break it with one form
of authority
and maybe after that, you start to
question
..other forms of authority, you
know?
There was always something
about being told what to do,
especially without any reason.
If Rebel Keith is born of a healthy
disregard for authority,
it's his grandfather, Gus Dupree,
an amateur jazz musician,
who fosters an early
enthusiasm for music.
He was the father of seven
daughters.
Well, as far as I'm concerned,
I seem to have been the only
boy he didn't have.
So, in fact, for me, he was
more like a dad or a friend
than a grandfather.
He'd take me into music shops,
but we'd always go in round the
back.
We never went in the front door.
And there was always a little deal
about, you know, some guitar strings
or some violin strings.
But then I would be in the back
of these music stores
for like hours,
watching people make guitars,
violins, repairing things.
It was like magical stuff going on.
He always had his violin
and instruments ready.
He never, ever once pushed me
or tried to interest me.
He would just play music,
you know?
All kinds, you know, jazz,
classical.
And then we'd just live our life
around the music.
Until one day, he noticed
that I was looking at the
guitar on top of the piano.
And, uh "Since you keep
looking at that,"
he said, "you want to have a go?"
And that's how Boom, gave it to
me.
He said, "I'll show you a few chords
here and you're on your own."
And that was it.
Can we just talk
about your first guitar?
I think we've got it here.
I'd love to see you handle it.
So would I! That's all you need to
do. OK.
What the
Careful here. Oh, that's it.
Oh, man.
Yeah. The mice were at it then,
the mice have been at it now.
This
..I believe it is the one
that my grandfather gave me.
But I'm not sure about that.
I don't know, but
Definitely my grandfather.
Wow, you see?
Lovely piece of wood.
Maybelline
by Chuck Berry
# Oh, Maybelline
# Why can't you be true?
# Oh, Maybelline #
As Keith starts out on his musical
journey,
his attention is grabbed by an
irresistible new sound.
Rock and roll.
# I was motivating over the hill
# I saw Maybelline in a Coupe de
Ville
# Cadillac rollin' on over the road
# Nothin' outrunning my V8 Ford #
I was getting an urge for some
country music and some blues.
I was starting to get interested.
Very little that you could get
in England at the time.
I think when rock and roll came
along,
it sort of fused the whole thing
together for me, you know?
Ha! You know, "Where have you been?"
At that age, it was devastating.
# Done got cloudy and started to
rain
# Tooted my horn for the passing
lane
# Rainwater blowing all under my
hood #
That's it. That's where you want
to go. That's
"Book me a room!"
It was an exciting time
to be a musician at that age.
Yeah, it was great. Ha-ha!
It was so completely
different
from anything we'd ever
heard.
And it had an excitement and
a positivity about it, I suppose.
Rock and roll started
whenever it was, '58.
It was Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly
and all that lot that turned our
heads.
That introduced us more into folk,
I suppose, and then into blues
and the blues artists of the day.
It was like collecting rare stamps,
finding good blues records.
The hits were released by
major record companies.
So, if it was a hit R&B track,
or if it made the Hot 100,
these were easy to get.
Major labels released these
records.
To buy the whole album of Muddy
Waters was much more difficult,
and you had to go to a jazz shop
in Charing Cross Road
and pay a lot of money for it.
And we used to order them
from America a bit cheaper
and there was a sort of little
network of people
that had record collections.
And so you would go to their houses
and they would play you music
and you would hear songs perhaps
you'd never heard before.
I was going to Sidcup Art
School. Right.
And Mick, at that time, was going
to the London School of Economics.
But I just get off at Sidcup, you
know?
Meanwhile, I'm sitting in the
carriage and suddenly he walks in.
"There's Mick," who I hadn't seen
in years, you know. "Wow, man.
"What's that under your arm?"
HE CHUCKLES
And he pulls out the
Best Of Muddy Waters
and Rockin' At The Hops by
Chuck Berry.
And these are American pressings,
you know, and you can't get
these records in England at the
time.
Basically, that was the hook-up for
the Stones and for Mick and I,
was just that we had this
same interest in music.
BLUES HARMONICA PLAYING
To know that these guys
were dedicated enough
to send their money
off into the oblivion,
in the hopes that something
would come back,
and then they were, like, obsessed
and live off of that record.
I just think it's just phenomenal.
What was it about a
cricket-playing, football-playing
bunch of characters, who drank
tea at four o'clock,
who loved this music?
Music from other cultures
has a romantic flair
and is kind of exotic.
So for the Rolling Stones,
being teenagers in England,
getting their hands on
authentic American Blues records,
authentic American folk records,
country records.
It carried with it this whole
romantic gravitas.
The thing about the blues
is it felt like it was coming
from some other place.
And it's much more raucous,
it's much more heartfelt,
it's much more vivacious.
It's not being filtered
through all these things.
That's what kind of made us jealous
in England,
was like, "Man, these cats
have got, you know,
"they've got a long stretch on us."
And, you know, we had a lot
of catching up to do.
It was just a fascinating journey.
And these presumptuous 18-year-old
white kids,
who say, "We're going to be the best
blues band in London."
Robert Plant said it to
me best.
He said, "You know, Brian,
"these white boys got a hold
of American black music
"and gave it fist."
The Rolling Stones!
WILD CHEERING
# Said the joint was rocking
# Going round and round
# Yeah, reelin' and a-rockin'
# What a crazy sound
# But they never stopped
rockin' #
I saw that whole
thing go down, man,
with the white blues.
The English were ahead of it.
They spread it.
There was something
really different about it.
There was like this
undulating rhythm happening
and it was sexually charged.
# Goin' round and round
# Yeah, reelin' and a rockin'
# What a crazy sound
# And they never stopped rockin'
# Till the moon went down. #
18, you know, playing your blues.
And within a matter of months, women
are trying to tear your clothes off
and they're jumping off of
balconies.
This is not quite what I
had in mind.
It was mayhem.
They were really good.
My God, as a band,
they were really good.
They had this charisma.
They were so cool and really didn't
give a fuck.
That was their attitude on stage.
# What a crazy sound
# And they never stopped rockin'
# Till the moon went down
# I said the joint was rockin'
# Goin' round and round
# Yeah, reelin' and a rockin'
# What a crazy sound
# And they never stopped rockin'
# Till the moon went down #
The Stones
represented a danger,
a teenage danger that we
hadn't really experienced before.
They were definitely different
than, say, the Beatles.
The Beatles were there
to entertain you.
These guys came for your daughters.
HE LAUGHS
The Rolling Stones connect
with a post-war generation
eager for new music.
But the key to their success
is a reverence for a blues
sound steeped in history.
We did it through researching,
getting really soaked up in the
blues, you know.
We wanted to find out
..where the funkiest, swampiest
damn stuff came from, you know.
Hobo Blues
by John Lee Hooker
Keith Richards' choice of listening
music
is a great musicology course for
anybody.
He had a sort of evangelical drive
to expose people to the blues.
# When I first thought to hoboin'
# Hoboin'
# I took a freight train to be my
friend #
We would have a lot of
listening sessions in
Keith's room
with just all this great
black music.
And I think the Rolling Stones
actually tapping into that.
# You know I hobo'd, hobo'd,
hobo'd #
And expressing it in their way
is the evolution of the music,
as it should be.
# Oh, yeah. #
I think the whole wave
of music
that came out of England
in the mid 1960s
was a reflection of the best of
what we had cooked up over here
over the last 50 years.
They embraced it in the most
beautiful way.
They honoured that music.
# I left home that morning
# My mother followed me down
to that #
Being in America, to find out
that what we'd heard in England
was only the tip of an iceberg
and that you could burrow
far deeper,
and that for every guy that you knew
about,
there were ten others,
easily as good.
Music and the beat and the sounds
came from the motherland.
The black experience that is
soulful, that has a cry,
that has a deep understanding,
that touches hearts,
that communicates deeply.
The Rolling Stones took
it and ran and made it their own.
# Next time I start to hoboin'
# I'm going to have my baby
by my side
# And then I know my night
# It won't be so lonely #
We were just a bunch of guys
that loved our music,
were obsessed with our music,
but in our English fantasy
of America in the '50s,
it just sort of pulled you and
called you.
It was the place to be if you wanted
to be a musician.
Now, oh, something for the
youngsters.
Five singing boys from England
who've sold a lot of albums.
They're called The Rolling Stones.
I've been rolled while I was
stoned myself.
LAUGHTER
So I don't know what they're singing
about, but, uh
..here they are.
APPLAUSE
# I don't want you to
# Be no slave
# I don't want you to
# Work all day
# I don't want you
# To be true
# I just wanna make love to you
# Love to you, baby
# Sweet love to you, baby
# Love to you
# I can tell by the way that you
twist and walk
# I can see by the way that you baby
talk #
The Rolling Stones sang our music
back to us.
But they were singing with us.
You know, I never felt
that they were singing to us.
I felt like they wanted
to be one of us.
I welcomed them.
I think we all welcomed them.
# I don't want you to be true
# I just wanna make love to you,
baby
# Love to you, baby
# Sweet love to you, baby
# Love to you, baby
# Love to you
# I
# Wanna make love
# To you. #
I was really excited
that somebody felt and
loved this music
as much as I did and would
dedicate their lives to playing it
and exposing people to it.
Some people thought they might
have been appropriating,
or this, that and the other thing.
Well, um, 'scuse me,
it's right here in your backyard,
and I don't see you doing anything
about it.
Cos it's been said that
the Rolling Stones
gave black music back to the
Americans.
How do you feel these black
musicians feel about The Stones?
I mean, I know people like
Muddy Waters, etc
..are really grateful, you know,
for
I mean, really, I mean, we did
very little.
I mean, all we said was that
we dug Muddy Waters, you know?
I mean, which happened to have a lot
of an effect for him, you know?
In his own life. It means more bread
for him,
because he got on to the white
college circuit
and things, which wouldn't
have happened, things like that.
But we weren't the only ones
to do it.
I mean, every English band
in the '60s that went to America,
you know, was
Came there and said,
"Well, you know, we've got our
"music from black records."
This is way beyond our dreams
of being the biggest R&B
band in London.
Muddy Waters has suddenly
got a hit record again.
John Lee Hooker is on the charts,
Slim Harpo and all of these people
that were totally unknown two years
before.
And we felt very proud of the
I mean, Jesus, what a mantle
we carry.
I still get a nice warm glow
out of turning everybody back
on to their own stuff.
To find yourself on the bill
with Muddy Waters
Whoa. Victory is ours.
You know, it's cool.
A reworking of music that was
already American
helps the Stones storm the States
and the world.
In just a matter of months,
their sound and image are number one
on both sides of the Atlantic.
We felt it was a gift coming
to America.
I mean, suddenly to be transplanted
from, er
..some wannabe
It was endlessly fascinating,
America.
After Dartford.
We grew into it.
And music grew into us and
..America changed rapidly in '64,
'65.
White America, when we first
came here,
was incredibly old-fashioned to us.
Our idea of America was modernity.
And once you got out there
in the sticks. Whoa!
You realise the incredible gap
there.
America was the Holy Grail.
It really, really was.
And it was to do with
not just
wanting to be big in America.
It was more that their fame
and notoriety
had given them an opportunity.
It was like a laminate,
a pass into American culture.
And I think that was the thing
with Keith.
He saw the Stones as this amazing
laminate
into the fabric of what made
American music what it was.
I think it's the call,
but the Americans were still playing
folk songs and folk music.
Basically through country music,
which always sounds like schmaltz to
a lot of people, I know,
but there's a lot of truth in
country music.
Wild Horses
by The Rolling Stones
I actually think that
The Rolling Stones
are some of the
first proponents
of what's now
called Americana music.
It's ironic, but you listen
to something like Wild Horses.
That's a pretty eclectic blend
of authentic American music styles
that no-one had really touched
on before.
They've written some of
the quintessential
country songs,
as far as I'm concerned.
# Childhood living #
They're so much more than an R&B
band,
and they're also extremely
brilliant pop song craftsmen.
I think they took Jimmy Reed and
Muddy Waters
and George Jones
and Merle Haggard
and brought it back to us with pop
hooks.
I don't know that there is a band
that can write better hooks
than The Rolling Stones.
I love that the Stones
can do that,
that they can take stuff
from their influencers
and do it their way.
They translate it and do it their
way.
That's another wonderful thing
they've taught me,
is how to put a song together.
# Wild horses
# Couldn't drag me away
# Wild, wild horses
# Couldn't drag me away #
One of the things people don't talk
about,
or I don't hear
talked about,
is what a great songwriter
Keith Richards is.
And I think it's because
he's so known as a guitarist
and also because he's so known
to be dissolute, or whatever,
that beautiful thing is that he is,
you know, that people,
I don't think, have really
recognised the extraordinary
contribution that he's made
through his songwriting.
I really remember a
particular,
period as a really
little guy
from Beggar's Banquet, Let It
Bleed, Sticky Fingers,
Exile on Main Street.
That was the period when the Stones
was the background music of my life.
It just kind of adds another
thread between this tapestry
of this marvellous backlog of
material that the Stones have.
It's like
..whoa! You know,
what a legacy and
..lucky dip. Take a song, you know?
Pick it out.
It soon becomes clear, writing,
as well as performing smash hits,
is the name of the game
if they want to be a new kind
of musical superstar.
We were working the clubs in London
and the Beatles just came out
and had a hit -
Love Me Do.
And we said, "Oh,
man, what a great record."
The Beatles suddenly explode.
And there's, there you are going
"Oh. Yeah, but we're a blues band."
The Beatles changed this whole
thing.
Our job was to be like the premier
rhythm and blues band in London,
and we managed that.
But we had no idea of
progressing beyond that stage.
Keith, he'd play The Beatles
all the time.
It'd drive me absolutely batty.
And why he was playing The Beatles
wasn't because he didn't want
to listen to anything else.
Keith wanted to write these pop
songs,
cos we're undeniably
the blues band,
but we
..knew we had to be a pop band.
We were just envious, too,
man, you know?
I mean, they're doing what we want,
you know, they got it.
You know? They can make records.
The Holy Grail was to make records,
to be able to get into a studio.
It was like diamonds!
You know, you'd think it was a gold
mine,
which in a way it was, you know
what I mean?
But you'd think you were invading
Fort Knox,
just to make a record.
Without The Beatles, The Stones
would never have been there.
The reason The Stones existed,
or got, made records,
was because the record industry
couldn't afford to lose another
Beatles.
We'd never have got in a recording
studio without them.
We would've sold,
and I probably did,
sell my soul just to be on
tape, just to get on record,
just to learn how records are made.
Recording is, still is, to me,
the most mysterious art.
I think he could live in a studio.
He just loves music.
Music is always part of his life.
Music is always on.
Music is always the backdrop
of his life.
And the guitar is always there,
the piano is always there.
Always has it right handy
whenever he wants it.
But he loves the process.
I think he loves the process
more than anything.
He loves developing a song.
He likes to write in a studio.
It's a kid's dream come true.
I mean, you're constantly living
those moments of, like,
"I've got a guitar strapped up, in a
studio to
"and we're cutting."
You know, and
..it's a surreal sensation in a
way.
Keith would come to the studio
and he'd have maybe
half an idea,
and he'd sit and play
it and play it
and play it and play
it on his own.
And then, when he got it almost
into shape,
Bill and Charlie would sit with him
and they'd play along with him
to help him develop the riff
into a song.
The Stones have a
great craft of songwriting,
and that is how to present it.
How to record it so that it knocks
your socks off and you go, "Whoa!"
What they've done is epic.
The way they were able to weave
these disparate elements together.
It's a magic trick.
What you do is the job
of a minstrel.
You know, songs evolve,
music evolves.
Keith was not the purist
of the band.
A blues purist.
Keith liked to write pop songs.
He wrote lots and lots of pop songs.
Ruby Tuesday, As Tears Go By.
He also wrote Angie.
I mean, these are not blues
songs as we know them.
These are pop songs that emanate,
really, from Keith, originally.
Keith's talent drives the band's
success,
but he's a reluctant star
Just to tell you
..struggling to handle the adoration
and fame that engulfs the band.
I'd have been quite happy
to make all these records
totally anonymously.
HE LAUGHS
But then, of course,
I mean, that's not possible.
I mean, hey, you've got to get out
there and put yourself out.
And I learnt how to do that and I
quite enjoyed it.
But I guess my refuge was heroin,
was drugs, and there I stayed
as long as I could.
Keith Richards on guitar.
# She drew out all her money at
the Southern Trust
# And put her little boy aboard a
Greyhound bus
# Leaving Louisiana for the Golden
West #
As his star rises,
keeping up with Keith in the 1970s
becomes a deadly game.
And his addiction to heroin
ultimately threatens the future of
the band.
I mean, the thing is,
most people
are kind of shy
and awkward
and they wouldn't have got
on a stage if they weren't loaded.
So it works in your favour
in the initial years,
but when it starts working
against you and you get addicted
to the drugs, cos they're
addictive, then you have a problem.
MUSIC ECHOES AND DISTORTS
Everybody's got a
different metabolism,
a different way of dealing with
that amount of adoration.
I just felt that as long as I kept
myself to myself,
that, er, you know, there was no
reason for them
to make any big fuss about it.
Keith's transformation confirms
him
as an international icon of
rebellion.
And a target for the authorities.
Late in the winter of '77,
Richards is in Toronto
..where the Rolling Stones
are set to perform.
We went to Toronto
to do this concert.
I remember
when the police
were walking up the staircase
..and wondering
what that was all about.
The day before, Keith's girlfriend,
Anita Pallenberg,
arrives at Toronto Airport
and as the Canadian Police
search her belongings,
they find her in possession
of hashish.
An investigation begins
that leads the police
all the way to Keith's hotel room.
Of course, he was found with drugs
and heroin and
all that kind of stuff
because he had a habit at the time
and the history of The
Rolling Stones changed on a dime.
The Rolling Stones is one of
the most famous rock groups
in the world.
A week ago, lead guitarist
Keith Richards was charged
with possession of heroin
for the purpose of trafficking.
It was actually terrifying
because he realised
he was up for, you know,
it could be 20 years of prison.
I think the reason I was taking it
was how to deal with
fame and pressure
and it's one way to run away.
I wouldn't recommend it
to anybody
but there again it's
a personal choice, I don't know,
and it's a rough old world
and sometimes you need something
to blank it out.
And it probably ain't worth
the ride.
It was the realisation in Canada
that I was actually
jeopardising the band.
And if they were going
to put me away,
I mean, it was bye-bye,
you know.
If I get out of this and don't
have to cold turkey in jail,
I'm going to go and clean up.
He just made a commitment,
"I'm going to get this together,"
because, at that point,
it was music or drugs -
and music was far more important
than drugs.
How do you think this conviction is
going to affect you and your music
and The Rolling Stones?
I don't know. I just want to get on
with it now that it's over,
you know, just get on with
what I'm supposed to be doing
instead of worrying about this,
you know.
Do you think it will have
any effect, then?
I don't know.
Might get a song out of it.
STADIUM CHEER
Ladies and gentlemen
The Rolling Stones!
UPROAR FROM CROWD
It's not drugs, fashion
or lifestyle choices
that will define Keith's story.
It's his talent
..that marks him out as
one of the most important
and influential artists of our age.
Keith is all about feel
and instinct.
If he's writing a song,
he may have two chords
and he's perfectly happy to sit
there and play those two chords
for two hours.
And he's just waiting for
the next part of the song to come
but he's not going to force it.
He's going to just keep playing
this mantra until something appears.
And it always does.
I really do like a striking intro
to records,
especially a rock and roll record,
you know,
and I'm talking about
that particular format.
But if an intro can grab you,
you're going to be in
for at least a few more minutes.
And if the riff behind that intro
grabs you, then,
then, you've pretty much got 'em.
MACHINE CLICKS
INTRODUCTION TO GIMME SHELTER
If you listen to
The Rolling Stones' records,
Keith wrote some
unbelievable intros.
Gimme Shelter
by The Rolling Stones
Every guitar player in the world
went, "Wow!"
And, you know, "How did he do that?"
Well, he took off one string.
There's five strings.
I take the bottom string goes off,
and then, you tune the rest
of the strings to the chord of G.
That tuning of his,
there's
something menacing
about that.
Just to weave that
in the centre of the groove.
That is a brilliant guitar sound.
It says so much with so little.
Holy smoke!
There's something about
the intonation of the notes,
the separation and the point
that I would say is almost mystical
that when hitting it the right way
in the right moment,
you know - cheap ride to heaven.
# My very life today
# If I don't get some shelter
# Ooh, yeah, I'm gonna fade away
# War, children #
Silence is your canvas,
for a musician,
and it's how much
you fill in the canvas
and how much light you let through.
It's something you really don't
know, it's almost intuitive.
You do it by feel,
really, on instinct.
# Ooh, see the fire is sweepin' #
There is a Keith Richards' sound
and a Keith Richards'
approach to the guitar
that just is unlike
anything that
I've ever heard from anyone else.
There's a certain type of way that
he plays in the middle of the neck
and a certain hammering, slashing.
# War, children
# It's a just a shot away #
I just love riffs. I just love
a greatconnection of notes
that can repeat themselves over
and over without being monotonous,
without being boring,
and that's what a good riff is.
It's the same old thing
but it keeps changing.
People will still be
trying
to play what he plays
50 years from now.
There won't be another.
GUITAR SOLO
It's tough to characterise
Keith Richards' guitar playing.
I believe it's a really organic
extension of who he is, of his soul.
It's no different than speaking,
it's no different than walking.
It's just a musical manifestation
of who he is
and not all musicians are like that.
Keith's always known
what he wants on the guitar.
The way he plays is
he establishes the sound first -
with Pierre, his guitar tech -
and various ways of achieving
the desired effect.
This is where he picks.
It's so worn out that some
of the dots have come out.
He's lost a tooth here.
HE CHUCKLES
This actually looks scalloped,
but it's not,
it's just for how worn out it is.
He's actually wearing out
the fingerboard here,
and that's typical of where
he strums - up in this region.
It's great when you see
the person
that you listened to so
many years ago
still having a relationship
with their instrument.
You've got five strings.
There's only three notes
because there's two doubles,
two sets of Ds,
two sets of Gs, and a B.
So, the way it rings,
the way certain things ring,
you don't hear that
on a normal guitar.
It's definitely
not about filling it up.
If you're still thinking about
what you can add
instead of what you need
to take away,
you're still at
the beginning stages.
I didn't want to be a guitar player.
I wanted to makenoise
and if it took using a guitar
to do it, I'd do it.
I became a pretty good one
inin some respects.
I suppose, really, I'm saying
that I use the guitar really
as a percussion instrument.
It's a rhythm thing for me.
ErmI do love, you know,
playing solos,
but I've always said to myself
that solos come and go,
a riff lasts forever.
HE LAUGHS
You know, it sort of rounds it off.
It doesn't sound wrong
if it doesn't rhyme.
Play us a quick one.
Really?
KEITH STRUMS GUITAR
MICK VOCALISES WITH GUITAR
Mick and I in those days
used to sit around with guitars
and we'd write, that's what we did.
# I know you find it hard
# To reason with me
# Ba-ba, ba-ba-ba
# But this time it's different, oh
# Ba-ba-ba
# Darling, you'll see
# You got to tell me
you're coming back to me #
Writing songs and making records,
it's like a jigsaw puzzle.
There's always that thing of
not quite knowing
what's going to come up next.
When it all locks into position,
it is quite an incredible sensation
and everybody that's involved
in doing that when it's happening
knows that for a moment you're
in a special place, a special time
and, you know, you feel
actually where you feel very
privileged to actually be there.
Every great song is born
of conversation.
It really takes the two of them to
create that synergy and that energy.
I mean, they're the perfect
yin and yang.
Mick is the guy that brings it.
Keith is the guy that holds it down.
That rhythm is undeniable.
I mean, he's the guy that
took Chuck Berry
and took Johnnie Johnson's
whole thing
and brought it to a rock guitar
and an open tuning.
You can write great songs
with people
but when there is a dynamic there
that's bigger than the two of you,
that's where the great stuff lives.
It's the kind of a band
that was built on "we",
not "me".
It took the chemistry of
all of them to make it work.
You can't say, "Oh, if I wrote
Angie, it's like, listen to this."
And Keith's like, "That's a load of
shit, I want to write blues."
No, it's the other way around.
It's Keith saying,
"Listen to this melody."
And I'm going I could say,
"That's not the blues.
That'sthat's like
"that's bordering saccharine
ballads, you know."
But I didn't say that, of course,
it's a very beautiful song.
So, what I'm trying to say is
that The Rolling Stones
are many, many things.
And one of the good things
about The Rolling Stones is that
they embrace a lot of
kinds of music.
Yes, they're a blues band.
Yes, they're a rock band.
Yes, they did things
like Paint It Black.
Yes, they did like classic rock.
Yes, they did dance songs.
You have to push innovation a bit
sometimes
because people get older, they
just want to stick in one thing.
I think with Mick and
Keith over the years,
they have an acceptance,
you know,
a total respect for each other
in terms of what they both
bring to the band.
And I think it's valid, actually,
to think that
Mick has always been
the one driving them forward.
It's always been Keith
that's been aware of
the credibility of
the music they're making
to make sure
it continues to be rooted.
Keith had said, "Listen,
we are still this blues band,
"irrespective of the pyrotechnics
and 200,000 people in the audience.
"We're still that band that played
The Marquee in 1962 to 100 people."
That is Keith looking back
and holding on to
that rare musical depth
and Mick propelling the band
into whatever the future
may bring for them.
CROWD SINGING
If it comes out of The Rolling
Stones, it's The Rolling Stones.
Now and again, Mick and I
have come up with a song
HE LAUGHS
..looked at each other and gone,
"No, not The Stones, no, no!"
# Please allow me
to introduce myself
# I'm a man of wealth and taste #
There are few
songwriting partnerships
to match Jagger and Richards.
And despite their fair share
of disagreements,
their relationship has endured
against all the odds.
# And I was 'round when Jesus Christ
# Had his moment of
doubt and pain #
You had this image of those two guys
being the first real example
of a lead singer/lead guitar
player relationship.
# Pleased to meet you
# Hope you guess my name
# But what's confusing you
Is just the nature of my game
# Stuck around St Petersburg #
Mick wants to be the
leader.
He's the leader of
the pack.
Keith doesn't give a fuck
about being a leader
but he thinks he really is.
They're completely different.
Mick wants to try new
things.
He is very much a part of
whatever's going on.
Keith is technophobic.
That is one of the things that
still makes the edge between them.
We all have separate lives,
separate identities,
and musically, they're yin and yang.
They're joined at the hip.
Has there been times when
the
disagreements have flared
up?
Of course there has.
But I think you take a deep breath,
you look at each other and say,
"Wait a minute. Last time I checked,
"the whole is greater
than the sum of its parts."
Even at times when Mick and Keith
weren't at their best
relationship-wise,
I would dare you
to get between them.
There's a bond there
that can't be broken.
To do it for this long, Mick and I
both look at each other
HE CHUCKLES
We must be doing something right!
I don't know what it is.
The idea of turning people on
for 60 years is like, whoa!
HE LAUGHS
But the thing is relentless.
It's like being a juggernaut.
# Guess my name #
You see them walk to the stage
as older guys,
and they climb the stairs,
and each stair,
another piece of energy comes up.
And then, they go out.
It's like a shot of lightning.
# Just call me Lucifer #
It's like going to
Never Never Land.
# I'm in need of some restraint
# So if you meet me
# Have some courtesy
# Sympathy and some taste #
The music comes first.
Writing, recording,
performing music -
that's where they're at.
When they finally step off the stage
for the last time,
we will all know that we shall never
see anything like that ever again.
# Yes
# What's confusing you
Is just the nature of my game
# Yes #
CROWD NOISE
Come on!
Yeah!
MUSIC CONTINUES, CROWD CHEERING
I mean, God knows what I'd have been
like if I didn't do this -
my wildest nightmare.
Really, all you wanted to do
was play music,
trying to get it better,
trying to get the band tighter.
MUSIC ENDS, CROWD ROARS
Not many people get
a chance to do this
with thousands of people,
you know, as a job.
CROWD CHEERS
Ole, ole, ole, ole!
You know, when you're exchanging
that much appreciation
to each other,
it is profoundly touching.
Music is a resilient thing.
And sometimes I think,
God, is it the only thing we've got
that we can trust?
HE CHUCKLES
CROWD CONTINUES TO ROAR, WHISTLING
I gave up many years ago
trying to analyse this bunch
and why it works and how it works.
I've found the best remedy is
to put them all together in a room
and say, "It goes like this -
one, two, three, four,"
and all the problems go away.
CROWD CONTINUES CHEERING