Life by Keith Richards reviewed

 

Let it be known that an autobiography by, The Rolling Stones guitarist, Keith Richards was probably my most anticipated autobiography...ever. This is a man who did a whole lot of drugs, been in a few near-death experiences and played the grittiest guitar in rock.  What could possibly go wrong?  How about that it's a boring read almost all the way through?  Seriously, for Keith Richards this is unacceptable but let me explain further.

To the shock of about almost everyone, including Richards himself, he remembers a lot of things about his life...a lot.  He goes through his childhood, him learning to play the guitar and of course the formation of The Rolling Stones.  He holds nothing back as he talks about his rampant drug use, his legal troubles and his hatred for Mick Jagger during the horrible time called the 80's.

And all this detail is the main problem with this as Keith Richards pretty much is one dickety away from becoming Grandpa Simpson.  He starts going and going and going and will not shut up unless someone else speaks, but I'll get to that in a bit.  You see, he says a lot of things but very rarely would he go in depth into something.  And add the fact that there really isn't much breathing room, it all runs together in some big horrible mess.  It took me a while to realize that the point where the Stones broke happened quite a while ago.

However, when he does into depth, things do get really interesting.  It was nice to see him theorize on his survival which was pretty much buy high-grade drugs and don't get greedy for the high.  It was even pretty cool to get his side of the Richards/Jagger feud which is pretty much what you already knew, except when Charlie Watts nearly punched Jagger out a window and Richards grabbed him....he just wanted his wedding jacket back.  There are even a couple nuggets that you know didn't happen beyond that one time where he met Ike Turner and he forced Keith Richards to teach him five-string open tuning, which Richards did in 45 minutes...AT GUNPOINT!

But there's another problem and that's when Keith decides to let someone else tell a part of the story.  And there's a wide array of people like session musicians, managers, Tom Waits, Kate Moss and even Richard's son.  Unfortunately, they're utterly boring and my eyes would just glaze over.  I don't know why they're so boring since it's always nice to have another perspective and there are some guys that I would love to hear but it just doesn't work here.

This is the most disappointing autobiography I've read since I read Eric Bischoff's book "Controversy Creates Ca$h".  There are a few parts of the book where things get interesting but it's not really worth the time to sift through the ramblings.  It's good for Keith Richard fanatics but if you really want a good Rolling Stones autobiography, read Ron Wood's.

5/10