 Keith
Richards
Keith Richards was born to Bert Richards and Doris
Dupree in Dartford, Kent, on December 18th 1943 during World War
II, and lived there through German attacks
on the city. Keith was an only child who (reportedly) was conceived
to spare his mother Doris from working at a wartime factory.
As a guitarist for The Rolling Stones, Richards was largely responsible
for bringing the rock n' roll of Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry into
the group's rhythm and blues repertoire. With Stones founding member
and guitarist Brian Jones, Richards developed a two-guitar style
of interwoven leads and rhythms. Richards has cited his insistence
that the two-guitar sound as the defining of The Stones as one of
his chief contributions
to the music world.
The Stones are among the most influential rock bands of all-time.
They have sold more than 100 million albums, tapes, 8-track, cds
and full album downloads combined. In the U.S. the Rolling Stones
have 18 Platinum albums with 3 of those selling more that 5 million
each.
Keith Richards' often uses open tunings, which allow for syncopated
and ringing I-IV chording. He has also used a five-string variant
of the open G, which is GDGBD and is unencumbered by a rumbling,
lower E string. Though he still uses standard tunings, Richards
has said his open tunings led to a musical "rebirth".
To the general public, Richards is perhaps better known for his
drug-related outlaw image than for his songwriting contributions.
Richards and the Stones are notorious for their decadent and counter-culture
drug use during the 1960s and 70s, and Richards' frank admission
that he used narcotics often made him a poster-boy for teens. He
has openly discussed his drug and alcohol addictions in interviews
through the years, and has expressed little regret about the heroin
addiction that almost destroyed his life and music career.
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