Life

by James Fox, Keith Richards

English language

Published March 15, 2010

ISBN:: 978-0-297-85439-5

(24 reviews)

Life is a memoir by the Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, written with the assistance of journalist James Fox. Published in October 2010, in hardback, audio and e-book formats, the book chronicles Richards' love of music, charting influences from his mother and maternal grandfather, through his discovery of blues music, the founding of the Rolling Stones, his often turbulent relationship with Mick Jagger, his involvement with drugs, and his relationships with women including Anita Pallenberg and his wife Patti Hansen. Richards also released Vintage Vinos, a compilation of his work with the X-Pensive Winos, at the same time. It has been reported that publisher Little, Brown and Company paid an advance of $7.3 million, after seeing a ten-page extract. Co-writer James Fox interviewed Richards and his associates over a period of five years to produce the book. Life was generally well received by critics and topped The New York Times …

3 editions

mothlight reviewed Life by Keith Richards

Review of 'Life' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

So much better than I thought it might be. Quite readable and Keith comes off pretty well. Sure if you think about about a lot of the incidents (the guy had it coming so I kicked him in the teeth, etc), they are a little troubling, but for the face of rock 'n' roll, I guess that's what you expect.

Written, quite likely, by being interviewed into a tape recorder with other stories told by people who were there at the time inserted in between. Sure, it isn't high art, but I really enjoyed reading it and learning the back story behind Ruby Tuesday, Angie, etc is priceless. Much like the Rolling Stones themselves, it gets less interesting by the 80s but I still kept reading until the end.