Keith Richards
The immortal Rolling Stones guitarist turns 80
Is happy about his durable “rock ‘n’ roll fighting body”: Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards
© imago/ZUMA Wire
Despite his unhealthy lifestyle, nothing has been able to knock Richards’ socks off. Today he celebrates his 80th birthday.
Not surrounded by flowers for no reason Keith Richards (80) a myth of immortality. In his life he cheated death so often that one has to suspect that it was more than just pure coincidence. His decades-long heroin and cocaine addiction apparently did not even pose the greatest threat to his physical integrity.
V1 rockets destroy his parents’ house
Shortly after his birth on December 18th of the war year 1943, he had his first near-death experience when his first family home in the town of Dartford, east of London, was almost completely destroyed in the bombing by German V1 rockets in the summer of 1944.
In later interviews, the musician revealed that this early war experience shaped him for his entire life. This is how he quotes the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” with the words: “It’s still the same today – a bang or a siren can startle me very much if I’m not prepared for it. For example, if I’m walking down the corridor in a hotel and someone is watching a Second World War film in their room and I hear the sirens through the door, then I still take cover.”
Almost killed by Leonardo da Vinci
In the same interview, Richards explained that in the rest of his life it was often mundane household accidents that almost brought him around the corner. In 1998, he was almost killed by a falling book in his library. “That thing almost killed me,” said the well-read rock musician. “It was Leonardo da Vinci’s book on human anatomy.” The kilo-heavy work “shattered a few ribs, which then stabbed his lungs.” But he also survived this effortlessly.
“I have a real rock ‘n’ roll fighting body”
2005 he said in “Spiegel” His legendary indestructibility is due to his musically induced superhero abilities: “Aside from my heroin withdrawal, my body has always treated me well. And I really put a lot of strain on it and broke a lot of things: four broken ribs, two damaged lungs, lots of broken fingers and toes. But I have a real rock ‘n’ roll fighting body, so everything heals in record time.” Even his doctors, who repeatedly wanted to take him out of circulation for a while after injuries, were regularly amazed at his record healing abilities, which could not be scientifically explained.
Almost fatal fall of Fiji palm tree
The following year, Richards immediately proved his thesis again. At the end of April 2006, he fell five meters from a palm tree in a luxury resort on the Fiji Islands and suffered a life-threatening blood clot in his brain, which had to be surgically removed. Almost two months later he was back on stage with the Rolling Stones to continue rocking the band’s two-year “A Bigger Bang” tour.
In October 2013 could according to the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”. In the US state of Connecticut, a neighbor of Keith Richards was arrested from blowing him up with 44 kilograms of explosives. The report raised the question of how anyone could come up with the strange idea that 44 kilos of explosives would be enough to knock out the toughest of all Stones.
Even in the wildest times, everything is under control
In the early days of the Rolling Stones, it seemed extremely unlikely that he would celebrate his 80th birthday. After lead guitarist Brian Jones (1942 – 1969), who was kicked out of the band due to his drug abuse, drowned in a swimming pool in 1969, a similar fate was predicted for Richards, who was also a heroin addict. In his 2010 memoirs published under the title “Life”. However, he claims that he always had everything under control, even in his wildest excesses: “I don’t just attribute my survival to the first-class quality of my drugs. I paid very careful attention to how much I took.”
His new life without heroin, coke and cigarettes
Nevertheless, in his old age he seems to have decided not to put his immortality to the test so hard anymore. Like him in September 2023 revealed to the Telegraph, he has been leading an almost completely drug-free life for several years. There he said: “I quit cigarettes in 2019, heroin in 1978, cocaine in 2006… but I still like to have a drink.” Under these ideal conditions, it shouldn’t be a problem for his rock ‘n’ roll fighting body to continue rocking unscathed for the next 80 years.