Keith Richards

The legendary guitarist Keith Richards co-founded The Rolling Stones alongside Mick Jagger, Brian Jones, Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts in London in 1962. Initially steered by Jones, the group set off as a blues cover band, giving the British Invasion treatment to classic songs by artists such as Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Howlin’ Wolf, and Bo Diddley.

Through the mid-1960s, Richards and Jagger began to write original songs, and as they built their confidence, the band gradually retired the blues covers, much to Jones’ dissatisfaction. By 1965, charting singles like ‘Get Off My Cloud’, ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’ and ‘The Last Time’ saw the Jagger-Richards songwriting partnership rival that of The Beatles’ John Lennon and Paul McCartney.

As Jagger and Richards’ songwriting partnership blossomed, Jones became increasingly estranged from the band. The blues purist wasn’t pleased with the group’s increased pop-leaning and entered a spiralling drug and alcohol problem, which saw him eventually ousted from the band.

Jones drowned in his swimming pool under controversial circumstances in 1969. While Richards and Jagger didn’t appear at the former Stone’s funeral, the band released butterflies in a touching tribute to the late multi-instrumentalist during their July ’69 performance at Hyde Park.
Recruiting guitar virtuoso Mick Taylor and later Ronnie Wood, The Rolling Stones battled against the odds of global fame, steep taxes, drug busts and internal spats through the 1970s and ’80s.

Richards has released three solo albums, with 1988’s ‘Talk Is Cheap’ and 1992’s ‘Main Offender’ arriving during a long-standing disagreement with Jagger. ‘Crosseyed Heart’, Richards’ third and most recent solo album, was released in 2015.

To this day, Richards remains an active member of The Rolling Stones and played with the band during their extensive 60th-anniversary tour of 2022.