Freddie Sessler: the drug dealer Keith Richards called his “second dad”
Keith Richards has rarely been troubled by normality. From snorting his own father’s ashes to nearly sleeping through a deadly housefire, The Rolling Stones guitarist has lived a life far removed from reality. Life was never going to be ordinary for Richards; that fate was sealed when he joined the ranks of The Rolling Stones in 1962, but, along the way, the songwriter has managed to expertly evade the banal realities of life with the help of close confidantes and, of course, copious amounts of drugs.
Drugs have never been a stranger to the music industry. Tireless performing schedules, high-pressure environments, and excess amounts of disposable income invariably lead artists and performers down the road of pharmaceutical influences. Even the prolific stars of the jazz age often succumbed to the allure of heroin addiction, so the ‘live fast, die young’ attitude of rock and roll only served to up the ante. The Rolling Stones arrived on the scene at just the right time, with drugs becoming increasingly cheap and abundant during the mid-1960s.
Speed was the drug-du-jour of Britain’s rebellious youth during that period, spurred on by the mod subculture and adopted by every budding rockstar along the way. It was also during this time that cannabis became more accessible, and LSD burst onto the scene in a vibrant flash of light. Living up to their anarchic image, The Stones experimented with virtually every drug under the sun, and that brought with it an unwanted and unrelenting level of police attention on the band.
Multiple drug busts and sensationalist headlines followed, as The Stones left a trail of drug-fueled destruction everywhere they went. Soon, the band had amassed a pretty extensive collection of drug dealers, connections, and confidantes with which to supply their habits. One such figure was Freddie Sessler, who became a key figure in the story of The Stones and the life of Keith Richards, in particular.
Sessler, a Polish-born Jew, was interned at Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp during the Holocaust, but managed to escape to Russia before the war was over. After some time imprisoned in Siberia, he relocated to London, and that became a permanent move after the discovery that the rest of his family, bar his older brother, had been murdered during the Nazi reign over Europe. According to the man himself, this horrific start in life spurred him on to live the rest of his existence to the fullest.
After procuring drugs for the jazz stars of New York throughout the 1950s, Sessler struck up a friendship with The Rolling Stones the following decade. His ability to supply pure, pharmaceutical-grade cocaine probably helped the relationship along, particularly in the case of Keith Richards, whose drug habits always seemed to eclipse the rest of the band. During the early part of the guitarist’s autobiography, Life, he described Sessler as “an incredible character, my friend and almost a father to me who will have many parts in this story.”
That father figure remained in Richards’ life for many decades, even while the guitarist was attempting to kick his drug habit. During his later years, Sessler revelled in his description as “the world’s oldest rock groupie,” having stuck with The Stones throughout much of their career, until the raconteur eventually passed away at the age of 77, in December 2000, on Keith Richards’ birthday.
After Sessler’s death, Keith Richards continued to pay homage to the man. In fact, he once shared, “Fred Sessler died on my birthday two years ago, after calling me up the night before, threatening to come and see me – I knew he was in no condition.” He added, “Unfortunately, Freddie’s gone to Valhalla, but he’s my second dad.” Sure, they might have had a complicated, drug-fueled relationship over the years, but Keith Richards snorted the ashes of his actual father, so it is fair to say that virtually all of his relationships have been complicated.
