Scott Cantrell: the teenager who ended up dead in Keith Richards’ bed
Having spent the vast majority of his time on Earth deeply entrenched in a life of rock and roll excess, Keith Richards has amassed a wealth of stories and experiences over the years. While many of these tales paint a picture of Keef as a lovable rogue or an archetypal rock rebel, the legendary guitarist has been faced with a great deal of tragedy in his life, too. In 1979, all eyes turned to his home in South Salem, New York, when a 17-year-old boy was found dead in Richards’ bed while The Rolling Stones were touring on the other side of the globe.
Richards lived in the New York property with his partner, Anita Pallenberg. The pair had never enjoyed a particularly harmonious relationship together. In fact, the Italian-German actor and model had originally been dating The Rolling Stones’ founder, Brian Jones. However, when Jones fell ill while the group were en route to Marrakech, Richards swooped in. By the time Jones made it to Morocco, Pallenberg and the guitarist had already entered a relationship, widening the divide between Jones and the rest of the group.
From then on, Pallenberg and Richards were an item, and although their relationship was often strained by Richards’ life on the road, they managed to produce three children. In 1976, their third child, Tara Jo Jo Gunne, died aged only ten weeks old, something that had an inevitably profound effect on both Richards and his partner. The death, coupled with Richards’ increasingly demanding responsibilities within the band, put an incredible strain on their relationship, and, reportedly, Pallenberg began engaging in affairs.
One such affair saw the model engage in a relationship with a 17-year-old boy in South Salem named Scott Cantrell. This relationship saw Cantrell invited into the chaotic world of drugs, alcohol, and addiction that Pallenberg and Richards were engaged with at the time, and eventually led to his tragic death. The story goes that, while in bed together, Pallenberg and Cantrell allegedly played a game of Russian roulette using a .38 calibre pistol. This soon led to the 17-year-old putting the gun to his head, pulling the trigger, and blowing his brains out over Richards’ pillows.
Although Richards himself was touring in Europe at the time, he still remembers the event clearly. In his memoir, Life, the Stones guitarist wrote, “Things went beyond the point of return with Anita when her young boyfriend blew his brains out in our house. … The boy had shot himself in the face, playing Russian roulette, the story goes.”
Seemingly, the guitarist doesn’t hold much sympathy for the teenager who died in his bed. “I had met him. He was this crazy little kid, aged 17, Anita’s boyfriend,” Richards wrote. “I said to her, ‘Listen, baby, I’m leaving, we’re over, we’re finished, but this is not the guy for you.’ And he proved it. The reason she went with this guy, who was an absolute prick, was, I think, to piss me off.”
Richards’ eldest son, Marlon Leon Sundeep, was reportedly in the house when this tragic incident occurred but felt a similar lack of sympathy for the death. “He kept telling me – a really nasty kid – he kept saying he was going to shoot Keith, and that upset me, so I was kind of relieved when he shot himself,” Richards’ son is quoted as saying.
“I don’t think he intended to shoot himself, really, just an idiot of 17 who was stoned, angry, playing with a pistol,” he added.
Cantrell was rushed to Northern Westchester Hospital but pronounced dead at around midnight as a result of the gunshot wound to his head. According to a report by People at the time of the incident, Pallenberg did not contact the boy’s family at the time of the incident, and Cantrell’s brother, Jim, was quoted as saying, “People fail to understand that this was a 37-year-old woman and a 17-year-old child.”
Pallenberg was initially arrested after the incident, but Cantrell’s death was ultimately ruled a suicide. Shortly after the incident, Richards and Pallenberg separated for good, but according to the rocker’s memoir, the many decades since the death of Scott Cantrell have not led to any increase in sympathy for the 17-year-old who was invited into the rock and roll life only for that life to be cut short soon thereafter.
