tours, someone called the cops on the band for swimming at a Georgia Holiday Inn without their shirts on. Keith recounts how, during one of their early U.S. The Stones once got in trouble with the law for “topless bathing.” Out of that bond grew the Rolling Stones, who took their name from a song on the Muddy LP called “Rollin’ Stone” songs from both albums (including Muddy’s “I Just Want to Make Love to You” and Chuck’s “Let It Rock”) would show up in the band’s set lists for decades to come.Ĥ. “I thought I was the only guy in the southeast of England that knew anything about this stuff,” Keith laughs. Mick was carrying two albums with him at the time - The Best of Muddy Waters and Chuck Berry’s Rockin’ at the Hops, both on Chess Records - and the two college students immediately bonded over their mutual love for the blues. In 1960, Keith and childhood chum Mick Jagger reunited when they ran into each other on a train. The roots of the Rolling Stones can be traced back to two specific albums. “When you can reach it, I’ll let you play it,” Gus told him then, when Keith was big enough to reach it, Gus insisted that he learn the Spanish standard “Malagueña,” because “it’s got a lot of moves in it that make it great for the fingers.”ģ. Keith’s granddad Gus kept an acoustic guitar on his wall, which was placed tantalizingly out of the youngster’s reach. His grandfather “teased” him into becoming a guitarist. “We didn’t hear a lot of it in England, but I was well aware of it,” he recalls. “She was a wizard of the dial - if there was anything worth listening to, she would find it.” Doris Richards turned her only son on to such jazz greats as Sarah Vaughn, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong and Billy Eckstine, as well as “a little dash of Mozart here and there.” She also instilled him with a lifelong love of country music. “My Mum was a beautiful music freak with incredible taste,” he says. Keith’s main early musical influence was his mother. Here are 10 things we learned from Keith Richards: Under the Influence.ġ. The “influence” of the title refers to music rather than bourbon or opiates, and Neville does a beautiful job of getting to the heart of how blues, country and reggae sounds deeply impacted Richards and the Stones, as well as the immense joy that the guitarist still clearly derives from making music. More of a snapshot of the man in his current, exceedingly positive headspace than a chronological trawl through the ups and downs of Richards’ back pages, the documetary assiduously avoids the darker side of the Keith/Stones legend - there’s no talk of Altamont, heroin, the death of Brian Jones or Richards’ tumultuous relationship with Anita Pallenberg, for example. But it’s really the Uncle Keef Show all the way, with Richards punctuating nearly every anecdote and guitar strum with a knowing grin, a phlegmy chuckle and/or the rakish twirl of a gnarled finger. Tom Waits, Buddy Guy, Steve Jordan (who produced and drummed on Crosseyed Heart), X-Pensive Winos guitarist Waddy Wachtel and Richards’ long-serving guitar tech Pierre de Beauport all provide snippets of insightful commentary. Originally conceived as a promotional video for Crosseyed Heart, Richards’ first solo album in 23 years, Influence has been expanded into a feature-length documentary that paints a charming portrait of the guitarist (who will turn 72 in December) as rock and roll elder statesman. Really, who wouldn’t want to spend some quality time with the legendary Rolling Stones guitarist, spinning records, playing Fender Telecasters (preferably named after Dickens’ characters) and having the old pirate regale you with tales of over a half-century’s worth of musical adventures?ĭirector Morgan Neville ( 20 Feet From Stardom, Best of Enemies) got to do just that while making Keith Richards: Under The Influence, which premieres September 18th on Netflix - and which, for eighty extremely enjoyable minutes, allows us to do the same. When it comes to rock and roll fantasies, most of us would surely put “hanging with Keith Richards’ near the top of our list.