Life, by Keith Richards

“This is the life. Believe it or not I haven’t forgotten any of it. Thanks and praises. “

That’s the first you’ll read when you open the cover of Life, a Keith Richards autobiography written by himself with the help and collaboration of James Fox, a Sunday times journalist and author of the bestseller White Mischief.

This rock star autobiography offers more than five hundred pages divided in 13 chapters, in which the reader will find a more or less chronological biography written in first tense with the personal and certainly charismatic voice of the protagonist Keith Richards, and a considerable amount of related photos. At the end you’ll find a complete name and photo index as well.

I think it’s important to remark that you don’t have to be a Rolling Stones fan to enjoy this book; you just have to love music. I found “Life” to be a pretty entertaining, interesting and pretty personal and yet informative real story about a guy (and the rest of the band) with a passion for music.

So, just to let you know, this is not a drama in which the author recreates himself in dark or morbid aspects like the tragic death of Brian Jones, or the turbulent relationship between himself and Anita Pallenberg (mother of three of his children) or the ups and lows of the relationship with Mick Jagger, although he talks about all these in an honest and natural way, because they are part of his own story, and that’s what this book is.

Keith seems to be an honest and authentic talented person, not perfect and quite happy about it, and so this biography is just like him: and honest attempt to tell his own story, with plenty of funny, entertaining and dramatic characters, stories and events: a great guitarist life, and a pretty interesting one.