Keith Richards has engaged in more wild acts than most. For an extended period, The Rolling Stones guitarist represented drugs, s*x, and rock ‘n’ roll. Even challenging the legendary Hunter S. Thompson in terms of skill.
In addition to the many musical achievements Keith Richards has had, his fluctuating life has captivated many. It is a manifestation of living life on the edge. It’s truly amazing that Richards has survived as long as he has, considering his numerous near-death experiences. And his current success with his band and other peers, including the Texan hellraiser Bobby Keys.
During Richards’ hedonistic peak in the late 1960s, LSD was a popular beverage. In 1967, the year the counterculture came to dominate society, psychedelic rock reached its zenith, and acid use peaked. Richards went on two crazy, crazy trips with the drug.
In his gripping memoir Life, published in 2010, he describes this. Richards claims that he conducted extensive experiments with the emerging psychedelics in 1967 and the following year. That being said, he names one particularly perplexing LSD trip in the book. He got together with one of the most well-known people of his generation, John Lennon of The Beatles, one day in 1967, and they went on a two- or three-day “acid-fueled road trip,” making it as far as the southwest coastal towns of Lyme Regis and Torquay.
The Norwegian model Kari Ann Moller, who married Mick Jagger’s younger brother Chris, is the source of Richards’ autobiographical material. Lennon’s country home was reportedly the destination of Richards and Lennon’s alleged circle drive, during which they allegedly “said hi to Cynthia”. When the two finally reunited in New York years later, Richards says the Liverpudlian asked him, “What happened on that trip?” which is a testament to how insane they were. What really happened will always remain unknown, kind of like the British version of the Raoul Duke and Doctor Gonzo story.
The second anecdote is about Richards’ 1966 £20,000 purchase of the picturesque Redlands estate in Sussex. This tranquil haven, however, faced destruction within months due to a significant drug bust. It involved the presence of twenty police officers. For Richards, Jagger, and frontman Marianne Faithfull, a pop star who was coming off of a daylong drug trip, it could not have come at a worse time.
According to Richards’ memoir, “I look out the window and there’s this whole bunch of dwarves outside. And there’s a knock on the door”. “I’m still on acid, and I’ve never been busted before”. Afterwards, the police uncovered that their tip from Richards’ driver, an unexpected source, came through a tabloid. But he conceded when it came to the traitor: “He never walked the same again.”
That is when the infamous and false rumour that the police had broken up an orgy started to circulate. In reality, Faithfull reported that the officers discovered “a scene of pure domesticity” when the bewildered Richards gently opened the door. What happened was that the two Rolling Stones were eventually given short prison terms, which were later revoked. Richards continued, “I’m not sure how the Mars bar ended up in the story.” “You can see what’s going through people’s heads.”
