The drugs and the music, working with Mick Jagger and sleeping with his girl, being jailed and falling in love - Keith Richards' memoirs, revealed Saturday, are every bit as rock'n'roll as he was.
Extracts of his autobiography "Life", published in The Times newspaper, give the ultimate inside story of how the Rolling Stones raised hell as they became one of the most revered and influential bands of the 20th century.
The no-holds barred account of Richards' life reveals a fraught relationship with his songwriting partner, Jagger, who he calls "Your Majesty" or "Brenda" and who says became "unbearable" from about the early 1980s.
"I used to love Mick, but I haven't been to his dressing room in 20 years. Sometimes I think, 'I miss my friend'. I wonder, 'Where did he go?'," recalls Richards, now an unrepentant 67 years old, in the book.
He also reveals that Jagger has a "tiny todger", a detail apparently passed on to him by Jagger's one-time girlfriend Marianne Faithfull.
Faithfull was involved in a series of complicated love trysts involving the Stones, which began when Richards stole his bandmate Brian Jones' girlfriend, Anita Pallenberg, on a drug-fuelled trip to Spain.
Later, Richards became convinced that Pallenburg was having an affair with Jagger and so took it upon himself to bed Faithfull - only to be caught in flagrante and forced to escape through a window.
Jones died in a swimming pool in 1969, but Richards and Pallenberg went on to have three children together.
In the book, Richards recalls how they got together: "I still remember the smell of the orange trees in Valencia. When you get laid with Anita Pallenberg for the first time, you remember things."
They were in Spain after fleeing Britain following a drugs bust at Richards' home in London, where he and Jagger were arrested and subsequently jailed, although Richards' conviction was overturned and Jagger's sentence quashed.
In the memoirs, Richards describes the bust, which came after a heavy night on acid.
"There's a knock on the door. I look through the window and there's this whole lot of dwarves outside, but they're all wearing the same clothes!
"They were policemen, but I didn't know it. They just looked like very small people wearing dark blue with shiny bits and helmets. 'Wonderful attire! Am I expecting you? Anyway, come on in, it's a bit chilly out.'"
"Life" by Keith Richards with James Fox is published on October 26.
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