0:00:02 > 0:00:04MUSIC: Brown Sugar by The Rolling Stones.
0:00:04 > 0:00:07The Rolling Stones, the greatest rock band of all-time.
0:00:07 > 0:00:13And standing in the shadows, Keith Richards, the enigmatic, beating heart of the band.
0:00:15 > 0:00:18Part human riff, part sheer phenomenon,
0:00:18 > 0:00:24he exists, for me, on stage, caught between the spotlights, wielding his guitar like a weapon.
0:00:24 > 0:00:30Astonishing, other-worldly and, against all the odds, still alive.
0:00:37 > 0:00:42And now he's written the book many people thought he couldn't even remember, his autobiography, "Life".
0:00:42 > 0:00:46# Just around midnight
0:00:47 > 0:00:51# Brown sugar How come you dance so good? #
0:01:04 > 0:01:06MUSIC: Under My Thumb by The Rolling Stones.
0:01:06 > 0:01:07Keith, known as the man with
0:01:07 > 0:01:10five strings and nine lives, began his career on the London
0:01:10 > 0:01:18R&B scene in the early Sixties, a backroom blues fanatic, hypnotised by the sounds of black America.
0:01:20 > 0:01:26By the end of the decade, his style of guitar-playing had changed rock'n'roll forever.
0:01:26 > 0:01:33# Under my thumb the girl who once had me down... #
0:01:33 > 0:01:40The Sixties was an era of reinvention, and the Stones rode the wave of revolutionary change.
0:01:40 > 0:01:46They became an antidote to post-war oppression, the very embodiment of sex and drugs and rock'n'roll.
0:01:46 > 0:01:50For Keith, this was the decade that made the man.
0:01:50 > 0:01:54# She's under my thumb. #
0:01:54 > 0:01:58'So, I've read the book, but now I get to meet the man himself.'
0:01:58 > 0:02:02# Say it's all right. #
0:02:04 > 0:02:09You say, at one point, that image casts a long shadow.
0:02:09 > 0:02:11Slightly enigmatic, that.
0:02:11 > 0:02:18I take it to mean that all the images that have accumulated around you, you feel, have cast
0:02:18 > 0:02:25a shadow, and is this book a way of, as it were, coming out of the shadow of all the images of Keith Richards?
0:02:25 > 0:02:29I've always been looking forward,
0:02:29 > 0:02:33and then suddenly, "Oh yeah, a book, OK."
0:02:33 > 0:02:38But when you actually have to review your whole life and
0:02:38 > 0:02:42go through the process of it, you know...
0:02:42 > 0:02:45I don't know, everybody should try it.
0:02:45 > 0:02:51What I mean is, if I came to the book, which I did, not having met you, I came to the book with
0:02:51 > 0:02:55- the image of Keith Richards that I grew up with.- Oh, that one.
0:02:55 > 0:03:02The saturnine, astonishing, vampire-like figure stalking the stage and then I'm reading the book,
0:03:02 > 0:03:09and I'm discovering that Keith Richards was once a choirboy who performed at Westminster Abbey.
0:03:09 > 0:03:13That Keith Richards was in the Boy Scouts. That's what I mean,
0:03:13 > 0:03:17- that suddenly you become a real person.- I know.
0:03:17 > 0:03:22I mean, I loved being a choirboy. I was a very good soprano. But I...
0:03:26 > 0:03:28MUSIC: You Can't Always Get What You Want by The Rolling Stones.
0:03:28 > 0:03:32But also it was my first experience of the pink slip.
0:03:32 > 0:03:35When the voice broke,
0:03:35 > 0:03:39I think it says it in the book, there were two other guys and we were all
0:03:39 > 0:03:46good sopranos and we had done some stuff around in London and sang for the Queen.
0:03:46 > 0:03:49You know, when you're 12 or something, that's a big deal.
0:03:49 > 0:03:52And also you got a free bus ride to London.
0:03:52 > 0:03:54Yeah, boys!
0:03:54 > 0:03:57But the way you put it in the book, you had this benevolent choirmaster,
0:03:57 > 0:04:00and then your voice broke and they sling you out.
0:04:00 > 0:04:02That seems to me to be a really important turning point in your life.
0:04:02 > 0:04:05That seemed to be the point where you decided that school
0:04:05 > 0:04:08and authority was not what you were going to follow.
0:04:08 > 0:04:11It probably was, and the more I thought about that...
0:04:11 > 0:04:15This is where the rebel got born.
0:04:15 > 0:04:17And I think it was just
0:04:17 > 0:04:20totally unfair treatment, as we were concerned.
0:04:20 > 0:04:26We sung our hearts out for this school, and then it was just like...
0:04:26 > 0:04:31the boot. And you think, "Oh, welcome to life." HE LAUGHS
0:04:31 > 0:04:36- CHOIR:- # You can't always get what you want...
0:04:36 > 0:04:41# You can't always get what you want... #
0:04:41 > 0:04:48I wanted nothing to do with authority, I just found it all superfluous and unfair.
0:04:48 > 0:04:51DOOR SLAMS
0:04:51 > 0:04:57I find the beginning of the book very evocative of this London,
0:04:57 > 0:05:00or Dartford, almost on the suburban fringes of London.
0:05:00 > 0:05:06- Suburbs.- You are growing up, and you describe it in very bleak terms.
0:05:06 > 0:05:10I suppose what I was trying to put across was that
0:05:10 > 0:05:17you were growing up in the residue of a huge World War, but you didn't know anything about it.
0:05:17 > 0:05:19It was just the way things were.
0:05:24 > 0:05:32You know, a bomb site here, and, "No, you can't have that, we don't have any ration tickets left."
0:05:32 > 0:05:36I mean, it wasn't unusual. You didn't feel hard done by, it was just the way it was.
0:05:40 > 0:05:44He was born in 1943, right slap in the middle of the war.
0:05:44 > 0:05:50He says that this has had a very profound effect on him.
0:05:50 > 0:05:52SIREN
0:05:52 > 0:05:57When he watches Second World War films, when he hears a siren, his hair stands up on end.
0:05:57 > 0:06:01And it must be to do with being hustled down to a shelter with his mum.
0:06:09 > 0:06:13It's a very powerful metaphor for me, in the book, that you say it
0:06:13 > 0:06:19was as if London was under fog, and you say it was also as if there was a fog between people.
0:06:19 > 0:06:25They couldn't express to each other. There was all this repression, pent up repression.
0:06:25 > 0:06:28Was music your way out of that?
0:06:28 > 0:06:30Yes, yes, it was.
0:06:30 > 0:06:38And, gratefully to my mum, who was a beautiful music freak and had incredible taste,
0:06:38 > 0:06:41I grew up listening to Sarah Vaughan,
0:06:41 > 0:06:47Louis Armstrong, Billy Eckstine and a little dash of Mozart here and there.
0:06:47 > 0:06:53It was a lovely wide range, and I would just soak this up without thinking.
0:06:55 > 0:07:01And we always had this soundtrack going on, which no doubt influenced me an awful lot.
0:07:01 > 0:07:03I always remember my mother saying,
0:07:03 > 0:07:07she'd be in the kitchen, cooking, and she would say, "Did you hear that Blue Note?"
0:07:07 > 0:07:16# I need your love so badly... #
0:07:18 > 0:07:19They were very close.
0:07:19 > 0:07:23He was an only child, and Doris was on his side.
0:07:23 > 0:07:26His father was a distant figure.
0:07:26 > 0:07:30Not much speech, not much talk.
0:07:30 > 0:07:34He said he loved his dad because he was his dad, but for no other reason.
0:07:36 > 0:07:39Right at the end of the book, he just tells a story about how his
0:07:39 > 0:07:44first good review came from Doris, that's the thing he remembers.
0:07:44 > 0:07:47When one day he was playing the guitar, as he used to,
0:07:47 > 0:07:52on the top of the stairs in the house in Dartford where he got the best acoustics he could get.
0:07:52 > 0:07:55And Doris said to him,
0:07:55 > 0:07:58"Is that you? I thought it was the radio."
0:07:58 > 0:08:00A big breakthrough moment.
0:08:00 > 0:08:02First review. First good review.
0:08:11 > 0:08:15# Well, since my baby left me
0:08:15 > 0:08:17# Well, I've found a new place to dwell
0:08:17 > 0:08:21# Well, it's down at the end of Lonely Street
0:08:21 > 0:08:25# At Heartbreak Hotel I'll be so lonely, baby... #
0:08:25 > 0:08:28You say that, at a certain point, whether it was a
0:08:28 > 0:08:33- day or an evening, you heard Elvis Presley's song, Heartbreak Hotel. - Hmm-mm.
0:08:33 > 0:08:38And it was as if the world before you heard that song and the world after you heard that song weren't
0:08:38 > 0:08:41the same place. That somehow a new thing had opened up for you.
0:08:41 > 0:08:45In my mind the world went from black and white to technicolour.
0:08:45 > 0:08:49MUSIC: Heartbreak Hotel by Elvis Presley
0:08:58 > 0:09:02There was a spark, yes. Suddenly I hear this music out of nowhere...
0:09:08 > 0:09:12It was suddenly as if everything had come into focus, you know?
0:09:12 > 0:09:16And that's all you wanted to do.
0:09:19 > 0:09:24As Britain dragged itself out of the economic mire of post-war austerity,
0:09:24 > 0:09:29an alternative pop culture opened up for the newly minted teen generation.
0:09:29 > 0:09:34Keith's continuing obsession with music
0:09:34 > 0:09:37meant another turning point was just around the corner.
0:09:43 > 0:09:48His academic life was not dazzling, it has to be said.
0:09:48 > 0:09:52He was almost going to be relegated to secondary modern,
0:09:52 > 0:09:55which is basically a preparation for manual work.
0:09:55 > 0:10:00But he was quite good at art, so he got to Sidcup Art School,
0:10:00 > 0:10:04and that was really where the guitar took over.
0:10:04 > 0:10:08I don't know how much art was done, but a helluva lot of guitar-playing was done.
0:10:17 > 0:10:20There was a space somewhere in art school.
0:10:20 > 0:10:27If you weren't doing your classes, it was music.
0:10:27 > 0:10:32David Bowie went there, Dick Taylor, who went into the Pretty Things.
0:10:32 > 0:10:35Charlie Watts was at Hornchurch School of Art.
0:10:35 > 0:10:40But there was a breeding ground of music that was going on.
0:10:40 > 0:10:42# Come on take a little walk with me Arlene... "
0:10:46 > 0:10:50Keith had a thing about Scotty Moore, who was Elvis' guitarist.
0:10:52 > 0:10:55That was what he was trying to emulate.
0:10:55 > 0:11:01And that was when everybody else was playing folky, bluesy, Leadbelly,
0:11:01 > 0:11:04San Francisco Bay blues.
0:11:04 > 0:11:06He was looked down on a bit.
0:11:06 > 0:11:11Rock'n'roll was not considered rather infra dig, in the art school, at that time.
0:11:11 > 0:11:12It wasn't sort of clever enough.
0:11:12 > 0:11:16It was to do with yobbos and dressing up as Teds.
0:11:16 > 0:11:21He had one foot in the Ted camp and another in the moddish camp.
0:11:21 > 0:11:27I remember every day I'd come in on the bus, and walking up Sidcup Hill
0:11:27 > 0:11:34would be this character in very tight jeans, slightly pointy shoes,
0:11:34 > 0:11:40a purple shirt, and if it was below about ten below,
0:11:40 > 0:11:44then he would possibly wear a Wrangler jacket.
0:11:44 > 0:11:52Either he had an inexhaustible supply of purple shirts, or it was a very well-worn one.
0:11:52 > 0:11:54# Sweet little sixteen
0:11:54 > 0:11:56# She's just got to have
0:11:58 > 0:12:00# About a half a million
0:12:00 > 0:12:03# Signed autographs
0:12:03 > 0:12:07Keith was a tremendous fan of Chuck Berry.
0:12:07 > 0:12:12When Jazz On A Summer's Day came out, a great documentary about
0:12:12 > 0:12:17the Newport Jazz Festival, Chuck Berry was in it,
0:12:17 > 0:12:24and Keith went to see it more than a dozen times just so he could see his hero.
0:12:24 > 0:12:30# O, Daddy, Daddy! #
0:12:30 > 0:12:34As it turned out, Keith wasn't the only Chuck Berry fan in Dartford.
0:12:34 > 0:12:37Michael Philip Jagger was an old classmate from primary school.
0:12:37 > 0:12:40They'd lived just one street apart as children
0:12:40 > 0:12:44but it was a chance meeting on a train that would reignite their interest in each other.
0:12:44 > 0:12:47BLUES HARMONICA
0:12:47 > 0:12:50All aboard!
0:12:54 > 0:12:58To find out that a guy you'd known that long, who you hadn't seen for that long,
0:12:58 > 0:13:06is actually focusing on exactly the same thing that you are, such a meeting of minds at the time.
0:13:06 > 0:13:08He had the records to prove it.
0:13:08 > 0:13:13He was on the train with the records, the Muddy Waters, the Best of Muddy Waters,
0:13:13 > 0:13:16Rocking at the Hops, Chuck Berry,
0:13:16 > 0:13:24and there was another... Newport, The Jazz - Blues Festival.
0:13:24 > 0:13:26And I'm looking at this guy and I'm, "I know you."
0:13:26 > 0:13:30And what you've got under your arm is worth robbing.
0:13:30 > 0:13:35- Was it, you're one of us.- So, instead of robbing him, we talked
0:13:35 > 0:13:38and shared ideas and that's how it really came about.
0:13:40 > 0:13:43Keith joined Mick Jagger in Dick Taylor's band,
0:13:43 > 0:13:45Little Boy Blue And The Blue Boys.
0:13:45 > 0:13:49And together they began attending the jazz and blues nights at the Ealing Club.
0:13:49 > 0:13:54It was there that they came across a young slide guitarist called Brian Jones.
0:13:54 > 0:13:59By the autumn of '62, Brian, Mick and Keith would all be living under one roof.
0:14:02 > 0:14:06Edith Grove was the flat that Keith, Mick and Brian moved into.
0:14:06 > 0:14:10I went round a few times and it was the worst slum
0:14:10 > 0:14:12I've ever seen.
0:14:12 > 0:14:14It was absolutely incredible.
0:14:14 > 0:14:16Nobody knew whose bed was whose.
0:14:16 > 0:14:19Mostly they slept on the floor near the radiogram.
0:14:19 > 0:14:21They slept where they fell, as it were.
0:14:21 > 0:14:26Over the coldest winter in memory since 17-something.
0:14:31 > 0:14:35Tell me what you did that winter. It sounds extraordinary
0:14:35 > 0:14:38that you were playing records by people like Chuck Berry.
0:14:38 > 0:14:42Jimmy Reeves, Muddy Waters, Little Walter,
0:14:42 > 0:14:46Bobby Bland, BB King, Buddy Guy,
0:14:46 > 0:14:48Elmore James.
0:14:48 > 0:14:51Can I mention all the greats?
0:14:51 > 0:14:55We just studied them, day in, day out.
0:14:55 > 0:14:59With no heat. And no food most of the time!
0:14:59 > 0:15:03But at that age, you know, you can live off of nothing.
0:15:07 > 0:15:10What you have in this moment is an absolute obsession with music
0:15:10 > 0:15:14and this sponging in of all this stuff,
0:15:14 > 0:15:17from the Mississippi Delta, from Chicago and so on.
0:15:17 > 0:15:22So that, in a way, when they emerged,
0:15:22 > 0:15:25they did sound like black musicians.
0:15:27 > 0:15:29It was the authentic sound.
0:15:30 > 0:15:33# Everything is wrong since me and my baby parted
0:15:33 > 0:15:36# All day long I walked because I couldn't get my car started
0:15:36 > 0:15:39# Laid up on my job And I can't afford to check it
0:15:39 > 0:15:43# I wish somebody'd come along and run into it and wreck it, come on
0:15:43 > 0:15:46# Since me and my baby parted, come on
0:15:46 > 0:15:48# I can't get started, come on
0:15:48 > 0:15:50# I can't afford to check it
0:15:50 > 0:15:53# I wish somebody'd come along and run into it and wreck it... #
0:15:53 > 0:15:55'We had nothing to lose.
0:15:55 > 0:15:57'And we were playing and listening,'
0:15:57 > 0:16:01and our desire was to turn people on to the blues.
0:16:01 > 0:16:06And that was... You know, we didn't want nothing for it.
0:16:06 > 0:16:08We just wanted people to sort of say, woah!
0:16:08 > 0:16:10And then it started to happen.
0:16:10 > 0:16:16Suddenly, overnight almost, at the Ealing club, or the Richmond club,
0:16:16 > 0:16:21before they had made a recording, there were queues around the block.
0:16:21 > 0:16:24And it happened in the space of two or three weeks.
0:16:24 > 0:16:29First you had these little groups of aficionados coming to hear R'n'B,
0:16:29 > 0:16:33people coming... R'n'B fans coming from the North to hear this new band.
0:16:33 > 0:16:35Before they had made a record.
0:16:35 > 0:16:39Suddenly they were doing this thing that Keith in his diary calls "wonging the pog,"
0:16:39 > 0:16:42which meant everyone going totally crazy.
0:16:42 > 0:16:45On those nights when they played, when they were starting,
0:16:45 > 0:16:49they played every Jimmy Reeves song they knew.
0:16:49 > 0:16:54They played every Muddy Waters song, every Howlin' Wolf song.
0:16:54 > 0:16:58They were just devotees beyond the call of sanity.
0:16:58 > 0:17:00It was just a fascinating journey.
0:17:04 > 0:17:09And presumptuous, of 18-year-old white kids from London
0:17:09 > 0:17:12to say, "We're going to be the best blues band in London."
0:17:12 > 0:17:17In retrospect, the ludicrous aim of all.
0:17:17 > 0:17:19But a very short retrospect,
0:17:19 > 0:17:22because almost as soon as you feel that you've got somewhere,
0:17:22 > 0:17:24you're on the TV
0:17:24 > 0:17:26- and you've got a hit record. - I know...
0:17:26 > 0:17:31And, "Oh, what are we going to do now?" You were what, 20?
0:17:31 > 0:17:35When suddenly you are performing in front of what you describe as...
0:17:35 > 0:17:38- This is...- ..thousands of "feral" female teenagers.
0:17:38 > 0:17:40Oh, they were rabid.
0:17:52 > 0:17:54# I'm gonna tell you how it's gonna be
0:17:56 > 0:17:58# You're gonna give your love to me
0:18:00 > 0:18:02# I'm gonna love you night and day
0:18:03 > 0:18:06# And well you know my love'll not fade away... #
0:18:08 > 0:18:12Decca Records, who'd missed out on signing the Beatles,
0:18:12 > 0:18:14jumped at the chance to secure the Stones.
0:18:14 > 0:18:17By the autumn of 1963, they were touring with their idols.
0:18:17 > 0:18:23By February '64, they had their first Top Ten hit with Not Fade Away.
0:18:23 > 0:18:27Stones mania was reaching fever pitch.
0:18:32 > 0:18:36These sets were very short. Now they do two hours or something like that.
0:18:36 > 0:18:38They were on for 20 minutes, maybe.
0:18:38 > 0:18:40And the riot was three hours.
0:18:55 > 0:18:59I don't know how to describe that thing. I mean...
0:19:00 > 0:19:06You're 18, you're playing your blues, you know...
0:19:07 > 0:19:09And within a matter of months,
0:19:09 > 0:19:12suddenly woman are trying to tear your clothes off.
0:19:12 > 0:19:16And in actual fact almost kill me a couple of times,
0:19:16 > 0:19:20and also killing themselves. They're jumping off of balconies.
0:19:20 > 0:19:25I'd be like, "This is not quite what I had in mind."
0:19:25 > 0:19:28- Could you hear yourself actually playing?- Nah, nah, nah.
0:19:28 > 0:19:31Brian and I used to play Popeye the Sailor Man
0:19:31 > 0:19:35because nobody could hear anything. HUMS POPEYE TUNE
0:19:35 > 0:19:38They couldn't hear it, we couldn't hear it!
0:19:38 > 0:19:40SCREAMING
0:19:40 > 0:19:42# I said, the joint was rockin'
0:19:42 > 0:19:45# Goin' round and round
0:19:45 > 0:19:48# Yeah, reelin' and a-rockin'
0:19:48 > 0:19:50# What a crazy sound
0:19:50 > 0:19:53# And they never stop rockin'
0:19:53 > 0:19:54# Till the moon went down. #
0:19:59 > 0:20:05The only thing that you could hear, just shrieking teenage female...
0:20:07 > 0:20:09And it's very impressive.
0:20:09 > 0:20:11Especially in her body!
0:20:11 > 0:20:13# I said, the joint was rockin'
0:20:13 > 0:20:15# Goin' round and round... #
0:20:15 > 0:20:19I can handle one at a time, you know, but 3,000? Whoa!
0:20:19 > 0:20:22- What does that do to you as a person?- I don't know.
0:20:22 > 0:20:25I'm still recovering, man!
0:20:26 > 0:20:30No longer blues purists, the Rolling Stones were now pop stars.
0:20:31 > 0:20:34So far, the band had only released covers,
0:20:34 > 0:20:40so manager Andrew Oldham now set Keith and Mick to work on writing their own songs.
0:20:40 > 0:20:42I found an interesting part of your book,
0:20:42 > 0:20:46you were talking about what you liked about your own music
0:20:46 > 0:20:48is that you said it's like a blank canvas.
0:20:48 > 0:20:51Well, if I could put it the same way as, er...
0:20:52 > 0:20:55If you're an author, a writer,
0:20:55 > 0:20:59and what do you have in front of you? A blank piece of paper.
0:21:00 > 0:21:02And then you have to say something.
0:21:03 > 0:21:09But in front of you, staring at you, is this blankness.
0:21:09 > 0:21:12And in musical terms, silence is the same thing.
0:21:12 > 0:21:14That is your canvas, silence.
0:21:14 > 0:21:19And it's what you do... over that silence.
0:21:19 > 0:21:21You don't want to obliterate it,
0:21:21 > 0:21:23because it can also, you can use it,
0:21:23 > 0:21:28because it becomes, like, the depth, or you know... It's...
0:21:28 > 0:21:32But somewhere you've got to make some noise over that silence.
0:21:38 > 0:21:41'It's almost intuitive.
0:21:41 > 0:21:43'You do it by feel, really, and instinct.'
0:21:47 > 0:21:50It's very compelling. It sucks me right in.
0:21:50 > 0:21:52I hear him playing and churnin' away on that thing,
0:21:52 > 0:21:54I want to get my horn and join in.
0:21:54 > 0:21:58Sounds like... It's like you hear a parade coming down the street, man,
0:21:58 > 0:22:01you want to rush out your door and see what's goin' on.
0:22:04 > 0:22:06'That ain't something you can just dial up at will.'
0:22:06 > 0:22:09You can't snort it, you can't smoke it,
0:22:09 > 0:22:14you can't rub it in your belly button. You know, it's just, very...
0:22:14 > 0:22:17organic. Ha-ha!
0:22:23 > 0:22:27- REPORTER:- This year was the year of the mods and rockers and of the hooliganism,
0:22:27 > 0:22:30vandalism and fighting which often walked with them.
0:22:30 > 0:22:35This same senseless build up of endless disorder was repeated.
0:22:38 > 0:22:40After this early burst of success,
0:22:40 > 0:22:43this meant that you could then have an American tour.
0:22:43 > 0:22:45And you say that going to America, to you,
0:22:45 > 0:22:47felt like going to the promised land.
0:22:47 > 0:22:51Basically, this is where the music I was listening to,
0:22:51 > 0:22:56all the musicians that I listened to, this is where they were.
0:22:56 > 0:22:57They were in America.
0:22:57 > 0:23:02I was 3,000 closer miles to...
0:23:02 > 0:23:06Muddy Waters, to Chuck Berry.
0:23:06 > 0:23:09Bo Diddley, Little Walter, Buddy Guy.
0:23:09 > 0:23:12I was that much closer to the source,
0:23:12 > 0:23:16and I think that's what I meant by saying "The promised land."
0:23:16 > 0:23:21MUSIC: "Broken-Hearted Blues" by Buddy Guy
0:23:44 > 0:23:46It was so exciting, and it was brand new.
0:23:46 > 0:23:49It was like you'd been dumped in your favourite playground
0:23:49 > 0:23:54and, OK, and you can go on forever. Until you drop.
0:23:54 > 0:23:57We were just so interested.
0:23:57 > 0:24:01We felt it was a gift, coming to America.
0:24:01 > 0:24:03In our teenage minds.
0:24:03 > 0:24:11I mean, suddenly to be transplanted from some wannabe,
0:24:11 > 0:24:15and actually to play in America,
0:24:15 > 0:24:17and they give you a bigger hand than you get at home.
0:24:17 > 0:24:23And wow, there's areas to be explored we didn't even know about.
0:24:23 > 0:24:26All we've heard is their recordings.
0:24:26 > 0:24:28Now you meet the people.
0:24:28 > 0:24:31# I put a tiger in your tank
0:24:32 > 0:24:34# I put a tiger in your tank
0:24:36 > 0:24:39# I put a tiger in your tank
0:24:40 > 0:24:42# I put a tiger in your tank
0:24:43 > 0:24:46# I don't care what they say
0:24:46 > 0:24:49# I, I put a tiger in your tank. #
0:24:53 > 0:24:57I mean, Muddy Waters, these guys were amazing.
0:24:57 > 0:24:59They come from nowhere.
0:24:59 > 0:25:02I don't come from somewhere,
0:25:02 > 0:25:04but these guys come literally from nowhere.
0:25:04 > 0:25:10And just by sheer force of talent and strength of character,
0:25:12 > 0:25:14they laid something down.
0:25:14 > 0:25:16I'm only a mere copy of it.
0:25:16 > 0:25:19To me, you know?
0:25:23 > 0:25:28# Well, baby used to stay out all night long
0:25:28 > 0:25:33# She made me cry She done me wrong
0:25:33 > 0:25:38# She hurt my eyes open, that's no lie
0:25:38 > 0:25:43# Table's turning, now, her turn to cry
0:25:43 > 0:25:48# Because I used to love her, but it's all over now. #
0:25:48 > 0:25:51But when you're actually touring America,
0:25:51 > 0:25:57the situation you seem to describe is one where, particularly outside, say, New York,
0:25:57 > 0:25:59the main metropolitan centres,
0:25:59 > 0:26:06you're being met with intense suspicion by ordinary white people.
0:26:06 > 0:26:09And yet, when you cross over the tracks, as you put it,
0:26:09 > 0:26:11among the black communities of America,
0:26:11 > 0:26:13you're met with a very warm reception.
0:26:13 > 0:26:18Very welcoming. I think maybe it was because of the music we were playing.
0:26:18 > 0:26:22Our stuff is very grounded in black music, in blues,
0:26:22 > 0:26:24and rhythm and blues.
0:26:24 > 0:26:30And there was a certain reciprocation, a feeling
0:26:30 > 0:26:31which to me was a great joy.
0:26:46 > 0:26:49# I am the Little Red Rooster
0:26:49 > 0:26:52# Too lazy to crow for day
0:26:59 > 0:27:02# I am the Little Red Rooster
0:27:02 > 0:27:05# Too lazy to crow for day
0:27:15 > 0:27:18# Keep everything in the farmyard
0:27:18 > 0:27:22# Upset in every way. #
0:27:26 > 0:27:31A lot of those black musicians were not very well appreciated in commercial terms.
0:27:31 > 0:27:34No, at that time, I mean, probably we resuscitated
0:27:34 > 0:27:40several careers, just because we did some Muddy Waters.
0:27:40 > 0:27:44Muddy, at the time, was not selling a lot of records.
0:27:44 > 0:27:49I think the really extraordinary thing about getting to America for the Stones
0:27:49 > 0:27:53was to get this inkling that a lot of white musicians had never heard black music
0:27:53 > 0:27:56until they heard the Rolling Stones doing it.
0:27:56 > 0:28:00So their contribution to the whole musical history
0:28:00 > 0:28:03was actually to turn America on to its own music.
0:28:05 > 0:28:08MUSIC: "Got My Mojo Working" by Muddy Waters
0:28:26 > 0:28:31We grew into it, and the music grew into us.
0:28:31 > 0:28:38And America changed rapidly in those, '64, '65.
0:28:38 > 0:28:39It was another world.
0:28:39 > 0:28:44America's capable of switching, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse.
0:28:48 > 0:28:51America was to become Keith's spiritual home.
0:28:51 > 0:28:55But his admiration for the black musicians of blues labels like Chess Records
0:28:55 > 0:29:00proved to be out of step with a country still struggling with segregation and civil rights.
0:29:00 > 0:29:05Black people should realise that freedom is something that they have when they're born.
0:29:05 > 0:29:08We need an organisation that's ready and willing to take action.
0:29:08 > 0:29:15Because we intend to fire our people up so much, until if they can't have their equal share in the house,
0:29:15 > 0:29:17they'll burn it down.
0:29:17 > 0:29:19CHEERING
0:29:26 > 0:29:28Kind of dangerous.
0:29:28 > 0:29:29Yeah.
0:29:29 > 0:29:33But interesting, and I just happen to be there on that cusp.
0:29:33 > 0:29:36And it was endlessly fascinating, you know, America.
0:29:36 > 0:29:39After Dartford!
0:29:42 > 0:29:46Above all are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
0:29:47 > 0:29:53I looked through the list of the amount of tours that you did, between 62 and 67.
0:29:53 > 0:29:56I mean it's astonishing number of tours.
0:29:56 > 0:29:58Mostly by road.
0:29:59 > 0:30:03But it must have taken its toll? Did it not take its toll?
0:30:03 > 0:30:08Maybe I'm feeling it now, but I never felt, I'd have willingly paid the toll again.
0:30:08 > 0:30:12They were on the road without stop for maybe four years,
0:30:12 > 0:30:1864, 65, 66. 67 was the first year they actually got kind of a break.
0:30:18 > 0:30:23Literally, there was no time off at all during that period. It was relentless.
0:30:23 > 0:30:27After a show like this, you've got to go home and write lyrics,
0:30:27 > 0:30:30because you have to keep the stuff coming out, or you die.
0:30:30 > 0:30:37You kind of fall back. So they pumped out this staggering amount of material, it's just unbelievable.
0:30:37 > 0:30:42The hallmark sound of the Stones was realised in the track Satisfaction,
0:30:42 > 0:30:47their first international hit, which captured the attitude and velocity of the band
0:30:47 > 0:30:49as they hurtled through the decade.
0:30:51 > 0:30:54Satisfaction, as far as I can tell, you seem to have believed
0:30:54 > 0:30:58that when you recorded it, what you'd recorded was a demo.
0:30:58 > 0:30:59Yeah, it was to me.
0:30:59 > 0:31:03And then, before you know it, it's actually been released,
0:31:03 > 0:31:07because the pressure was so much on to produce in those early years. You've got to build....
0:31:07 > 0:31:12And the pressure, and also maybe superfluous ideas of how it should go
0:31:12 > 0:31:15were beyond our capabilities,
0:31:15 > 0:31:18but that was what I consider the sketch.
0:31:18 > 0:31:24It was actually it. It's like a Leonardo cartoon, you know?
0:31:24 > 0:31:26How could he do cartoons?
0:31:26 > 0:31:32But Andrew Oldham, in that respect, and the record company, were right. That's a hit.
0:31:32 > 0:31:39So I'm on the road, and it's out, and I'm very happy it's a hit.
0:31:39 > 0:31:42It was the biggest one, you know, whoa!
0:31:58 > 0:32:04# I can't get no satisfaction
0:32:04 > 0:32:11# I can't get no satisfaction
0:32:11 > 0:32:13# Cos I try, and I try
0:32:13 > 0:32:17# And I try, and I try
0:32:17 > 0:32:19# I can't get no
0:32:21 > 0:32:23# I can't get no
0:32:25 > 0:32:27# When I'm driving in my car...#
0:32:27 > 0:32:32It was born on a cassette player, pushed through a cassette player, and then re-recorded somehow
0:32:32 > 0:32:39to make this crude sound, a sound which just completely took rock and roll to new levels,
0:32:39 > 0:32:42changed the world and all that kind of thing.
0:32:42 > 0:32:44# Can't get no
0:32:46 > 0:32:47# No, no, no
0:32:49 > 0:32:51# Hey, hey, hey
0:32:52 > 0:32:53# That's what I say...#
0:32:53 > 0:32:59For my mind, the da-daah da-da-daaah, that was supposed to be a horn section line.
0:32:59 > 0:33:04Otis Redding got it totally, a few months later, and he did a great cover of it.
0:33:04 > 0:33:09That was how I was hearing it, but at the same time, it wasn't the Stones.
0:33:10 > 0:33:12# I can't get no
0:33:14 > 0:33:16# I can't get no... #
0:33:16 > 0:33:20I had it right the first time, and thank God we got it,
0:33:20 > 0:33:25and kept the sketch, rather than doing the whole oil painting.
0:33:28 > 0:33:30# I can't get no
0:33:32 > 0:33:34# I can't get no...#
0:33:34 > 0:33:37That was perfect, it was fabulous, it just felt it was your music.
0:33:37 > 0:33:44And it wasn't high-minded protest, like the early Bob Dylan stuff.
0:33:44 > 0:33:49It was what Bobby Keeter called 'balls to the wall rock and roll'. Great.
0:33:51 > 0:33:52# No satisfaction. #
0:33:54 > 0:33:57CHEERING
0:33:58 > 0:34:01So, do you think, in a way, there was the pressure to create singles?
0:34:01 > 0:34:05There was a great pressure, but in some ways, do you feel
0:34:05 > 0:34:10that actually liberated you not to overwork your material and just to go with it?
0:34:10 > 0:34:12They didn't give you the time for it.
0:34:12 > 0:34:18I mean, I think I say in the book, we were all taking a big breath,
0:34:18 > 0:34:23Satisfaction is number one around the world and we can't believe it.
0:34:23 > 0:34:27"Yes," you know?
0:34:27 > 0:34:31Meanwhile, there's a knock at the door going, "Where's the follow-up?"
0:34:43 > 0:34:48# I live on an apartment On the 99th floor of my block
0:34:51 > 0:34:53# And I sit at home Looking out the window
0:34:53 > 0:34:56# Imagining the world has stopped
0:34:59 > 0:35:03# Then in flies a guy All dressed up like a Union Jack
0:35:06 > 0:35:11# And he says, I've won £5 If I have this kind of detergent pack
0:35:13 > 0:35:18# I said, Hey! You! Get off of my cloud
0:35:18 > 0:35:21# Hey! You! Get off of my cloud
0:35:21 > 0:35:26# Hey! You! Get off of my cloud
0:35:26 > 0:35:29# Don't hang around, boy Two's a crowd...#
0:35:29 > 0:35:32But at one point in the book you say that what you want from a song,
0:35:32 > 0:35:35I don't know if this is still true,
0:35:35 > 0:35:39you say what you want from a song is not that it sounds like it was made in a studio,
0:35:39 > 0:35:41but it sounds like it was made in a room.
0:35:41 > 0:35:45True, yeah. I don't like big productions,
0:35:45 > 0:35:51and, after all, with the Rolling Stones big productions are really out of the picture.
0:35:51 > 0:35:56I have a very limited orchestra to work with.
0:35:56 > 0:36:01Basically I've got to write with the idea of just four, five guys involved in this.
0:36:01 > 0:36:04Anything else is your marzipan.
0:36:04 > 0:36:07It's such a pleasure to be in the studio with them,
0:36:07 > 0:36:12because they just gather around a microphone
0:36:12 > 0:36:17and look at each other, and play whatever they want to play.
0:36:17 > 0:36:21And some of it is the worst garbage you can imagine.
0:36:59 > 0:37:03# Please let me introduce myself
0:37:03 > 0:37:07# I'm a man of wealth and taste
0:37:09 > 0:37:13# I've been around Many a long, long year
0:37:13 > 0:37:17# Stole many a man's soul and faith...#
0:37:17 > 0:37:22It's pretty remarkable that they were able to capture that on film.
0:37:22 > 0:37:25This was a time when extraordinary things happened,
0:37:25 > 0:37:27as in you really get to see
0:37:27 > 0:37:31the creation of the track of Sympathy For The Devil.
0:37:33 > 0:37:39# I lay traps for troubadours who get killed before they reach Bombay
0:37:39 > 0:37:40# Woo woo!
0:37:42 > 0:37:47# Pleased to meet y'all now hope you guess my name
0:37:47 > 0:37:49# Woo woo!
0:37:49 > 0:37:52# What's puzzling you
0:37:52 > 0:37:56# Is the nature of my game
0:37:56 > 0:37:59# Yeah, get down...#
0:37:59 > 0:38:04MUSIC: "Sympathy For The Devil by the Rolling Stones
0:38:17 > 0:38:20The summer of 1967 was Keith's own summer of love.
0:38:20 > 0:38:24He began a relationship with Brian Jones's girlfriend, Anita Pallenberg,
0:38:24 > 0:38:29which was to have a profound impact on more than just the band dynamics.
0:38:29 > 0:38:32Keith was reborn as a psychedelic sex symbol.
0:38:32 > 0:38:34His image was to influence a generation.
0:38:37 > 0:38:42In retrospect, history says that you were part of a change in consciousness,
0:38:42 > 0:38:44you were part of a change in, for example,
0:38:44 > 0:38:48how men express their sense of who they are, who they can be.
0:38:48 > 0:38:50The way Mick sang, the way you dressed.
0:38:50 > 0:38:52Did it feel like that at the time?
0:38:52 > 0:38:55Did you feel like you were changing things at the time?
0:38:55 > 0:38:59I don't think that you, in fairness,
0:38:59 > 0:39:04are that aware of those perceptions at the time.
0:39:04 > 0:39:07But I don't think it took us too long, slowly,
0:39:07 > 0:39:11for us to realise... realise that...
0:39:16 > 0:39:18that, yeah, you have something unique.
0:39:18 > 0:39:21It's not me, and it's not the band,
0:39:21 > 0:39:28it's just a unique meeting of cultures and...and time.
0:39:28 > 0:39:31This could happen. The 60s were weird,
0:39:31 > 0:39:35I basically think it's all to do with World War II,
0:39:35 > 0:39:43it was just that generation bursting from that.
0:39:43 > 0:39:45"Oh, forget about the war, please."
0:40:03 > 0:40:07# Don't you worry about What's on your mind, oh my
0:40:09 > 0:40:14# I'm in no hurry I can take my time, oh my
0:40:17 > 0:40:20# I'm going red And my tongue's getting tied
0:40:23 > 0:40:26# I'm off my head And my mouth's getting dry
0:40:26 > 0:40:30# I'm high, But I try, try, try, oh my
0:40:30 > 0:40:33# Let's spend the night together
0:40:33 > 0:40:36# Now I need you more than ever
0:40:36 > 0:40:40# Let's spend the night together now
0:40:46 > 0:40:50# I feel so strong I can't disguise, oh my...#
0:40:50 > 0:40:53Not only did he invent a new way to play the guitar,
0:40:53 > 0:40:55he invented a new way to dress.
0:40:55 > 0:40:58No-one had actually worn women's clothes like that,
0:40:58 > 0:41:00like trophies, you know?
0:41:05 > 0:41:07And his look on stage, you know?
0:41:07 > 0:41:10He just had an intense thing about him,
0:41:10 > 0:41:13he looked kind of like a bird of prey.
0:41:16 > 0:41:20If you look at pictures of Keith at the beginning of 1967,
0:41:20 > 0:41:24and at the end of 67,
0:41:24 > 0:41:27it's almost like you're looking at two different people.
0:41:27 > 0:41:29The face changes, deepens.
0:41:29 > 0:41:31And you look at it and you realise,
0:41:31 > 0:41:35stuff happened that year!
0:41:43 > 0:41:47Talking about being sort of plugged into remarkable times,
0:41:47 > 0:41:53there was a certain point when the story just does turn very dark.
0:41:53 > 0:41:58Mm-hmm. Well, it depends on your idea of colour.
0:42:01 > 0:42:02Yeah, yeah. We'll say dark.
0:42:02 > 0:42:07It seems to happen sometime around 67, 68?
0:42:09 > 0:42:11Errr...
0:42:14 > 0:42:17Yeah, I would give that a good...
0:42:19 > 0:42:2667, yeah. But I think it's very hard for me to discuss that period because,
0:42:26 > 0:42:31not for any reason of not wanting to, it's just that we'd been working
0:42:31 > 0:42:34non-stop, non-stop for four or five years,
0:42:34 > 0:42:40and basically we'd pulled our string at that time,
0:42:40 > 0:42:41just energy wise.
0:42:41 > 0:42:49And at the same time that coincided with acid, and the psychedelic, hippy thing.
0:42:49 > 0:42:53But obviously I was in full range of public view,
0:42:53 > 0:42:59and in the raging glare of the CID.
0:43:01 > 0:43:06All the teenage screaming and posturing vanished at the moment Judge Block passed sentence.
0:43:06 > 0:43:11As he said sternly to Richard that the offence of which he had been found guilty
0:43:11 > 0:43:14carried a maximum sentence of 10 years, there was a gasp of pure horror
0:43:14 > 0:43:17from the youngsters crowded into the public gallery.
0:43:17 > 0:43:22But there was a dead silence as the judge added, "You will go to prison for one year,
0:43:22 > 0:43:26"and you will pay £500 towards the cost of the prosecution. Go down."
0:43:26 > 0:43:32I'm one of the most famous drug addicts of all time. So they say.
0:43:33 > 0:43:34I could have done better.
0:43:36 > 0:43:39- I don't know what that would have involved!- No, nor do I.
0:43:39 > 0:43:43Richard, who earlier had talked in his evidence of what he called 'petty morals',
0:43:43 > 0:43:46went down to the cells without expression.
0:43:46 > 0:43:50A campaign against the harsh sentence succeeded,
0:43:50 > 0:43:53and in the end, Keith spent just one night in prison.
0:43:53 > 0:43:58Not much of a deterrent to his own escalating drug use.
0:43:58 > 0:44:00Why was I doing heroin?
0:44:00 > 0:44:03I think the reason I was taking it
0:44:03 > 0:44:06was how to deal with fame and pressure.
0:44:07 > 0:44:09And it's one way to run away.
0:44:09 > 0:44:12And I ran away to the boppy.
0:44:38 > 0:44:45I used it as a wall against me and fame, and the public bit.
0:44:50 > 0:44:52I'm not really, you know...
0:44:54 > 0:44:56..that way inclined to show off.
0:44:56 > 0:45:00I'd have been quite happy to make all these records totally anonymously,
0:45:00 > 0:45:03but then of course, I mean that's not possible.
0:45:03 > 0:45:06You've got to get out there and put yourself out.
0:45:06 > 0:45:11He found it horrific, I think. He says in the book, he didn't like being a pop star.
0:45:11 > 0:45:16Doris, his mother, said, "Keith's a shy boy," and he hated that.
0:45:16 > 0:45:20He felt she kind of betrayed him, but she had a point.
0:45:20 > 0:45:24The big problem for Keith was not when he was playing or on tour,
0:45:24 > 0:45:27it was after the tour, when the tour was over.
0:45:27 > 0:45:31Coming down from this massive daily shot of adrenaline
0:45:31 > 0:45:37of the kind that you and I would never experience in that kind of intensity.
0:45:37 > 0:45:40The replacement was clearly, in his case, needed.
0:45:40 > 0:45:46But there were other people around you, people you lost, people like Brian Jones, Gram Parsons,
0:45:46 > 0:45:52who weren't able to, either they didn't have such a strong
0:45:52 > 0:45:57constitution as you, or they didn't have the same mental attitude? I don't know.
0:45:57 > 0:45:58Nor do I.
0:45:58 > 0:46:02I'm not here to answer for my brothers.
0:46:05 > 0:46:07I've lost a lot of good friends that way.
0:46:16 > 0:46:23Brian's increasingly erratic behaviour culminated in him leaving the band in June, 1969.
0:46:23 > 0:46:26By July, he was dead.
0:46:40 > 0:46:44Yes, I wish some of my friends hadn't done that and overdone it.
0:46:48 > 0:46:53You know, at the time, you just looked at it as par for the course.
0:46:55 > 0:46:58Although it was a shock when it actually happened,
0:46:58 > 0:47:02nobody was really that surprised. There are...
0:47:02 > 0:47:05I'm sure that everybody's got those feelings... certain people...
0:47:05 > 0:47:08everybody knows people that you just have that feeling about.
0:47:08 > 0:47:13They're not going to be 70 years old, ever. You know.
0:47:13 > 0:47:15Not everybody makes it, you know?
0:47:20 > 0:47:25The Stones decided to go ahead with their free concert in Hyde Park just two days later.
0:47:27 > 0:47:31They released hundreds of white butterflies as a tribute to Brian.
0:47:31 > 0:47:33MUSIC: "Jumpin' Jack Flash"
0:47:38 > 0:47:42More than 2,000 Negroes joined the rioting crowds who attacked white police and firemen.
0:47:42 > 0:47:45The rioting raged for more three hours.
0:47:45 > 0:47:50The fires blazed up in six shops and an apartment house.
0:47:50 > 0:47:55The night sky of Alabama glowed red with the flames of racial strife.
0:47:55 > 0:47:59# I was born in a cross-fire hurricane
0:48:02 > 0:48:06# And I howled at my ma in the driving rain... #
0:48:10 > 0:48:13Bombs in Vietnam explode at home.
0:48:13 > 0:48:20They destroy the dream and possibility for a decent America.
0:48:20 > 0:48:24# I'm Jumping Jack Flash It's a gas, gas, gas... #
0:48:32 > 0:48:36This started with the '69 tour. We totally had no idea.
0:48:36 > 0:48:40We were young. We were naive. We were in our 20s, and we were coming
0:48:40 > 0:48:48into America and not realising the depth of the political...insanity.
0:48:48 > 0:48:54As the '69 tour progressed, plans for its grand finale started to come together.
0:48:54 > 0:48:59The Rolling Stones' free concert is going to be on tomorrow at the Altamont Speedway.
0:48:59 > 0:49:04Apparently, it's one of the most difficult things in the world to give a free concert.
0:49:11 > 0:49:14It's creating a sort of microcosmic society,
0:49:14 > 0:49:21which it sets the example to the rest of America as to how one can behave in life's gatherings.
0:49:21 > 0:49:23It was mayhem, and you wonder why...
0:49:23 > 0:49:27this is what you want to do? This wasn't the idea.
0:49:27 > 0:49:32You know, you wanted to play music, and people would go...
0:49:32 > 0:49:37And suddenly, it's... It's another thing.
0:49:49 > 0:49:54The brutality meted out by the Hell's Angels, naively hired by the band to provide security,
0:49:54 > 0:49:57turned the concert into a horror show.
0:49:57 > 0:50:00Brothers and sisters...
0:50:02 > 0:50:03come on, now.
0:50:03 > 0:50:05That means everybody just cool out.
0:50:08 > 0:50:11Will you cool out, everybody.
0:50:11 > 0:50:18Hopefully, nobody gets hurt that much, you know, but a lot of people did.
0:50:25 > 0:50:27It just was a very embattled situation.
0:50:27 > 0:50:30I think the best documentation of that
0:50:30 > 0:50:36is the Maysles film Gimme Shelter because you just look at that, and you really see what it felt like.
0:50:36 > 0:50:39This is Stefan Ponek, KSAN radio, San Francisco.
0:50:39 > 0:50:44While the Rolling Stones' tour of the United States is over, it ended up with a concert
0:50:44 > 0:50:46at the Altamont Speedway for more than 300,000 people.
0:50:46 > 0:50:51There were four births, four deaths and an awful lot of scuffles reported.
0:50:51 > 0:50:54We received word that someone was stabbed to death
0:50:54 > 0:50:57in front of the stage by a member of the Hell's Angels.
0:50:57 > 0:51:01Nothing is confirmed on that. We were there. We didn't see it, but we did see a lot.
0:51:01 > 0:51:03We want to know now what you saw.
0:51:14 > 0:51:18If Woodstock was the dream, then Altamont, only three months later, was the nightmare.
0:51:18 > 0:51:21Who can say what killed the hippy idealism of the '60s,
0:51:21 > 0:51:25but it was violence and regret that replaced it.
0:51:28 > 0:51:30The end of the decade was a strange, troubled time.
0:51:30 > 0:51:36But as the '60s went up in flames, the Rolling Stones played some of their greatest music.
0:51:36 > 0:51:39MUSIC: "Gimme Shelter"
0:51:47 > 0:51:50# Oh, a storm is threat'ning
0:51:50 > 0:51:53# My very life today
0:51:55 > 0:51:58# If I don't get some shelter
0:51:58 > 0:52:00# Oh yeah, I'm gonna fade away
0:52:03 > 0:52:07# War, children, it's just a shot away
0:52:07 > 0:52:11# It's just a shot away
0:52:11 > 0:52:16# War, children, it's just a shot away
0:52:16 > 0:52:19# It's just a shot away.... #
0:52:25 > 0:52:28The drugs couldn't get him, nor the police,
0:52:28 > 0:52:35nor the crazy groupies, not even a near-fatal fall from a coconut tree could divert Keith from his destiny.
0:52:35 > 0:52:39As the years have rolled by, it's the music that's remained centre stage,
0:52:39 > 0:52:44music that's as influential today as it has ever been.
0:52:47 > 0:52:50I think Keith is an innovator.
0:52:50 > 0:52:52He's changed the way the electric guitar sounds.
0:52:52 > 0:52:56He's made his own completely unique rock 'n' roll music.
0:53:06 > 0:53:09I've played with a zillion guitar players.
0:53:09 > 0:53:14In Nashville... can't swing a cat without hitting a guitar player here,
0:53:14 > 0:53:19and I've never played with anyone that plays that guitar just like he does.
0:53:22 > 0:53:25# Rape, murder.... #
0:53:26 > 0:53:29I ain't getting all gushy and mushy about it, but the man's
0:53:29 > 0:53:33got something inside him that is really special and unique.
0:53:34 > 0:53:40I can see Keith playing until he, literally, until he falls over dead.
0:53:44 > 0:53:47One of the things that comes out very strongly from the way you write
0:53:47 > 0:53:52in the book is the joy of being in the moment of playing a song
0:53:52 > 0:53:54and of people listening to the song.
0:53:54 > 0:53:58And of the other band members performing the song and the song coming together.
0:53:58 > 0:54:05I think if I take one thing from the whole book, it's that the best thing in your whole life is that.
0:54:05 > 0:54:10- I mean, I might be wrong... - Yeah, you've probably put the nail on the head there.
0:54:10 > 0:54:12It's watching something little...
0:54:12 > 0:54:13idea...
0:54:15 > 0:54:17And just the way it's picked up.
0:54:17 > 0:54:20It's something you had no hopes for, particularly.
0:54:20 > 0:54:22You know, you just have ideas.
0:54:22 > 0:54:31You say, oh, I've got this one, you know, and just to see the interaction of other people. But it's also that
0:54:31 > 0:54:35very enforcing... of bringing the right guys together
0:54:35 > 0:54:43and recognising their talent and what they have and... And even then making you realise that you have some, too.
0:54:43 > 0:54:47Sometime I think, I'd throw out a piece of crap and "That's great!"
0:54:47 > 0:54:50Then I'd suddenly realise, it's not so bad after all.
0:54:50 > 0:54:53You know, the thing is... first off, they've got to turn the band on.
0:54:53 > 0:54:58If I come up with a song or an idea and I play it and everybody's going around...
0:54:58 > 0:55:00mmm...
0:55:01 > 0:55:0221!
0:55:02 > 0:55:06And they're playing cards and smoking, the song's not good, right?
0:55:06 > 0:55:14And it never will be any good, at least in this band, you know, and so you just... you dump that.
0:55:14 > 0:55:18You don't take it as an offence or you dump that and come up with another idea.
0:55:18 > 0:55:21You have to throw it against this canvas of other guys.
0:55:21 > 0:55:24And they're, like, the jury.
0:55:24 > 0:55:28What's really interesting about Keith and the Rolling Stones is he was always, I mean,
0:55:28 > 0:55:33and it was probably missed by the early stuff, he was the real musical driver behind this thing.
0:55:33 > 0:55:39And the fact is, to this day, he is fiercely proud of the Rolling Stones and the music they produce.
0:55:39 > 0:55:43MUSIC: "Jumpin' Jack Flash"
0:55:53 > 0:55:58Keith's probably the least surprised of all the band that the Rolling Stones are still together.
0:55:58 > 0:56:04After all, his template all along was the blues man of the Mississippi Delta still playing into their 80s.
0:56:06 > 0:56:09# But it's all right now
0:56:09 > 0:56:11# In fact it's a gas... #
0:56:11 > 0:56:14And after almost 50 years, maybe they're just now hitting their stride.
0:56:15 > 0:56:19# I'm Jumping Jack Flash It's a gas, gas, gas... #
0:56:21 > 0:56:26I don't know what's kept the band together all these years because, by rights,
0:56:26 > 0:56:29they should have broken up so many times
0:56:29 > 0:56:36just because of the fights or the substances or the relationships or...
0:56:36 > 0:56:38There were just so many things.
0:56:38 > 0:56:41And it's... it just is really extraordinary.
0:56:41 > 0:56:45I think it's just in the personality of Mick and Keith, really.
0:56:45 > 0:56:53In the book, actually, I must say, I was expecting there might be a bit of rancour and vituperation.
0:56:53 > 0:56:59What I was struck by that how extremely affectionate your criticisms of him are.
0:56:59 > 0:57:01I'm glad it came over that way to you.
0:57:01 > 0:57:03I always...
0:57:05 > 0:57:10For me, the classic example is when you're talking about the fact that, for you,
0:57:10 > 0:57:15Mick Jagger was absolutely great at performing in a small space
0:57:15 > 0:57:18where you could appreciate his delicacy of movement.
0:57:18 > 0:57:21And that he lost it a bit when it turned into the big-stadium Rolling Stones
0:57:21 > 0:57:26and he started turning to dance instructors for routines.
0:57:26 > 0:57:28There's a great line in the book where you say,
0:57:28 > 0:57:31"Charlie and I, we always know when Mick's being plastic.
0:57:31 > 0:57:35"We've been watching his arse for 40 years."
0:57:36 > 0:57:39That's what we do!
0:57:39 > 0:57:40We're there to...
0:57:40 > 0:57:45as a safety net for Mick that we watch that bum...
0:57:45 > 0:57:47Duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh.
0:57:47 > 0:57:51Just to make sure he doesn't miss a beat and if he does, we switch the beat.
0:57:51 > 0:57:55It's complicated, but it's just like instinctive.
0:57:55 > 0:57:57I love the man...
0:57:57 > 0:58:03Can be a pain sometimes, but no doubt I can.
0:58:03 > 0:58:09But working with a bunch of people for this amount of time is, you know, it is fairly unique.
0:58:09 > 0:58:11And...
0:58:13 > 0:58:16And I wouldn't have missed it for the world, man.
0:58:16 > 0:58:18And next... wait until I put him back to work...
0:58:20 > 0:58:23Hard task master. Good luck.
0:58:23 > 0:58:26Bless you, Andrew. Thank you. It's been a pleasure to talk to you.
0:58:26 > 0:58:29- It's been a pleasure to talk to you. - Cool.
0:58:29 > 0:58:33# You can't always get what you want
0:58:35 > 0:58:38# You can't always get what you want
0:58:40 > 0:58:44# You can't always get what you want
0:58:45 > 0:58:48# But if you try sometimes
0:58:49 > 0:58:51# Well, you might find
0:58:51 > 0:58:53# You get what you need
0:58:54 > 0:58:56# Ahh... #