Keith Richards' Autobiography Shows Divide Within the Rolling Stones and the Promise of Healing

Keith Richards' Autobiography Shows Divide Within the Rolling Stones and the Promise of Healing: "

There is a scene in one of the latest Rolling Stones concert documentaries they produce for every Stones tour that shows the band getting in separate limos and going their separate ways after the show. This is a far different scene than the 1960s when bands like the Beatles and Stones had to run for their lives together at the end of the a public appearance. For all practical purposes, the Rolling Stones in all their greatness is nothing more than a business these days--a very enjoyable business, but a business none-the-less.

Keith Richards' new autobiography called Life, describes the latter years of the Stones, since about 1990 as just that. It's a business, and there is clearly a divide in the band. I think we all knew that when Billy Wyman left the band, and of course the many controversies surrounding the Stones have shed some light as well.

I was fortunate enough to see the Stones in 2005 on the Bigger Bang tour, and while it was a concert I will never forget, there seems to be that reality of the divide in the band when you see them live. It's the movement and the closeness on stage--the lack of intimacy of a band who has been doing this for 50 years and doesn't want to let go.

In Richards' new book, more details come out about the relationship of the Glimmer Twin, Mick Jagger and Richards. Richards says he hasn't seen Mick Jagger's dressing room in over 20 years, and he misses the close friendship with Jagger. As well, nearing 70 years old the band is planning a new tour.

Richards calls Jagger “Your Majesty” or “Brenda.”

“It was the beginning of the Eighties when Mick started to become unbearable,” Richards said. “I think Mick thinks I belong to him.”

Of course, anyone who really knows Richards knows how much this man loves life. Yes, there is that hard ridden image of the cliche rock star, but listening to Richards during interviews provides insight of a man who makes every minute out of life despite the battles with drugs.

Jagger has read the book, and Richards says it has opened his eyes and hasn't furthered the divide. Perhaps, the Stones we get in the new Tour will be a tighter band who shows more appreciation for each other.

Jagger did ask for one section of the book to be removed. He wanted Richards to remove the part which mentions Jagger uses a voice coach. I know my friend Amy Robison, a Who fan, disses the Stones for Jaggers use of a voice coach, and it's really no big secret. It was exposed in a Stones concert documentary a few years ago.

In the book, for which he was paid an advance of $7.7 million, Richards wrote with candor about his notorious drug taking. He gave up heroin in 1978 after being busted five times and finally stopped taking cocaine in 2006 after he fell from a tree and needed to have brain surgery.

In an interview, he claimed to have given up all drugs, but added, “I’m just waiting for them to invent something more interesting. I’m all ready to road test it.”

Richards said he has no regrets about taking heroin.

“There was a lot of experience in there. I loved a good high. If you stay up, you get the songs that everyone else misses because they’re asleep.”

He recalls a night when The Beatles star John Lennon -- “a silly sod [fool], in many ways” -- woke up in a bathroom, lying by the toilet, murmuring, “Don’t move me -- these tiles are beautiful.”

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