Keith Richards: Under the Influence Page #2

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the instruments lying about

just to see if it caught the eye.

And then he probably watched me

for a couple of years, you know,

talking to him

and looking at the guitar and...

'Cause I remember him saying,

"It's a pretty one, isn't it?

It's nice, that.

Yeah, when you can reach it...

I'll let you play it," you know.

Once he did give me the guitar,

he said the best exercise

is the Spanish malaguena,

because it's got a lot of moves in it

that make it great for the fingers.

[playing malaguena]

You're expanding yourself

without even knowing.

And he was quite right,

because, you know, from learning that...

'Cause I had to learn that

in order to get the guitar, you know.

I mean...

That meant I could walk into the house,

pick up the guitar and play with it.

Until then, it would have to be

at invitation only.

-[man] The story with the guitar...

-Oh, it's a...

It's a late '50s Gibson ES-355.

So, kind of a hot rod.

He's always been known

for playing a black Gibson.

For me, it looks like Keith.

And as I just showed you,

when I opened the case,

he said, "I'll have it." He didn't...

Nope. Just... He knew right away.

I've been working with Keith

now since the '80s.

I have full access to his guitar lockers

and can do what I want.

I do often get to see guitars

and bring them to him.

This is what Robert Johnson

would have played, the model and year.

This is a 1928 L-1 Gibson, you know.

And the scale length and the flat neck

and the width of the nut...

It was a style of playing.

So you can do

the finger style blues on this.

It almost takes you there.

It makes you play that way.

The notes last

the right amount of time.

The balance between the high strings

and what's going on

in the low-end, the snap...

In the locker, unfinished project.

National Guitar, right here,

in my inventory book of Keith's guitars.

It says here,

"To be rebuilt and then maybe used."

And I wrote a note,

"Kinda reminds me of Jimmy Reed."

Dig it out, put some strings on it.

And sometimes

I pick up an instrument

and the sound

will take you to a different place.

It's like a flavor.

Steve and Keith walk in.

They think we're doing something else.

We open the case.

Keith looks at it, "Oh, great. Hmm."

"Check this out, Keith.

This has been yours

since before I worked for you.

It's never had strings on it.

I found it in the locker,

I put strings on it."

Next thing you know,

he's out there trying it.

Steve's like, "Okay, if he's in, I'm in."

They start playing, but the control room

is set for, you know...

for a mix or something.

There's no mic set.

People aren't ready for this.

["Blues in the Morning" playing]

"Blues in the Morning,"

that feeling...

That was just him picking up the guitar.

There was no second takes, no other tries.

It was just where we were going.

[Richards singing]

Got the blues in the morning

I feel that's far too long

Got the blues in the morning

My baby

It's still too long

It's hardcore, baby

but I gotta sing this song

[Richards] To us, in England,

people like Mick and myself

and many others...

Chuck arrived...

At the time, we were starving for music.

The way that man hit us...

I'm still recovering.

Incredible lyrics,

an incredible devil-may-care attitude.

He's influenced just about

every guitar player,

even if they don't know it.

You know, I mean...

not a lot of guys wanna play like Chuck

because it's like taking on the devil.

I'll take it on, you know.

[laughs]

Yeah, this is the beginning

of the Rolling Stones, you know.

Yeah, and I'm holding

a full deck here, pals.

That was the one

Mick had on the train, you know.

I got on my morning train

to go to art school.

I happened to hit the carriage

that Mick had just gotten into,

and I hadn't seen him in years.

And then I noticed,

tucked under his arm, like this, was...

"Oh, yeah. Get out of here.

Chuck Berry...

What you got there, man?"

And then I said, "Come here!"

You know, I thought

I was the only other guy in...

you know, in the southeast of England

that even knew anything

about this stuff, you know, and...

So, I mean, by the time

we got off the train, you know,

we've made a deal, you know.

I'm gonna... [chuckles]

And that's how The Stones hooked,

because of these very two records.

And that's it.

Muddy, I had only heard, you know,

very few tracks of at the time.

So this was a mind blower

to me, you know.

[Muddy Waters singing]

I don't want you to be no slave

I don't want you to work all day

I don't want you to be true

I just want to make love to you

[Richards] When I first heard

The Best of Muddy Waters,

it was the most powerful music

I'd ever heard.

The most expressive.

And I had listened to Mozart and,

you know, I had listened to Beethoven.

This is on a par

with the best music in the world.

The Stones, in their early days,

all we wanted to do

was to turn other people on to this.

[Mick Jagger singing]

I don't want you to be no slave

I don't want you to work all day

I don't want you to be true

I just wanna make love to you, baby

[Richards] We knew we're never gonna

be able to play it like Muddy.

So let's just, like, juke it up.

We sped it up, we did it real fast.

And everybody got into it.

I can see by the way that,

baby, you talk

And I know by the way

that you treat your man

I could love you, baby,

it's a cryin' shame

I don't want you to cook my bread

[Richards] We've never wanted

to make pop music.

Our puritanical mission

was to turn other people on to the blues.

At the same time, we realized

that we turned America

back on to its own music,

which was, like, far beyond the agenda.

[laughs]

I wanna make love to you

[audience clapping and cheering]

The Rolling Stones.

Aren't they great?

[audience laughing]

Unbelievable.

-[Richards] Hey, guys.

-What's up, boss?

How are you guys?

How're we doing?

-Alright?

-Thank you, Keith.

Awesome.

-How you doing?

-Great show the other...

-I'm doing fabulous.

-Yes, sir. Great show.

-Alright. Yeah, yeah.

-Great book, brother.

Cool, brother.

How you doing, Keith?

-We're doing alright, man.

-Good.

-Right on. Thank you.

-We're all alright, you know.

[Richards] On the road, I feel at home.

Being backstage or being onstage,

you know, it's... familiar.

[man] Thank you.

[Richards] There you go, pal.

-Okay.

-[woman] Can I get a high five?

Hi, baby. [laughs]

I left home at 17

in a cloud of disgrace,

without getting, you know,

my dad's okay.

And so the road became

a second home to me, you know.

[man 1] You brought the sun out.

[man 2] Ronnie, how are you?

[Richards] And I'm looking forward

still to some great gigs.

I mean, I really enjoyed

playing in the heartland.

They're the places we used to drive around

in the station wagon 50 years ago.

[laughs]

["It's All Over Now" playing]

America is the biggest market

in the goddamn world.

It was a f***ing crowning glory

to break there.

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