• The kind of guy Keith was/is..

    General Stuff, Keith Stories 18.11.2010 3 Comments

    When the tour ended in California 1966, our charter plane was heading back to the East coast and the pilot asked if we wanted to be dropped anywhere along the route back. Keith asked if I wanted to join him and Gered Mankowitz on an overnight camping , horseback riding trip to Scottsdale, Arizona.  I loved the idea and told the pilot to drop us off in Scottsdale. We made arrangements with John Wayne’s cowboy guide (the chiseled faced cowboy looking scruffy guy in the picture) to take us out. The only shoes I had were my Bally shoes and a pair of jeans.. so much for home on the range. When we arrived we outfitted ourselves with chaps, hats, and Winchester rifles. Keith also had a custom made .45 that was loaned to him by Lou Adler.  A horseback riding we went. At the very start of our quest for nature my horse walked through a stream and started pawing the water ­I asked what this meant and found out, as the horse laid down in the stream with me aboard. So much for the Bally shoes…no wonder they wear boots. The image above is prior to Keith and I shooting at targets.  I think the .45 jammed after a couple of shots.  The carbines were fun as they reminded us of the “old west”. Our biggest concern was that the horses would ‘spook’ and run away. 

    I  have more to tell later, for now, I will mention that a bobcat stole our bacon and there is more to come with our other horseback riding adventures in Dallas, etc.

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  • Keith Richards and Gram Parsons-a different view

    General Stuff, Keith Stories 05.11.2010 No Comments

    Further to Keith’s,  LIFE — he goes into a lot of detail about his friendship and times with Gram.  It includes a lot of detail of their drug dalliances..  I don’t know if Keith remembers this one…We were in San Francisco at the Mark Hopkins Hotel ( I believe) and I got a call from Keith to come to his suite, immediately.  I rushed up to his room and he and Gram called out to me to come into the bedroom.  In the bedroom was a large four poster bed with these large wooden posts on each corner.  Keith stood next to one of the posts and said, “Ronnie, look!” and then he lifted his left arm up with his right arm and swung his left arm like a baseball bat, into the wooden post.  “I can’t feel a thing!”  Gram did the same and they both said they were freaked as they had no feeling in their arms.  Yet they kept saying, “Look” and kept smashing them into the post.. I got a doctor and the doctor client privilege takes over as I didn’t hear anything else about it and they both seemed fine the next day..  It is still one of the wildest things I have ever seen.

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  • Keith Richards and Anita Pallenburg

    General Stuff, Keith Stories 30.10.2010 Comments Off

    I am listening to Keith’s LIFE audio book and I came across his describing his relationship with Anita.  At one point he says she made him a man.  I can give a specific occasion which brings illustration to his statement.

    We were in Goteborg, Sweden at the Intercontinental. The tour promoter had gathered the local politicians and their entourage for a sit down long table dinner with all of us. We were at the far end of the table..on my left was Anita Pallenburg, Keith and then about 10 ‘others’ across from me was Bill and Charlie, it was awhile before Mick got there. A waiter appeared and Anita whispered something to him–she asked as to what was the strongest alcohol that was traditional –he appeared with a bottle of a clear liquid (probably like straight grain alcohol). Anita took a water glass and filled it from the bottle, she then took the glass and chugged it. Slammed the glass down in front of Keith, refilled it and said..”prove to me that you’re a man”..Keith chugged it as all us ‘men’ did..when Mick appeared we were getting quite drunk and he wanted to catch up so he chugged a glass.. By now things were getting noisy, Keith had put his feet up on the table, smashing the plates that were there, and once again we were talking louder …the promoter signaled me over –he said that I had to try and get them under control as it was bothering the people.. I called the boys over and we actually huddled..I said that the promoter had called me over to help get them under control and laughed that he didn’t realize how drunk I was and we just laughed about it.. Keith ended up on the floor of the restaurant making out with Anita, at this time the promoter, politicians, etc left. A waitress came over to pull Anita off of Keith and Keith accidently hit her with his arm–a photo of this was on the front page of the paper the next day..
    A waitress came over to me and said that the police had been called and I had better get them out of there. I pushed, dragged and carried us out and into the elevator to go up to our rooms..I actually carried Anita and now for something no one knew:  As I had Anita in my arms carrying her out of the restaurant, she looked up at me and said, “do me a favor, take me to your room”–she was drunk and not for a second would I ever do that to Keith, myself or the tour and now after Keith’s book it could have been a game she was playing on us as well… I came down a little later and asked the waitress what had happened.. she said the police and a paddy wagon had come but since no one was there..they left…and oh I should know that the police would now not come back on any further call… and with that I went back up to the boys, told them and they ended up back at the restaurant and played there until very early the next morning..

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  • Horse back riding with Keith

    Keith Stories 09.08.2010 Comments Off

    When I first met the Stones (there is a polaroid on my site of the first time we got together), I was living with a roommate in a studio apartment next to Weequahic Park in New Jersey. It was close to the Newark Airport and all the ‘stewardesses’ stayed there. Keith came out to visit with his girlfriend (I think it was Linda Keith) and swam at the apartment swimming pool (he had the longest hair that anyone there had ever seen) and came up to the top of the building to hang out and watch the sunset. Keith was and I would assume, very cool. I had many great, exciting, scary, funny, etc. experiences with him.. He was someone that you want on your side.
    When we were in Dallas, he said that he wanted to go horseback riding.. We had this image of just going up the road a bit and going riding.. well, we had to drive quite awhile out of Dallas before we got to a real ranch and spent the day riding..when we arrived for a date in Phoenix, we went horseback riding there as well. It was great to go from the grassy fields, to the desert with the cactus and then up mountains that seemed to be made from black sharp rocks. The stable insisted that we go with a guide and sent a girl with us..:-) We only wanted to gallop and race each other, which she did not like. At one point she insisted that we ‘stay put’ as she had to go to the bathroom, she rode a distance from us, got off her horse and squatted in the desert. When we saw her disappear, that seemed to be the starter’s pistol we needed to charge our horses in her direction. Scared the piss out of her or boy was she pissed.. She made us walk our horses to cool them down when we got back to the stable and was glad to see us go.. which leads me to

    .After the last date in California, our pilot said that he was dead heading the plane back to the east coast and if we wanted a ‘lift’ he would take us and drop us off anywhere along the return route. Keith said he had made some calls and he wanted to go to Scottsdale, Arizona where he had set up an overnight ride and he invited me and Gered Mankowitz (our photographer for that tour). There are a lot of pics of this on my site..from a bobcat stealing bacon at the camp, waking up to him being shot at, my horse deciding to roll over in the water while I was on him, us wearing chaps, having Winchester rifles, I think Keith had a custom made 45 revolver that Lou Adler loaned him to play with, shooting our hats, wearing these outfits with the rifles to the airport..they kept the guns outside the pilots cabin…and did I mention that the cowboy in the pics that went with us was John Wayne’s guide for his westerns…I believe he also worked with John Ford..
    That was the kind of guy the Keith I knew was..also..he loved and collected derringers and once shot one that came thru my motel room wall, as he said …ron, it was floor lever by the base board, sorry didn’t think it would go thru…

    Yikes, where are my guns?

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  • Gregory Lesion Verruca

    General Stuff, Keith Stories 10.10.2009 Comments Off

    First let me mention that just like there is black humor on the battlefield and in the emergency room (so I’ve heard), it’s the same on the road.  Quite often the handicapped had front row in the concerts.  While on one hand this seemed like a kind idea, reality was a different story.  Traditionally at the concerts at some point–usually at the start of Satisfaction–the crowd would  stand up and move forward toward the stage.   This crush of fans would 1, push the front row against any barricade which resulted in people blacking out and having to be passed overhead to safety and recovery; press and push any wheel chair or person with crutches forward to a pinned in a scary position.   It also worked against the local politician who copped front row seats to take his kids!!!  Some of the funniest photos I have seen show a well dressed politician in the front row with his fingers in his ears while kids are all around him screaming and in bliss.  They got out of there fast when the crowd surged.

    Now for Gregory.. Keith and I developed the ultimate fan.  We must have been discussing warts when he told me they were called verrucas in the UK and then we spoke of open wounds..lesions (remember I said sick humor) and we came up with Gregory Lesion Verruca, a fan with leprosy.  We would slip notes under one another’s hotel/motel room door…with little bit of stuff (tip of a hot dog)and say… “While I was waiting to see you, I lost part of my finger..here this is for you, Gregory Lesion Verruca”

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