Me and the Rolling Stones

For the Brian Jones fans…a Brian Jones memory..

Brian Stories 10.03.2012 1 Comment

I see that there are a lot of Brian Jones fans that have recently signed onto my site so I am updating this post. Please enjoy. The above pic was snapped on our Martin 404 charter for the US tour, while we whiled away the time and has nothing to do with the story other than it shows us all at a peaceful time. Now for the story:

We were in Miami, I believe it was the Fountainbleau and they had ski doo’s for guests to take out into the ocean. The ski doo’s were the ones that you sat on like motorcycles. I recall Brian , Anita Pallenburg, Keith, and I getting one. There were a few markers about 100 yards out in the ocean and we were instructed to stay within the boundries of these buoy’s. Anita seemed to think we were playing bumper boats as she was basically ramming everyone..she charged my ski doo and rode up and over my left side and foot..Needless to say the boat operator’s were upset and whistled us in, we heard them scream that we would shortly be running out of gas and should head into shore..We headed in. When we got to shore we realized that Brain wasn’t with us. We turned and saw him heading straight out into the ocean on this little ski doo. To this day I see his back silhouette riding out into the ocean with a flock of seagulls over his head.. off into the sunset!! The vendors sent a boat out to get him. When he got to shore we asked,”What were you doing, where did you think you were going?”. Brian looked at us and innocently said..”I was following the birds..”. I loved that and still remember it well.

PS..It cost us over $350.00 to fix the boat that Anita cracked..

Tags: Anita Pallenburg, brian jones, Keith Richards

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I’ll have one of every color

Keith Stories 30.01.2012 No Comments

“I’ll have one of every color”, is Keith what said as he saw a shirt he liked, as we shopped in Beverly Hills in Battaglia at the suggestion of Andrew Oldham. I remembered this as I walked on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills last night. I was making $80 a week (my uncle didn’t want the rest of the office to think I was being favored, fighting the nepotism label, so I was paid a meager wage at first) and couldn’t afford a button down shirt there, much less one of every color, but boy was I tempted. Keith was jubilant due the receipt of a royalty advance and thinking of Keith in a Beverly Hills shop buying ‘traditional’ clothes is what makes this special.

Tags: Andrew Oldham, Keith Richards

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More great footage

General Stuff 10.01.2012 1 Comment

I just found this old footage from the Maysles that really reflects the backstage environment circa New York, 1969. Every time I see David use the card to hit the mic and get sound synch I flash on those memories… David and I had a lot of fun. He used to bring the editing machine, a giant movieola, where ever we went. Whether it be the Londonderry Hotel in London or the Beverly Wilshire in Beverly Hills, where he claimed room 415 as his editing bay..It’s a bit over 8 minutes long and a bit of a time warp..enjoy..

Tags: bill wyman, Charlie Watts, jimi hendrix, Keith Richards, Mick Jagger, Mick Taylor

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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.

Tags: Gered Mankowitz, Keith Richards

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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.

Tags: Gram Parsons, Keith Richards

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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..

Tags: Anita Pallenburg, Keith Richards

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