His legendary lifestyle made him the symbol of rock-n-roll’s wild hedonism. At 73 though he’s its greatest survivor, much to many people’s surprise.
But whenever a big name leaves us for the great gig in the sky, people like to check up on everyone’s favourite libertine. Take the week when Tom Petty passed away for example.
The number of searches for Keith Richards was tootling along right up until late on October 2, when Tom Petty died. All of a sudden there was a huge spike in searches for Keith Richards.
“[John] Belushi was an extreme experience even by my standards.”
Keith Richards
These are the number of searches of Richards at the time when David Bowie died on January 10, 2016...
This is what happened when another rock God, Lemmy, died on December 28, 2015:
Here it is Chuck Berry earlier this year:
I mean some doctor told me I had six months to live and I went to their funeral. I don’t trust doctors. It’s not to say there ain’t some good ones, but on a general level, no, I wouldn’t trust ’em at all. I’ve never had a problem with drugs. I’ve had problems with the police.
Keith Richards
