Life Audiobook Review

As lead guitarist of the Rolling Stones, Keith Richards has lived life fast and hard. In Life, he recalls with unflinching honesty and vivid detail the highs and lows of the Stones’ meteoric rise to fame and the notorious excesses that made him infamous.

There are stories of his conflicted-albeit-creatively rich relationship with Mick Jagger, the tax exile in France and the recording of Exile on Main Street, his marriage to Patti Hansen, and the genesis of rock classics such as Satisfaction and Honky Tonk Woman. And that is just a taste of what’s in this audiobook.

A brutally honest, funny and, at times, soul-baring memoir from a very likable and intelligent guy who has done things his own way.

If you are a Stones fan, this audiobook is a no-brainer. You’ll love getting the inside scoop on how certain songs were written, including the debunking of a number of interpretations of lyrics. And if you’re not a huge Stones fan? So long as you’re up for some rock and roll stories, which means drugs, sex, self-indulgence and rowdy behavior, I think you’ll love it as well. I even enjoyed the explanations of guitar riffs, and I don’t play the guitar or understand much about the technical side of music-making.

The narration is the one oddity. Keith Richards reads the intro, then Johnny Depp reads four chapters, then Joe Hurley reads a few more, Depp comes back for a while, and the last couple of chapters are read by Keith. I found it took some time to adjust after each change of voice, but each narrator does an excellent job on their own, so I’m not complaining. It’s just a little odd.

A tip: each time a song is mentioned, stop the book, go to YouTube and listen to the Stones play it live, then come back to the story. Doing this makes an already incredibly enjoyable audiobook even better.