Guitar Moves with Keith Richards

Keith Richards is known for being the guitarist for the Rolling Stones. He has inspired countless people to pick up a guitar as well as several different bands, including the Gorillaz, who’s bass guitarist is modeled after a young Keith Richards.

Richards tells a story about how his grandfather is the one who taught him to play the guitar. Looking back at his story, Richards recounts how his grandfather told him that if he could reach he guitar hanging above him, he would take it down and show him how to play. This seems to be have been the catalyst for Richards interest in music. Had his grandfather simply given him the guitar, Richards might now have wanted it. There is something tantalizing about wanting something we cannot have and having to work to get something. It makes it that much better when we finally get it. This is what must have kept Richards interested in pursuing music even at an early age. He even tells us how he had to work to earn the money to buy his own guitar. This sequence of events kept him rising to the challenge.

From another perspective, had he been given the guitar with no effort, gotten a guitar for free, and not given a hard first lesson, he might have become disinterested and bored as children tend to do. When Richards looks back at this experience, he seems to think of it fondly. Almost as if it’s a funny joke. A fun story to tell at parties. This touches on his point that there are two sides to every story.

He mentions that there are two sides to every story at the beginning of his interview. Everyone knows him as Keith Richards, guitarist for Rolling Stones, but very few know him as a little boy yearning to learn to play the guitar. The guitar metaphor is incredibly fitting, because the part that everyone seems to focus on, is the notes and chords being produced. Most seem to forget that behind every beautiful note, is effort and hard work. The most important part is the right hand strumming.