Life cover art

Life

The No. 1 Sunday Times bestseller from the Rolling Stones legend

 Preview

Get 30 days of Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30-day free trial. Cancel monthly.
Try for £0.00
More purchase options
Buy Now for £16.99

Buy Now for £16.99

About this listen

 The once-in-a-generation memoir of a rock legend - the No. 1 Sunday Times bestseller.

'Electrifying'
New York Times

'A masterpiece'
The Word

'Funny, poignant, brutally honest'
Sunday Telegraph

'Densely packed with incident... immensely readable'
Sunday Times

'Once you begin this, wild, wild horses couldn't drag you away'
Independent

'Life is pretty faultless as the quintessential depiction of the man in full and his extraordinary life and times to date'
The Times

'I was hooked from the start'
Harper's Bazaar

As a member of the Rolling Stones, Keith Richards created the riffs, the lyrics and the songs that roused the world, and over four decades he lived the original rock and roll life: taking the chances he wanted, speaking his mind, and making it all work in a way that no one before him had ever done.

Now, at last, the man himself tells us the story of life in the crossfire hurricane. In Life, Keith narrates his loves and losses, stratospheric fame and success, and the endless stories which have led to his enduring image as outlaw and folk hero.

In a voice that is uniquely and intimately his own, with the disarming honesty that has always been his trademark, Keith Richards brings us the essential life story of our times.

'This is a good, gossipy read. But the best stuff is Keith on music. Check out his wonderful passage on Charlie Watt's drumming'
Evening Standard

'Dark, honest and gleefully indiscreet'
Shortlist

'Life may be the best rock star autobiography ever'
Classic Rock

'A hilarious, ribald and often shocking tale told elegantly and with much candidness'
Catholic Herald

'The fact that Keith is still alive to tell the story is incredible'
Sunday Express S Magazine©2010 Mindless Records, LLC Entertainment & Celebrities Music Celebrity Guitar

Critic reviews

Electrifying... the intimate and moving story of one man's long strange trip over the decades, told in dead-on, visceral prose without any of the pretence, caution or self-consciousness that usually attend great artists sitting for their self-portraits
Densely packed with incident... immensely readable. A memoir so full of incident it feels like the author's lived three lives, not one
LIFE is pretty faultless as the quintessential depiction of the man in full and his extraordinary life and times to date
Funny, poignant, brutally honest, engagingly colloquial, Life is pure Keith Richards, as good a rock memoir as you are likely to read.
A masterpiece, the most sustained, colourful and rambunctious rampage through his [Keith's] 67 years imaginable
This is a good, gossipy read. Keith comes across as a thoroughly decent man, with just a hint of the devil. His relationship with Jagger is complex and fascinating
Dark, honest and gleefully indiscreet from the first page to the last, it puts some of today's painfully dull musicians to shame
Once you begin this, wild, wild horses couldn't drag you away
A hilarious, ribald and often shocking tale told elegantly and with much candidness
I was hooked from the start
LIFE may be the best rock star autobiography ever
The fact that Keith is still alive to tell the story is incredible
All stars
Most relevant
Some interesting stories which entertain & reveal but what lets this audio book down is the narration. Johnny Depp does excellent work as usual, but Joe Hurley is not as good and really disappointing in comparison.

Why have two different narrators? Dumb if you ask me.

Good in parts

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I'm afraid I'm finding listening to this book both hugely enjoyable and deeply annoying.
I can put up with Johnny Depp's occasional mispronunciation of place names - he wisely chooses to avoid a Keef impersonation unless enacting a conversation and is an engaging narrator.
Unfortunately he is replaced about a third of the way through by Joe Hurley who DOES attempt an impersonation to disastrous effect.
This is a great book but I'm finding the terrible mockney accent of the presumably American Hurley almost unbearable.
I've skipped ahead to find that Depp does reappear towards the end of the book. For the finale the man himself takes over. I'm hoping I can last that long.
What A Shame.

Poor narration ruins this great book

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I'm only a few hours into the book so far, but one thing is clear: somebody (somebody English) should have sat in on Johnny Depp's reading and bashed him about the head every time he said 'to-may-to' for tomato or 'rout' for route and, dear me, 'Wool-wich' for Woolwich. (Don't get me started on Islington). I know Keith Richards has an international voice now, but, even so....
Yes JD was great doing KR as Captain Jack Sparrow, but the Americanisms in the reading grate more than somewhat and could so easily have been eradicated.
Otherwise, the book is of interest to Stones fans and others alike - it turns out Keef is one day under a year older than me!

Keef - good. Johnny Depp - oh dear!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
good story, great life, captured excellently bay writters and read brilliantly by the two narrators

magnificent journey

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I liked Depp ,I wasn't sure about Hurley to start with but he slowly grew on me.

Great stories

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews