Link to thread on his autobiography, Life: Keith Richards' Autobiography: Life - Cafe Society - Straight Dope Message Board
Just saw his documentary, Under the Influence. It engages him and his band during the recording of his new album, Cross-Eyed Heart. It covers stories and history, but doesn’t try to stand as a historical record. It wanders nicely to suit the raconteur Keith is.
Like his book, it captures his voice incredibly well. Fun stories and snippets, with wonderful immersion into music, instruments, recording, and other insights without seeming geeky at all. His book was amazing in how it accomplished that, and it is repeated here.
And I had no idea that Keith was a badass piano player!! He doesn’t attempt anything technical, but for stripped-down blues, he is really good. The overall musicianship showed is top notch, which is nice to see because Shine a Light felt sloppier than normal to me.
A couple of acoustic guitars are featured most. He plays a great fingerstyle blues on a 1929 “The Gibson” L-1 which is discussed as “the same model as Robert Johnson played” by Keith’s guitar tech*. He is also playing what appears to be a prewar Martin 00-45; an amazing guitar currently worth about $100,000. His Tele Micawber is shown a lot, described but not named or discussed.
Overall, a great companion piece to his book.
*This is the guitar featured in the famous photo of Robert Johnson, but is thought to have been put in his hands right before the photo. He was known for playing Gibson’s cheaper label, Kalamazoo. That particular Gibson, though, is forever associated with him. They are cool guitars; the last “pre-modern” Gibson flattop, where they haven’t adopted Martin’s X-Bracing for under the soundboard, and the neck has a strong V profile. After that, Gibson updated their designs to what we are familiar with today, with some variation on neck profiles. Along with Martin’s transition to steel strings, it was the birth of the modern acoustic guitar.