What would Keith Richards do_ - Jessica Pallington West [26]
“God creates out of nothing. But he does what is still more wonderful: He makes saints out of sinners.”—Kierkegaard
Keith: “Ever since I kicked it and cleaned up, I’ve been bombarded with requests and offers to make a statement about this, or address judges. I’ve been asked to do lectures for judges! The chance I’ve been waiting for—FUCK YOU!”
“It belongs to the imperfection of everything human that man can only attain his desire by passing through its opposite.”—Kierkegaard
“Life is not a problem to be solved but a reality to be experienced. ”
—Kierkegaard
Keith: “I like the expanding vision of life, of what goes on. I find it a fascinating story … a great book.”
“The highest and most beautiful things in life are not to be heard about, nor read about, nor seen, but, if one will, are to be lived.”—Kierkegaard
Keith: “I’m Keith Richards. I try everything once.”
“Trouble is the common denominator of living. It is the great equalizer.”—Kierkegaard
Keith: “Trouble … I’m waiting for the next hit.”
And finally: Keith and Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900).
Nietzsche, like Keith Richards, had a penchant for trouble and getting blamed. Nietzsche just took it up a step further. World War II, for example.
As with Keith’s penchant for getting blamed for murders, drug busts, fires, fights, and the downfall of a polite society or two, getting blamed was a great Nietzschian talent. Maybe greater than Keith’s. And it really wasn’t Nietzsche’s fault. (It was while he was temporarily indisposed with insanity that Nietzsche’s sister reportedly went to work on his manuscript, editing it to fit the eventual interests of Hitler.)
But beyond this bond over blame and trouble, both Keith and Nietzsche have a few other similarities that make them centuries-divided twins. Both lived as nomads, and both had their own personal Anita Pallenberg (for Nietzsche, it was Lou Salome). And, like Keith, Nietzsche also wrote poetry and music (not that good, apparently), becoming “the musician’s philosopher”—at first inspired by Wagner, and then in turn inspiring compositions by Schoenberg, Strauss, Stravinsky, and Mahler.
And both Keith and Nietzsche looked at life, for the most part, in the Keith Richards Way: examining the issues of art, music, and individuality, and questioning authority. For Nietzsche, a Keith ideal was his concept of “stoic heroism,” in which we must be strong and confront the ugly and difficult things about ourselves without buckling—a call to look these self-realities square in the eye, accept them, and then just live life for its own sake. We should live to the utmost of our ability—as we would wish to live in eternity. The “eternal recurrence of time” will thus bring us nearer to eternal life. Therefore, “Dare to become what you are,” and be free to choose the values you want. It is from this base of essential ideals that Nietzsche’s often misunderstood concept of the Übermensch—or the superman—came about, which was essentially a blueprint for Keith Richards, if you ask me.
Keith fits the job description of the superman in more ways the one.
Needed: a creative, incredibly strong individual who rises above the norm, is able to hold steady to his ideas and values, and is able to create new art and meaning out of chaos; a superstrong creature whose strength seems beyond human. Perhaps someone who will be the only survivor, along with New York City cockroaches, after a nuclear holocaust …
Nietzsche Illuminates
Keith and Keith
Illuminates Nietzsche
“In the end, one only experiences oneself.”—Nietzsche
“He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.”—Nietzsche
Keith: “I have to live with me … And I would follow me anywhere.”
“Is not life a hundred times too short for us to bore ourselves?”—Nietzsche
Keith: “Boredom? To me, that’s an illness.”
“Only sick music makes money today.”—Nietzsche
Keith (on mediocre musicians): “Everyone’s a load of crap. They’re all trying to be somebody else.”
“Life without music would be a mistake.”—Nietzsche
Keith: “Music is a necessity. After