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Speaker 1: Stone's Touring Party is a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: Welcome to villefranc Sir Mayer on the French Riviera. Writer

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Speaker 2: Somerset Mom described it as a sunny place for shady people.

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Speaker 2: And this was before Keith Richards got there. No, this

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Speaker 2: isn't a stop on the STP tour that comes later.

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Speaker 2: Right now, we're headed to the capitol of a pirate

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Speaker 2: nation known as the Rolling Stones, established in the spring

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Speaker 2: of nineteen seventy one at a seaside mansion called Villainelcut

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Speaker 2: for six months, this was a site of urjastic revelry

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Speaker 2: unknown since the last days of Rome, with scenes of

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Speaker 2: debaucherous decadence akin to an f. Scott Fitzgerald novel on

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Speaker 2: Angel Dust. In addition to its reputation as the party

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Speaker 2: capital of the Cotizure, Nokud also hosted sessions for one

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Speaker 2: of the greatest albums of all time, Exile on Main Street.

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Speaker 2: These nocturnal gatherings ensured that you could often hear the

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Speaker 2: villa before you could see it. Ear splitting rock emanated

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Speaker 2: from the basement and echoed among the yachts bobbing in

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Speaker 2: the harbor for detizens of this most moneyed coast, the

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Speaker 2: last survivors of the Gilded Age. This was in an

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Speaker 2: importable sin, but for everyone else it was a good time.

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Speaker 2: You do know how to get to nelfit right. You

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Speaker 2: have your choice of roads, all beautiful yet treacherous as

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Speaker 2: they wrap around the water's edge. But on the other hand,

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Speaker 2: it doesn't really matter what way you take. In truth,

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Speaker 2: you can't get there from here, at least not anymore

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Speaker 2: as a destination. Villa Nelcut now exists only in the

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Speaker 2: odd continuum of space, time and memory. Still it's a

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Speaker 2: journey worth making, So follow us. We'll get you there.

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Speaker 2: Even after you park your car and the curving gravel

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Speaker 2: driveway before the great front doors, guarded on either side

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Speaker 2: by a crouching stone female deity with lions, pause, you're

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Speaker 2: still not there, not really, see You can't just drop in.

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Speaker 2: That wouldn't be cool. You have to know someone to

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Speaker 2: go inside. You have to be invited. Calling first to

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Speaker 2: say you're coming won't do it either. Quite possibly, no

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Speaker 2: one will pick up the phone, and even if they do,

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Speaker 2: they might be so out of it that they forget

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Speaker 2: your message. In every sense, no could is a completely

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Speaker 2: closed shop, a very exclusive private club with rules for

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Speaker 2: admission that are clearly defined. In order to get in,

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Speaker 2: you have to know someone who lives there. It also

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Speaker 2: helps if you become bearing gifts, preferably a fresh supply of

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Speaker 2: something currently being used at the villa on a daily basis.

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Speaker 2: All those who wish to enter the court of the

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Speaker 2: Crimson King must first offer tribute. Nonetheless, it's still well

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Speaker 2: worth the effort to get inside, for as soon as

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Speaker 2: you step through the two huge imperial front doors, you'll

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Speaker 2: know that you've left the ordinary world behind. Inside Nelkut

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Speaker 2: and alternate reality prevails. Over the course of the summer,

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Speaker 2: a venerable who's who of Rock and Roll Royalties Circle

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Speaker 2: nineteen seventy one will spend the night there. A definite

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Speaker 2: scene of all to Keith Richard's home composed of people

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Speaker 2: who would drop in to say hello and then stay

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Speaker 2: for a week. Mostly young, semi rich and or nearly famous,

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Speaker 2: and almost always physically attractive. They'd make themselves at home,

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Speaker 2: drinking Keith's white wine and eating his food. Some nights,

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Speaker 2: when the lightning would crack over the bay outside, sixteen

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Speaker 2: twenty two or some equally preposterous numbers sat down to dinner.

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Speaker 2: All of it was from another era when money was

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Speaker 2: easier to come by and the spirit of true celebration

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Speaker 2: was upon the world. Surrounded by his friends, their chaos,

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Speaker 2: his family, and his music, Keith lived in the grand manner.

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Speaker 2: At times it seemed as though the towering ornamental gates

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Speaker 2: at his home served both to keep the world out

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Speaker 2: and those inside in. Others came and went, offering business deals,

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Speaker 2: hustling favors, and smiling until it came time to buy

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Speaker 2: a plane ticket and move the party elsewhere. That description

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Speaker 2: comes courtesy of legendary rock journalist Robert Greenfield. As a

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Speaker 2: twenty something, he paid a visit to Nelcotte in June

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Speaker 2: of seventy one to interview Keith Richards for a Rolling

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Speaker 2: Stone cover story, which he later expanded into the book

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Speaker 2: Exile on Main Street, A Season in Hell with the

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Speaker 2: Rolling Stones. He stayed three weeks in all, and somehow

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Speaker 2: lived to tell the tale. His winning combination of talent

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Speaker 2: and ability to hang earned him a spot on the

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Speaker 2: STP Tour, which was born in those sweltering basement sessions

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Speaker 2: at Nelcott. He was loud, he was loose, it was hot,

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Speaker 2: and quite possibly haunted by Nazis. But if you were

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Speaker 2: at Nelcott. The basement was where you wanted to be.

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Speaker 2: Take a pool from the bottle of jack going around.

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Speaker 2: It will be fine to truly understand The Rolling Stones

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Speaker 2: nineteen seventy two Exile on Main Street tour and helps

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Speaker 2: to know how the Stones became exiles themselves, first World

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Speaker 2: fugitives fleeing their British homeland to seek tax shelter along

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Speaker 2: the sunny coast line of southern France. Hey, there are

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Speaker 2: worst places in addition to Greenfield that has never before

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Speaker 2: heard tapes of The Stones in their seventies exile. Eric

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Speaker 2: Glory will be joined by his friend and fellow SDP

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Speaker 2: tour mate Gary Stromberg, the band's pr supremo who's represented

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Speaker 2: a whole jukebox of the twentieth century's greatest artists. My

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Speaker 2: name is Jordan Runtogg and this is the Stones Touring Party.

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Speaker 2: The world's biggest rock and roll band found themselves in

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Speaker 2: a perilous position at the start of the seventies. They

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Speaker 2: were still reeling from the death of founding member Brian Jones,

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Speaker 2: struggling with intermittent addiction, navigating a changing musical landscape, and

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Speaker 2: grappling with the fallout from their fatal concert at the

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Speaker 2: Ultamont Speedway, a tragedy that resulted in a press and

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Speaker 2: put them in the crosshairs of an armed motorcycle gang

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Speaker 2: with a violent reputation. But perhaps most worryingly, they were broke.

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Speaker 2: Maybe not broken the way that you and I think

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Speaker 2: of it, but after half a decade atop the pop

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Speaker 2: pecking order, the Rolling Stones had shockingly little to show

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Speaker 2: for it. It was a classic rock and roll ripoff

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Speaker 2: the deal signs when they were hopelessly green club rats

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Speaker 2: years earlier, and sapped them of their earnings through royalties,

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Speaker 2: publishing and touring. Changes in management and record labels offered

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Speaker 2: hope for more lucrative days ahead, but if they wanted

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Speaker 2: to maintain the first class lifestyle to which they become accustomed,

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Speaker 2: they needed a constant influx of cash, so they kept working,

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Speaker 2: whether they wanted to or not. For years, journalists had

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Speaker 2: asked that favorite question, when do you think you guys

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Speaker 2: are going to break up? And the honest answer was

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Speaker 2: quite simply when they could afford it. According to Robert Greenfield,

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Speaker 2: money and the accumulation of it was a crucial consideration

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Speaker 2: when planning the nineteen seventy two American Tour.

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Speaker 3: Here's the aten point. They needed that tour to survive financially.

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Speaker 3: They were broke. You cannot imagine how these boys spent money.

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Speaker 3: They didn't spend it. It ran through them like a river.

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Speaker 2: Certainly Keith wasn't aware of He.

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Speaker 3: Didn't keep he didn't look at how much the housekeeping costs,

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Speaker 3: for they had servants. They lived in the Grand Manor

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Speaker 3: without keeping track.

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Speaker 2: Drummer Charlie Watts copped to their excessive spending when talking

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Speaker 2: to Greenfield back in nineteen seventy three. Here's the vintage

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Speaker 2: audio courtesy of our friends at the Northwestern Archives.

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Speaker 4: We spend it. I'm gonna have a lot of things

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Speaker 4: because I was.

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Speaker 5: All my money goes in objects, by the fucking houses

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Speaker 5: full of objects.

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Speaker 4: The houses. I've never been.

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Speaker 2: Anywhere near it Stone's basis. Bill Wyman defended their choice

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Speaker 2: necessity really so travel on what they call the thin

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Speaker 2: end of the plane. You know, whether space, the stretch

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Speaker 2: your legs, and they don't mind if you have that

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Speaker 2: third complimentary drink.

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Speaker 6: I mean it was like class because there you go

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Speaker 6: not only because of the comfort, because of this a

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Speaker 6: bit more room, but that is comforts, but because it's

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Speaker 6: you get less hussles and you never get tourists. You're

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Speaker 6: always travel in a limo because taxi drivers won't even

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Speaker 6: take you, you know. But now, of course it is comfort.

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Speaker 2: Mick Jagger, a one time London School of Economic student,

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Speaker 2: was too cool to be bothered by financial particularities, at

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Speaker 2: least in public.

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Speaker 7: And I'm rich and I.

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Speaker 4: Don't have really very much play, but I don't care.

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Speaker 4: You know, I'm.

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Speaker 7: In called a businessman or anything. I mean, that's bullshit.

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Speaker 7: I mean I've been called at hundreds of times. But

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Speaker 7: you're a businessman. Yeah, But I'm not interested in money.

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Speaker 7: I mean all it's not a businessman wants to be

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Speaker 7: rich and I don't.

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Speaker 2: But Bill Wyman, the oldest member of the band, was

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Speaker 2: more of a realist going into the nineteen seventy two tour.

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Speaker 4: We need the money, absolutely, you got to keep what

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Speaker 4: we do. We live at a.

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Speaker 6: Certain level and it's it's it's fairly high level. You've

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Speaker 6: got to keep working. You haven't got enough money in

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Speaker 6: the bank to see you through for the next ten years.

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Speaker 6: And known about lifetime. I read these incredible right outs

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Speaker 6: all the time, and ever since we've been going about

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Speaker 6: the Stones, who've got more money than they know what

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Speaker 6: to do with. I've never had a lot of money it.

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Speaker 2: In addition to these lavish expenditures, the Stone's budget balancing

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Speaker 2: was further hampered by a devastating discovery. As the band

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Speaker 2: took control of their business affairs in the new decade,

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Speaker 2: they learned that not a penny of income tax had

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Speaker 2: been paid during their sixties prime. For a group who

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Speaker 2: were barely scraping by financially, a gargantuan back tax bill

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Speaker 2: was a full scale disaster.

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Speaker 6: But that was a very serious financial position because the

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Speaker 6: people that have been looking after us and we trusted

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Speaker 6: and didn't do their job, you know, because the tax

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Speaker 6: was never taken care of as we thought it was.

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Speaker 3: They discovered, you know, an American company and the royalties

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Speaker 3: you never paid them, the classic welcome to the record business. Okay.

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Speaker 3: Also no expersions here. They were in the ninety percent

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Speaker 3: tax bracket in England. You know, it's like taxman, you know,

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Speaker 3: to tax you when you die. Put a penny on

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Speaker 3: your eye. Okay, thank you.

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Speaker 2: The Stones had learned the hard way what George Harrison

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Speaker 2: had sniped about in song in years earlier. The British

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Speaker 2: labor government had introduced a super tax of over ninety

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Speaker 2: percent to its highest earners. This meant that for every

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Speaker 2: million pounds earned, members of this ultra exclusive tax bracket

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Speaker 2: were left with just seventy thousand pounds. So, in other words,

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Speaker 2: the Stones didn't just owe back taxes. They owed a

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Speaker 2: lot of back taxes. In order to make enough money

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Speaker 2: to live and chip away at their massive tax bill,

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Speaker 2: they would have to earn a substantial amount of cash rapidly.

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Speaker 2: As Bill Wyman could attest, this just wasn't in the cards.

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Speaker 6: It's totally mathematically impossible to earn more money to be

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Speaker 6: taxed more, to be left with more to pay back

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Speaker 6: what you owed in one year, to be able to

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Speaker 6: finish out with nothing to nabled are paying eighty six

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Speaker 6: percent tax on that and be left with enough money

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Speaker 6: to pay that Richuodian land revenue and finish up right now,

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Speaker 6: I've got nothing.

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Speaker 2: To square their debts and rebuild their fortunes. They needed

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Speaker 2: to leave the UK and its oppressive inland revenue service

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Speaker 2: and settle somewhere with lower taxes. America was considered, but

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Speaker 2: prior drugs convictions made them unwelcome immigrants in the eyes

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Speaker 2: of Uncle Sam and the NBI, so they looked across

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Speaker 2: the channel, and so it was decided they would move

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Speaker 2: to France. In April nineteen seventy one, just before the

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Speaker 2: start of the British tax year. The band spent their

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Speaker 2: last months as UK residents mounting a goodbye tour of

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Speaker 2: their homeland. The ignoble victory lap culminated in a going

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Speaker 2: away soareet the notorious Skindle's Hotel for friends like John Lennon,

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Speaker 2: Eric Clapton and The Who's Roger Daltrey. As was the fashion,

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Speaker 2: the party raged until two am, drawing complaints from the

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Speaker 2: more respectable guests. Request the quiet down went unheated. Hotel

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Speaker 2: management literally pulled the plug by cutting the power supply.

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Speaker 2: An inebriated Mick Jagger was reportedly so enraged that he

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Speaker 2: hurled a table through a plate glass window. All things considered,

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Speaker 2: leaving the country a short time later probably wasn't the

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Speaker 2: worst idea.

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Speaker 3: They had to leave. You got to go, and so

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Speaker 3: that was what exile was all about. They had to

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Speaker 3: go live in France, which trust me, Mars would have

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Speaker 3: been more welcoming to them. I mean, they were english

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Speaker 3: Man like, what they ate for breakfast, and the big

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Speaker 3: event was when that day old English newspapers would arrive.

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Speaker 3: Oh thank god, man, I could read the Daily Mail.

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Speaker 3: These boys were English, England and France. That's why there

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Speaker 3: was a channel. They don't like each other. They had

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Speaker 3: nothing to do with one another, and so they were

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Speaker 3: so alienated.

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Speaker 2: Bill Wyman said as much when speak the green Field

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Speaker 2: in nineteen seventy three.

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Speaker 3: Next time, Yeah, it does.

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Speaker 6: It does because you're totally out of touch with the

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Speaker 6: music scene.

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Speaker 4: There isn't any in France.

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Speaker 6: There's no TV shows you can watch, there's no bands

236
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Speaker 6: you can go and see unless you're right in Paris

237
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Speaker 6: and there's not too many. Then you can't get the

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Speaker 6: latest records. You know. You have to have a the

239
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Speaker 6: sent from America or sim from.

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Speaker 4: England and you go on from there.

241
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Speaker 6: The pot papers come if you ask well them a

242
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Speaker 6: week later. You're never right on right there all the time.

243
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Speaker 2: Keith Richards was especially aggrieved by the resettlement. He couldn't

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Speaker 2: shake the sense that the Stones have been chased out

245
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Speaker 2: of their home by the government who feared their influence

246
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Speaker 2: over the youth was too great. Given Mick Jaggers place

247
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Speaker 2: on Richard Nixon's enemies list, he may well have been right.

248
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Speaker 2: Whatever the case, Keith preferred to spend his money on

249
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Speaker 2: drugs and guitars rather than help the British government purchase

250
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Speaker 2: more h bombs, and deeply resented the disruption of his lifestyle.

251
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Speaker 7: It is a fucking drake not to be able to

252
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Speaker 7: know that I particularly want to be in England all

253
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Speaker 7: that amount of time here, But it is.

254
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Speaker 5: A dragon not to be able to if.

255
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Speaker 1: You want to go there.

256
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Speaker 2: Joined by his longtime partner Anita Pallenberg and their young

257
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Speaker 2: son Marlin, Keith's adjustment was probably made easier by his

258
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Speaker 2: palatial rental home, Villa Nelcott, which quickly became the band's

259
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Speaker 2: base of operations while abroad. Perched on the rocky cliffs

260
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Speaker 2: high above the Franch Harbor on the French Riviera, the

261
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Speaker 2: sixteen room Bellapuck mansion was, like Keith himself, equal parts

262
00:14:36,200 --> 00:14:40,200
Speaker 2: fabulous and feral. Just beyond the heavy iron gates lay

263
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Speaker 2: an overgrown jungle that shielded the house from the road,

264
00:14:43,360 --> 00:14:46,720
Speaker 2: filled with cypress, palm and pine trees, as well as

265
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Speaker 2: more exotic species assembled from across the globe. Around back,

266
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Speaker 2: a long flight of steps led to a private beach

267
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Speaker 2: and jetty, all overlooked by a broad veranda framed by

268
00:14:57,240 --> 00:15:01,720
Speaker 2: a double tier of Romanesque columns. Inside, the rooms glittered

269
00:15:01,760 --> 00:15:06,080
Speaker 2: like jewels. Brilliant light from the azure expanse beyond streamed

270
00:15:06,120 --> 00:15:09,360
Speaker 2: in through the thirty foot windows. Reflecting off the mirrored doors,

271
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Speaker 2: rose marble fireplaces, enormous crystal chandeliers, and well polished parquet floors.

272
00:15:15,600 --> 00:15:17,960
Speaker 2: It lent a surreal shimmer to a scene that would

273
00:15:17,960 --> 00:15:21,680
Speaker 2: grow more and more unreal by the day. The ornate

274
00:15:21,720 --> 00:15:24,760
Speaker 2: molding atop the walls were carved with angels and cherubs.

275
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Speaker 2: These gilded figures kept watch over Keith Richards, the fallen Angel.

276
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Speaker 2: If there ever was one who did the decorating, he

277
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Speaker 2: asked upon first seeing the place. Bloody Marie Antoinette Vick

278
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Speaker 2: Jagger had been the first of you the property, but

279
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Speaker 2: he felt it too ostentatious and a bit too public. Keith,

280
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Speaker 2: on the other hand, had no such concerns, and the

281
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Speaker 2: prolence of the times, it was cool with him. The

282
00:15:50,640 --> 00:15:53,800
Speaker 2: astronomical twenty five hundred dollars a month rent seemed to

283
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Speaker 2: defeat the purpose of the whole cost cutting venture, but

284
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Speaker 2: the home came with a suitably seedy reputation, and you

285
00:15:59,440 --> 00:16:02,840
Speaker 2: can't put up on that. According to rumor, it had

286
00:16:02,880 --> 00:16:05,840
Speaker 2: been inhabited by Nazis during World War Two, and the

287
00:16:05,880 --> 00:16:10,480
Speaker 2: expansive basement was allegedly the scene of Gestapo interrogations. House

288
00:16:10,520 --> 00:16:13,640
Speaker 2: guests that summer claimed they saw vintage heating vents decorated

289
00:16:13,640 --> 00:16:16,720
Speaker 2: with gold swastikas, or a Nazi era box in the

290
00:16:16,760 --> 00:16:20,760
Speaker 2: basement filled with vials of morphine. But let's just say

291
00:16:20,840 --> 00:16:25,120
Speaker 2: Nelcott guests aren't the most reliable narrators. True or not,

292
00:16:25,320 --> 00:16:29,120
Speaker 2: there were certainly a sinister vibe surrounding the elegantly decrepit property,

293
00:16:29,600 --> 00:16:31,480
Speaker 2: and it was about to get an extra dose of

294
00:16:31,520 --> 00:16:35,800
Speaker 2: infamy that summer. Villa Nelkut would play host to the

295
00:16:35,840 --> 00:16:40,520
Speaker 2: notoriously debought sessions of the Rolling Stones, griny musical masterpiece

296
00:16:40,920 --> 00:16:42,160
Speaker 2: Exile on Main Street.

297
00:16:49,720 --> 00:16:54,240
Speaker 3: Somebody said that the seventies were born in Villa Nellcutt,

298
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Speaker 3: where the Stones were recording Exile on Main Street. It

299
00:16:58,040 --> 00:17:01,560
Speaker 3: all figures into the seventies two two are to record exile.

300
00:17:01,680 --> 00:17:04,320
Speaker 3: They were exiles, you know, they weren't on Main Street,

301
00:17:04,320 --> 00:17:06,320
Speaker 3: but they were tax exiles.

302
00:17:06,400 --> 00:17:06,760
Speaker 8: And so.

303
00:17:08,400 --> 00:17:11,399
Speaker 3: I think a lot of the darkness in the album

304
00:17:12,080 --> 00:17:15,000
Speaker 3: comes from how alienated they were from everything.

305
00:17:16,960 --> 00:17:19,520
Speaker 2: Sessions wound up at Nelcook through a mix of necessity

306
00:17:19,800 --> 00:17:22,320
Speaker 2: and laziness. The original plan had been to find a

307
00:17:22,400 --> 00:17:25,480
Speaker 2: proper recording studio somewhere near the Stones home base in

308
00:17:25,560 --> 00:17:29,080
Speaker 2: southern France, but when producer Jimmy Miller and engineer Andy

309
00:17:29,200 --> 00:17:32,520
Speaker 2: Johns failed to find a suitable room, Keith healthfully offered

310
00:17:32,600 --> 00:17:35,440
Speaker 2: up his basement bunker. The chance to record in the

311
00:17:35,480 --> 00:17:38,280
Speaker 2: comfort of his own home had two major pluses for Keith.

312
00:17:38,880 --> 00:17:40,919
Speaker 2: The first was that it kept him close to his family,

313
00:17:41,359 --> 00:17:45,560
Speaker 2: longtime partner Anita Pallenberg and their young son Marlin. The second,

314
00:17:45,720 --> 00:17:47,680
Speaker 2: it must be said, was that it kept them close

315
00:17:47,720 --> 00:17:51,240
Speaker 2: to his stash. So Jimmy, Andy and the Stones loyal

316
00:17:51,359 --> 00:17:55,639
Speaker 2: roadie Ian Stewart set about transforming the labyrinthine cellar complex

317
00:17:55,720 --> 00:17:59,520
Speaker 2: into a makeshift studio. Endless yards of cables were snaked

318
00:17:59,560 --> 00:18:01,879
Speaker 2: up the stage and out the kitchen window to the

319
00:18:01,960 --> 00:18:05,719
Speaker 2: Rolling Stones mobile recording unit, essentially a million dollar trailer

320
00:18:05,800 --> 00:18:08,760
Speaker 2: parked in the driveway. The demands of amps and other

321
00:18:08,880 --> 00:18:12,199
Speaker 2: musical equipment proved too much for the villa's ancient electrical system,

322
00:18:12,520 --> 00:18:15,119
Speaker 2: so the ever enterprising Ian Stewart came up with a

323
00:18:15,200 --> 00:18:18,800
Speaker 2: novel solution. He tapped nearby power lines belonging to the

324
00:18:18,840 --> 00:18:21,680
Speaker 2: French railway system, one of the many stunts that Nell

325
00:18:21,720 --> 00:18:24,640
Speaker 2: could that could and probably should have gotten them deported.

326
00:18:25,080 --> 00:18:28,240
Speaker 2: But despite his efforts, power outages were frequent, and so

327
00:18:28,440 --> 00:18:31,639
Speaker 2: was the odd electrical fire. Both of these occurrences were

328
00:18:31,680 --> 00:18:34,880
Speaker 2: frequently blamed on the spirits of Nazis that they erroneously

329
00:18:34,960 --> 00:18:38,920
Speaker 2: believed that previously inhabited the basement. Even without the flames,

330
00:18:39,000 --> 00:18:42,280
Speaker 2: the dark and dingy space felt like a sauna, impressively

331
00:18:42,359 --> 00:18:45,480
Speaker 2: hot and so humid that the guitars never stated tune

332
00:18:46,400 --> 00:18:49,920
Speaker 2: the homegrown nature, with Keith colefully called the tropical disease.

333
00:18:50,040 --> 00:18:52,800
Speaker 2: Sessions might have helped foster the US against the world

334
00:18:52,880 --> 00:18:56,040
Speaker 2: outlaw spirit that prevailed as the band embraced their status

335
00:18:56,119 --> 00:18:59,160
Speaker 2: as exiles, but mostly it was hell.

336
00:19:00,840 --> 00:19:03,160
Speaker 3: You could not have come up with a more insane

337
00:19:03,320 --> 00:19:08,800
Speaker 3: way to make an album. This was attempting to record

338
00:19:09,320 --> 00:19:15,920
Speaker 3: an album in what was not a studio. Again the insanity.

339
00:19:16,200 --> 00:19:16,359
Speaker 2: I mean.

340
00:19:16,480 --> 00:19:19,240
Speaker 3: Keith was so delighted he said to me, oh, you know,

341
00:19:19,400 --> 00:19:22,320
Speaker 3: man couldn't find a studio. They looked everywhere and said,

342
00:19:22,560 --> 00:19:24,639
Speaker 3: guess what, it's gonna be making it in my own home.

343
00:19:25,040 --> 00:19:27,840
Speaker 3: It's going to be in the basement, I said. I

344
00:19:27,880 --> 00:19:30,760
Speaker 3: didn't say anything. But this didn't prove to be the

345
00:19:32,080 --> 00:19:35,200
Speaker 3: smartest idea of all time. Working all night because it

346
00:19:35,280 --> 00:19:38,119
Speaker 3: was so blazing hot during the day, it was just

347
00:19:38,280 --> 00:19:42,359
Speaker 3: chaos and anarchy, and they functioned like that for a

348
00:19:42,560 --> 00:19:43,480
Speaker 3: long time.

349
00:19:44,160 --> 00:19:47,119
Speaker 2: I'm at Erdigan, the music industry titan and head of

350
00:19:47,200 --> 00:19:49,960
Speaker 2: the Rolling Stones new record label, was anxious to see

351
00:19:50,000 --> 00:19:52,800
Speaker 2: how the band's follow up to their chartbusting previous album,

352
00:19:52,880 --> 00:19:55,960
Speaker 2: Sticky Fingers, was going. He paid a visit to Noka

353
00:19:56,080 --> 00:19:59,640
Speaker 2: that summer and was taken aback by the decidedly funky situation.

354
00:20:01,720 --> 00:20:04,200
Speaker 4: Several of the sessions struck by the madness of the operation.

355
00:20:04,359 --> 00:20:06,520
Speaker 4: I mean every yeah, it was it was a bit mad,

356
00:20:06,560 --> 00:20:08,040
Speaker 4: but it was it works all right.

357
00:20:08,119 --> 00:20:10,320
Speaker 5: You know, everything they do is a bit you know

358
00:20:10,480 --> 00:20:15,680
Speaker 5: that madness and extravagance is part of you know, of

359
00:20:16,440 --> 00:20:19,040
Speaker 5: their you know the way they can that they carry

360
00:20:19,080 --> 00:20:25,240
Speaker 5: on their faces. Now I understand there's a marvelously mad,

361
00:20:25,359 --> 00:20:29,240
Speaker 5: outrageous goings on, you know, surround most of the things,

362
00:20:29,400 --> 00:20:32,440
Speaker 5: which I think is what gives you know, gives the

363
00:20:32,560 --> 00:20:36,200
Speaker 5: magic to the you know, to not it don't really

364
00:20:36,280 --> 00:20:38,320
Speaker 5: related to the music in a strange sense. It is,

365
00:20:38,440 --> 00:20:40,399
Speaker 5: you know, in a way, it is the way that

366
00:20:40,600 --> 00:20:43,440
Speaker 5: but certainly you know, to the average person that s

367
00:20:43,680 --> 00:20:45,440
Speaker 5: their way of life and so forth. You know is

368
00:20:45,600 --> 00:20:49,920
Speaker 5: UH is dramatic, you know UH and dramatically different, and

369
00:20:50,800 --> 00:20:52,040
Speaker 5: everybody loves them for that.

370
00:20:52,840 --> 00:20:56,960
Speaker 2: The limitations and utter impracticality of the recording process played

371
00:20:57,000 --> 00:20:59,399
Speaker 2: a crucial part in shaping the album that many have

372
00:20:59,480 --> 00:21:03,520
Speaker 2: come to call The Stone's Best. It's an unapologetically imperfect

373
00:21:03,600 --> 00:21:09,560
Speaker 2: collection of ragged, rambling mood pieces that blended the American blues, gospel, country,

374
00:21:09,600 --> 00:21:11,520
Speaker 2: and R and B influences that were part of the

375
00:21:11,600 --> 00:21:14,920
Speaker 2: band's DNA. That's the stuff America's given the rest of

376
00:21:14,960 --> 00:21:18,280
Speaker 2: the world, Keith would later say, far bigger than h bombs.

377
00:21:18,600 --> 00:21:22,440
Speaker 3: The sound comes from the fact that they were in

378
00:21:23,119 --> 00:21:26,840
Speaker 3: the basement of villain Nell Cut Jimmy Miller and Andy

379
00:21:26,960 --> 00:21:29,920
Speaker 3: John's were sitting in the Rolling Stones mobile unit. I

380
00:21:30,040 --> 00:21:32,520
Speaker 3: was there the day they drove that down, this huge

381
00:21:32,560 --> 00:21:36,119
Speaker 3: trailer truck packed with what would now be nine million

382
00:21:36,200 --> 00:21:39,080
Speaker 3: dollars worth of sound equipment, state of the art, and

383
00:21:39,240 --> 00:21:44,800
Speaker 3: so Andy and Jimmy are sitting outside next to the villa,

384
00:21:45,320 --> 00:21:47,920
Speaker 3: and anytime they want to talk to Keith or Micker

385
00:21:47,960 --> 00:21:49,880
Speaker 3: tell them to stop playing. They have to get out

386
00:21:49,880 --> 00:21:52,120
Speaker 3: of the truck, go around the front of the house,

387
00:21:52,200 --> 00:21:55,000
Speaker 3: go up the steps like a castle, Go into the house,

388
00:21:55,080 --> 00:21:57,920
Speaker 3: go into the kitchen, go down the stairs into this

389
00:21:58,240 --> 00:22:03,320
Speaker 3: warren of you know, so up human subterranean spaces, and say, okay,

390
00:22:03,400 --> 00:22:07,879
Speaker 3: stop stop stop. That's one of the reasons it sounds

391
00:22:07,960 --> 00:22:09,920
Speaker 3: like it does. They could have been in the congo.

392
00:22:10,520 --> 00:22:13,040
Speaker 3: It was recorded in a manner that no one had

393
00:22:13,119 --> 00:22:14,679
Speaker 3: recorded an album before.

394
00:22:18,880 --> 00:22:21,480
Speaker 2: Sessions were further complicated by the fact that, since it

395
00:22:21,600 --> 00:22:24,680
Speaker 2: was Keith's house, things were done on Keith time, which

396
00:22:24,800 --> 00:22:28,680
Speaker 2: roughly translated to whatever he felt like it. The idea

397
00:22:28,720 --> 00:22:30,760
Speaker 2: of playing a note of music before the sun went

398
00:22:30,840 --> 00:22:34,760
Speaker 2: down was ludicrous, he later proclaimed, so he worked dracula hours.

399
00:22:35,880 --> 00:22:38,119
Speaker 2: To be fair, there were lots of distractions from the

400
00:22:38,160 --> 00:22:41,040
Speaker 2: moment Keith decided to open his eyes, the timing of

401
00:22:41,080 --> 00:22:44,560
Speaker 2: which varied wildly from day to day. Like a hippie

402
00:22:44,640 --> 00:22:47,240
Speaker 2: sun king, he would descend to the living room, where

403
00:22:47,280 --> 00:22:50,040
Speaker 2: a life size cutout of a shirtless Mick Jagger hung

404
00:22:50,080 --> 00:22:54,080
Speaker 2: over the fireplace. There he would greet his endlessly revolving

405
00:22:54,200 --> 00:22:58,280
Speaker 2: cast of not especially loyal subjects, often several dozen in number.

406
00:22:59,440 --> 00:23:05,080
Speaker 2: These were friends or friends, users and pushers, wheelers and dealers, French,

407
00:23:05,160 --> 00:23:08,800
Speaker 2: American and British, all struggling to be heard over the oversized,

408
00:23:08,840 --> 00:23:12,040
Speaker 2: state of the art pioneer speaker system that constantly blasted

409
00:23:12,119 --> 00:23:16,080
Speaker 2: Keith's preferred soundtrack outlaw country stars like Merle Haggard and

410
00:23:16,160 --> 00:23:19,879
Speaker 2: George Jones, early sixties girl groups, or doo wop classics.

411
00:23:20,480 --> 00:23:23,359
Speaker 2: A chef known to all as fat Jack, was hired

412
00:23:23,359 --> 00:23:27,520
Speaker 2: to prepare daily gourmet luncheons for one and all. Keith's partner, Anita,

413
00:23:27,800 --> 00:23:30,719
Speaker 2: the only French speaker to reside at Nelcott, presided over

414
00:23:30,840 --> 00:23:34,119
Speaker 2: meals for twenty five or more that often lasted three hours,

415
00:23:35,119 --> 00:23:37,760
Speaker 2: and then they were gone again, leaving her to moan

416
00:23:38,240 --> 00:23:41,520
Speaker 2: why is it that no one even says goodbye? People

417
00:23:41,640 --> 00:23:45,639
Speaker 2: just appeared and disappeared. Last names were never used. It

418
00:23:45,760 --> 00:23:48,920
Speaker 2: was a Felliniesque freak show of the first order. The

419
00:23:49,040 --> 00:23:52,400
Speaker 2: party was costing Keith a reported seven thousand dollars a week,

420
00:23:53,080 --> 00:23:57,120
Speaker 2: so much for saving money, he also purchased a two

421
00:23:57,160 --> 00:24:00,639
Speaker 2: thousand dollars speedboat, which he called the Mandras. It was

422
00:24:00,720 --> 00:24:03,879
Speaker 2: named after a recreational downer, clearly a joke about the

423
00:24:03,960 --> 00:24:06,119
Speaker 2: velocity of the craft reached. With Keith at the wheel,

424
00:24:07,680 --> 00:24:10,560
Speaker 2: Anita would watch from the verandahs, the father of her child,

425
00:24:10,680 --> 00:24:13,920
Speaker 2: took off at high speeds, occasionally ramming other boats or

426
00:24:14,000 --> 00:24:16,920
Speaker 2: running aground on rocks. He also ran out of gas

427
00:24:17,040 --> 00:24:20,160
Speaker 2: on more than one occasion. Without a radio, he would

428
00:24:20,200 --> 00:24:23,280
Speaker 2: just drift waiting to be rescued. And he always was.

429
00:24:24,160 --> 00:24:28,000
Speaker 2: God looks out for drunks, babies and Keith Richards. It seems.

430
00:24:29,920 --> 00:24:35,960
Speaker 3: Keith, Yeah, bring over the Mandras, my speedboat and my jaguar,

431
00:24:36,160 --> 00:24:38,000
Speaker 3: and you know then I'm going to get into a

432
00:24:38,080 --> 00:24:40,760
Speaker 3: fight with the harbor mester and pull a toy gun

433
00:24:40,880 --> 00:24:41,240
Speaker 3: on him.

434
00:24:41,320 --> 00:24:44,840
Speaker 8: And I mean they just you had people to clean

435
00:24:45,000 --> 00:24:47,879
Speaker 8: up the whatever mission made, and they just weren't aware.

436
00:24:48,320 --> 00:24:52,600
Speaker 3: W Somerset mom said about the French riviera, it's a

437
00:24:52,680 --> 00:24:56,199
Speaker 3: sunny place for shady people. Absolutely correct.

438
00:24:56,800 --> 00:24:59,560
Speaker 2: Some of the guests were more illustrious than others. Not

439
00:25:00,040 --> 00:25:03,720
Speaker 2: speedscribe William Burrows arrived to persuade the Stones to contribute

440
00:25:03,760 --> 00:25:06,960
Speaker 2: a soundtrack to a film adaptation of his novel Naked Lunch.

441
00:25:07,840 --> 00:25:10,920
Speaker 2: Marshall Chess, the president of the Rolling Stones new record label,

442
00:25:11,240 --> 00:25:14,359
Speaker 2: dropped by to check on business, only to get sidetracks

443
00:25:14,359 --> 00:25:17,639
Speaker 2: smoking opium with Anita. John Lennon paid a visit on

444
00:25:17,720 --> 00:25:20,359
Speaker 2: his way to the nearby con Film Festival, but a

445
00:25:20,440 --> 00:25:22,680
Speaker 2: day living like Keith Richards was too much for him.

446
00:25:23,320 --> 00:25:26,440
Speaker 2: Feeling nauseous after an indulgent afternoon on the terrace, the

447
00:25:26,520 --> 00:25:30,200
Speaker 2: ex beatle excused himself to the WC. He didn't make it.

448
00:25:30,760 --> 00:25:33,080
Speaker 2: They found them lying at the foot of the grand staircase,

449
00:25:33,280 --> 00:25:35,959
Speaker 2: having emptied the contents of his stomach on the hall carpet.

450
00:25:36,440 --> 00:25:39,320
Speaker 2: Too much wine, too much sun, or maybe it was

451
00:25:39,359 --> 00:25:41,920
Speaker 2: the forty five minutes he and Keith spent closeted in

452
00:25:42,000 --> 00:25:46,160
Speaker 2: an upstairs bedroom doing god knows what. Who's to say, really,

453
00:25:51,720 --> 00:25:54,679
Speaker 2: The guest most able to keep pace with Keith's prodigious

454
00:25:54,680 --> 00:25:59,120
Speaker 2: consumption habits was one time bird Graham Parsons. The pair

455
00:25:59,240 --> 00:26:03,760
Speaker 2: shared a passion for country music and illicit substances, especially

456
00:26:03,840 --> 00:26:06,959
Speaker 2: the latter, so much so that Parsons had recently been

457
00:26:07,080 --> 00:26:10,840
Speaker 2: fired from his band, The Flying Burrito Brothers. Even to

458
00:26:10,920 --> 00:26:14,159
Speaker 2: the other transient house guests, hardly post her children for

459
00:26:14,280 --> 00:26:18,000
Speaker 2: clean and orderly living. Graham and Keith's toxic code dependency

460
00:26:18,200 --> 00:26:21,760
Speaker 2: was playing to see. It was especially obvious to Mick Jagger,

461
00:26:22,640 --> 00:26:24,880
Speaker 2: though he generally kept his distance from the nell cut

462
00:26:25,040 --> 00:26:28,480
Speaker 2: Back in how Mick remained protective and even slightly possessive

463
00:26:28,560 --> 00:26:31,879
Speaker 2: of his fellow Glimmer twin he had a right to

464
00:26:31,920 --> 00:26:35,560
Speaker 2: be wary of Graham. Within two years he would die

465
00:26:35,600 --> 00:26:36,720
Speaker 2: of a heroin overdose.

466
00:26:40,880 --> 00:26:45,239
Speaker 3: Graham came to stay with Keith at Nellcutt while they

467
00:26:45,280 --> 00:26:48,040
Speaker 3: were making egg Sile. This is of interest in terms

468
00:26:48,080 --> 00:26:54,119
Speaker 3: of Mick control and Keith. So I left at the

469
00:26:54,240 --> 00:26:57,200
Speaker 3: end of June. This would have been maybe second or

470
00:26:57,280 --> 00:26:59,920
Speaker 3: third week in July. Graham came with his wife Gret

471
00:27:01,400 --> 00:27:06,520
Speaker 3: and Keith was not showing up at night when they recorded,

472
00:27:07,080 --> 00:27:09,480
Speaker 3: but he was sitting and playing all day with Graham

473
00:27:10,160 --> 00:27:13,720
Speaker 3: all day acoustic guitars. There's great photographs of them on

474
00:27:13,880 --> 00:27:18,480
Speaker 3: one of the many porches in the living room, and

475
00:27:18,680 --> 00:27:22,359
Speaker 3: Mick made it plain that they were no longer welcome

476
00:27:22,400 --> 00:27:25,200
Speaker 3: there and he had to leave to get the album made.

477
00:27:25,920 --> 00:27:28,800
Speaker 3: There's pressure for them to come up with this album.

478
00:27:28,960 --> 00:27:32,520
Speaker 3: You need to follow sticky fingers. We have this brand

479
00:27:32,600 --> 00:27:38,000
Speaker 3: new audience, and Keith is more interested in playing Merle

480
00:27:38,119 --> 00:27:40,639
Speaker 3: Haggard with Graham in the afternoon.

481
00:27:41,280 --> 00:27:44,000
Speaker 2: For the Stones, the days of living together in vans

482
00:27:44,119 --> 00:27:47,520
Speaker 2: or swallowed flats were long gone. Indeed, they were no

483
00:27:47,640 --> 00:27:51,080
Speaker 2: longer as close as they once were metaphorically or literally.

484
00:27:51,680 --> 00:27:54,480
Speaker 2: The rental pads were strewn across the country, a decent

485
00:27:54,560 --> 00:27:57,760
Speaker 2: trek from one another. Bill Wyman was a relative neighbor

486
00:27:58,000 --> 00:28:00,359
Speaker 2: just down the road in Nice, but he was turned

487
00:28:00,400 --> 00:28:04,480
Speaker 2: off by nell Cutt's narcotic vibes and stayed away. All told,

488
00:28:04,600 --> 00:28:06,840
Speaker 2: he played bass on less than half of the Exile

489
00:28:06,920 --> 00:28:10,280
Speaker 2: on Main Street tracks. Here's his interview with Robert Greenfield,

490
00:28:10,680 --> 00:28:13,840
Speaker 2: courtesy of our friends at the Northwestern University Archives.

491
00:28:14,400 --> 00:28:15,919
Speaker 4: So I like to be separate. I like to be.

492
00:28:17,560 --> 00:28:22,640
Speaker 6: Right at times, and it creates a much better thing.

493
00:28:22,760 --> 00:28:24,600
Speaker 6: You can put up with each other much better if

494
00:28:24,600 --> 00:28:26,080
Speaker 6: you're not on top of each other all day long.

495
00:28:26,119 --> 00:28:30,159
Speaker 6: Maybe day it's Roadie Rowster together, because we do separate

496
00:28:30,359 --> 00:28:33,040
Speaker 6: when we need to, when we're not working, we do

497
00:28:33,160 --> 00:28:34,520
Speaker 6: go into our own private lives.

498
00:28:34,880 --> 00:28:36,840
Speaker 3: They all lived as far from one another in the

499
00:28:36,920 --> 00:28:38,120
Speaker 3: South of France as they could.

500
00:28:38,360 --> 00:28:40,360
Speaker 2: Well, that makes a lot of sense. You have to

501
00:28:40,400 --> 00:28:41,040
Speaker 2: get to nell Cut.

502
00:28:41,160 --> 00:28:44,080
Speaker 3: That's where you're recording this album. Charlie's An Hour Away

503
00:28:44,240 --> 00:28:48,600
Speaker 3: Bill is here. It's like utterly chaos, so nobody understands

504
00:28:48,640 --> 00:28:51,400
Speaker 3: the chaos. They thrived on chaos right.

505
00:28:53,360 --> 00:28:55,760
Speaker 2: Mick preferred to reside in Paris with his new wife,

506
00:28:56,040 --> 00:28:59,840
Speaker 2: Bianca Perez Moro marcias than pregnant with their first child.

507
00:29:00,520 --> 00:29:02,920
Speaker 2: They met less than a year earlier at a Parisian party,

508
00:29:03,400 --> 00:29:05,920
Speaker 2: Mick it asserted as alpha status by snatching the two

509
00:29:06,000 --> 00:29:08,560
Speaker 2: pay off the head of her fifty something year old escort.

510
00:29:09,040 --> 00:29:12,120
Speaker 2: Cynical gossip columnist speculated that he was drawn to Bianca

511
00:29:12,320 --> 00:29:15,719
Speaker 2: chiefly because her slight figure and fine boned face closely

512
00:29:15,800 --> 00:29:18,520
Speaker 2: resembled his own, but in truth, he was attracted to

513
00:29:18,560 --> 00:29:22,680
Speaker 2: their differences, qualities he wished to cultivate it himself. Mick

514
00:29:22,720 --> 00:29:25,200
Speaker 2: had been linked to models and pop stars in the past,

515
00:29:25,480 --> 00:29:28,280
Speaker 2: but Bianca was easily the most impressive woman to enter

516
00:29:28,320 --> 00:29:33,480
Speaker 2: his orbit. Cultured, refined, and extremely well educated. Keith, meanwhile,

517
00:29:33,680 --> 00:29:37,360
Speaker 2: was less impressed. He initially considered her just some bimbo,

518
00:29:37,560 --> 00:29:40,280
Speaker 2: to use his words, and found her humorless and aloof

519
00:29:41,000 --> 00:29:44,240
Speaker 2: Bianca must be said, wasn't exactly bowled over by him either,

520
00:29:47,680 --> 00:29:50,280
Speaker 2: but Keith's almost instant is like a Bianca, hints at

521
00:29:50,320 --> 00:29:55,400
Speaker 2: something deeper at play, unspoken and likely unconscious. The relations

522
00:29:55,400 --> 00:29:58,040
Speaker 2: between the two chief stones have been drifting from friendship

523
00:29:58,080 --> 00:30:02,240
Speaker 2: towards mutually beneficial alliance years at a steady clip. Keith

524
00:30:02,280 --> 00:30:06,480
Speaker 2: struggled with his diminishing influence over his partner, a mirrored

525
00:30:06,520 --> 00:30:10,440
Speaker 2: mixed resentment of Graham Parsons. Rather than blame each other

526
00:30:10,560 --> 00:30:13,920
Speaker 2: for their growing divisions, it was easier to blame the outsider.

527
00:30:14,800 --> 00:30:18,320
Speaker 2: They each saw these interlopers as enablers, feeding the addictions

528
00:30:18,360 --> 00:30:21,600
Speaker 2: that were drawing them apart, Keith's for drugs and Mixed

529
00:30:21,640 --> 00:30:26,080
Speaker 2: for flattery. In the society columns, Keith found Bianca self absorbed,

530
00:30:26,520 --> 00:30:30,160
Speaker 2: Mick found Graham self destructive. Never the twain shall meet.

531
00:30:31,280 --> 00:30:34,440
Speaker 2: The bandmate's bond was further strained by the rather indiscreet

532
00:30:34,480 --> 00:30:37,920
Speaker 2: affair that was going on between Keith's partner, Anita and Mick.

533
00:30:38,360 --> 00:30:40,960
Speaker 2: The general vibe of Melcote was that of a royal court,

534
00:30:41,280 --> 00:30:43,960
Speaker 2: with noblemen feeling entitled to sleep with each other's wives

535
00:30:44,040 --> 00:30:46,640
Speaker 2: or girlfriends. But even this was a bridge too far.

536
00:30:47,720 --> 00:30:49,520
Speaker 2: Yet the laid back less. A fair of the era,

537
00:30:49,840 --> 00:30:52,920
Speaker 2: coupled with their stubborn englishness, prevented the two from ever

538
00:30:53,040 --> 00:30:56,680
Speaker 2: addressing the drama directly. Everything was always kept under the

539
00:30:56,760 --> 00:30:59,800
Speaker 2: covers and between the buttons, So the repressed hostility and

540
00:30:59,840 --> 00:31:03,360
Speaker 2: anger slowly built to a fever pitch that summer, creating

541
00:31:03,400 --> 00:31:06,000
Speaker 2: an atmosphere of tensions so thick and palpable that you

542
00:31:06,080 --> 00:31:08,640
Speaker 2: could have cut it with a dull knife. As a result,

543
00:31:08,960 --> 00:31:11,200
Speaker 2: it's no surprise that Nick and Keith began to fall

544
00:31:11,240 --> 00:31:11,760
Speaker 2: out of touch.

545
00:31:13,440 --> 00:31:15,560
Speaker 3: Was it Nell cut by myself? One day? Which is

546
00:31:15,640 --> 00:31:19,400
Speaker 3: shocking because that place was like Macy's on the fourth

547
00:31:19,440 --> 00:31:22,240
Speaker 3: of July. They people came and went. You didn't know

548
00:31:22,280 --> 00:31:25,920
Speaker 3: who anybody was. They had all gone somewhere, okay, and

549
00:31:26,040 --> 00:31:30,080
Speaker 3: I was all alone in this incredible villa, and here

550
00:31:30,160 --> 00:31:33,480
Speaker 3: comes Mick. And so there were phones back then. I

551
00:31:33,520 --> 00:31:37,040
Speaker 3: don't know why Mick dropped in, Okay, and I came

552
00:31:37,120 --> 00:31:40,000
Speaker 3: out of my room. Was there for two weeks and

553
00:31:40,720 --> 00:31:46,000
Speaker 3: here's Mick, and God love him one to one, no audience.

554
00:31:46,600 --> 00:31:49,400
Speaker 3: One of the great actors I've ever encountered in my life.

555
00:31:49,720 --> 00:31:53,200
Speaker 3: He could play roles like he just break your heart, okay,

556
00:31:53,560 --> 00:31:56,080
Speaker 3: and he's sitting at the piano in the living room,

557
00:31:56,080 --> 00:31:59,160
Speaker 3: which you've seen any photographs of nelcut. The living room

558
00:31:59,240 --> 00:32:02,080
Speaker 3: looked like a jump sale in somebody's yard.

559
00:32:02,280 --> 00:32:02,440
Speaker 4: You know.

560
00:32:02,800 --> 00:32:06,600
Speaker 3: There were you know, like those record store things of Mick,

561
00:32:06,960 --> 00:32:10,400
Speaker 3: like a cardboard figure. There were boxes of records. It

562
00:32:10,480 --> 00:32:11,360
Speaker 3: was just chaos.

563
00:32:11,480 --> 00:32:11,760
Speaker 2: Okay.

564
00:32:12,120 --> 00:32:15,160
Speaker 3: But he's at the piano and he's noodling and he's

565
00:32:15,240 --> 00:32:19,280
Speaker 3: picking out notes and I said, Mick, oh, well hello man,

566
00:32:19,440 --> 00:32:21,560
Speaker 3: you know where and then he goes, I won't do

567
00:32:21,640 --> 00:32:24,280
Speaker 3: the dialogue. It's like, where is everybody? I said, oh,

568
00:32:24,320 --> 00:32:26,840
Speaker 3: they just left. They went the thing and he's got

569
00:32:26,880 --> 00:32:29,480
Speaker 3: his head down. He's playing little Boy Blue, that's the role.

570
00:32:30,080 --> 00:32:30,240
Speaker 4: You know.

571
00:32:30,960 --> 00:32:33,400
Speaker 3: I came here to see Keith. We were supposed to

572
00:32:33,480 --> 00:32:37,680
Speaker 3: ride together today. You know, he fucking forgot. It wasn't

573
00:32:38,000 --> 00:32:40,200
Speaker 3: he didn't have a calendar or a diary or a

574
00:32:40,360 --> 00:32:43,520
Speaker 3: day book. It's like you forgot. And he sat there

575
00:32:43,560 --> 00:32:46,160
Speaker 3: and he talked to me like really openly, and it's

576
00:32:46,240 --> 00:32:48,680
Speaker 3: just kind of made conversation and then he kind of

577
00:32:48,920 --> 00:32:51,600
Speaker 3: all right, Matt, see you, and he got I mean

578
00:32:51,680 --> 00:32:54,040
Speaker 3: you see you could see the camera moving behind him, right.

579
00:32:54,160 --> 00:32:56,400
Speaker 3: He got up and he walked slowly out of the village.

580
00:32:56,400 --> 00:32:58,640
Speaker 3: He got in his car or on his motorcycle and

581
00:32:58,720 --> 00:33:01,920
Speaker 3: went home alone. And this is the two pre eminent

582
00:33:02,080 --> 00:33:07,160
Speaker 3: guys in rock and roll songwriters, great songwriters. Yeah, they

583
00:33:07,200 --> 00:33:07,920
Speaker 3: didn't show up.

584
00:33:08,920 --> 00:33:11,640
Speaker 2: The best hope for connection was in the studio, or

585
00:33:11,800 --> 00:33:15,960
Speaker 2: more appropriately, the sweltering basement catacombs at Nellcotte. It was

586
00:33:16,040 --> 00:33:17,960
Speaker 2: here where Keith retired at the end of the night.

587
00:33:18,440 --> 00:33:22,000
Speaker 2: After evenings spent shirtless and barefoot on the veranda sketching

588
00:33:22,040 --> 00:33:24,840
Speaker 2: out his latest compositions with an acoustic guitar as the

589
00:33:24,920 --> 00:33:29,000
Speaker 2: mistrel swept across the harbor. Then he would record for

590
00:33:29,080 --> 00:33:31,920
Speaker 2: as long as the biochemical tornado in his body allowed.

591
00:33:32,560 --> 00:33:35,440
Speaker 2: For example, Keith finished up rocks Off at nine am

592
00:33:35,600 --> 00:33:39,000
Speaker 2: after an all night session, rousing the engineers had retired

593
00:33:39,040 --> 00:33:43,160
Speaker 2: at dawn. The autobiographical track Happy also started this way,

594
00:33:43,600 --> 00:33:45,959
Speaker 2: Born after Anita told them she was pregnant with their

595
00:33:45,960 --> 00:33:49,280
Speaker 2: second child. Keith took a rare lead vocal on that one.

596
00:33:49,640 --> 00:33:52,160
Speaker 2: It was his life after all. But most of these

597
00:33:52,240 --> 00:33:55,400
Speaker 2: interminable jams started out as instrumentals that could go on

598
00:33:55,560 --> 00:33:58,840
Speaker 2: for hours as he reached for the perfect riff. Songs

599
00:33:58,920 --> 00:34:01,680
Speaker 2: like torn and frayed in sweet Virginia were steeped in

600
00:34:01,720 --> 00:34:04,680
Speaker 2: the soulful country sounds that echoed throughout the villa from

601
00:34:04,760 --> 00:34:09,080
Speaker 2: Keith's record player. Standouts like Tumbling Dice and Casino Boogie

602
00:34:09,200 --> 00:34:12,480
Speaker 2: nodded to the riviera gambling palaces down the road in Monaco,

603
00:34:13,040 --> 00:34:16,239
Speaker 2: whereas titles like Shina Light and Stop Breaking Down Very

604
00:34:16,280 --> 00:34:18,719
Speaker 2: Well may have referenced the spotty power supply and the

605
00:34:18,800 --> 00:34:22,360
Speaker 2: less than glamorous basement. Basic tracks would begin with a

606
00:34:22,400 --> 00:34:26,480
Speaker 2: skeleton crew of Melcote mainstays rather than Keith's actual bandmates.

607
00:34:27,200 --> 00:34:29,319
Speaker 2: The fundamental flaw on this approach was that the more

608
00:34:29,400 --> 00:34:31,640
Speaker 2: time you spend in that house, the more likely you

609
00:34:31,719 --> 00:34:33,320
Speaker 2: were to be stoned out of your mind when it

610
00:34:33,360 --> 00:34:36,839
Speaker 2: came time to record. As a result, the sessions were

611
00:34:36,920 --> 00:34:41,480
Speaker 2: unfocused and there's that word again, chaotic. Weeks ticked by

612
00:34:41,600 --> 00:34:45,840
Speaker 2: without completing a single track. The lineup included Bobby Keys,

613
00:34:46,120 --> 00:34:49,399
Speaker 2: a long, tall Texan whose beast level sax prowess made

614
00:34:49,440 --> 00:34:52,840
Speaker 2: him a favorite of Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Leon Russell,

615
00:34:53,160 --> 00:34:56,520
Speaker 2: Joe Cocker and of course the Stones, who previously tapped

616
00:34:56,600 --> 00:34:59,879
Speaker 2: him for the solo on Brown Sugar. His beasts level

617
00:35:00,080 --> 00:35:02,480
Speaker 2: party prowess also made him a favorite of Keith Richards.

618
00:35:03,239 --> 00:35:06,000
Speaker 2: He'll be a familiar face on the STP tour, during

619
00:35:06,040 --> 00:35:09,359
Speaker 2: which he and Keith will be inseparable. Producer Jimmy Miller

620
00:35:09,400 --> 00:35:12,680
Speaker 2: filled in for Charlie Watts on drums and Rookie Rolling Stone,

621
00:35:12,800 --> 00:35:16,600
Speaker 2: Mick Taylor handled the bass, and Bill Wyman's absence brought

622
00:35:16,640 --> 00:35:19,520
Speaker 2: into replace co found the guitarist Brian Jones just two

623
00:35:19,600 --> 00:35:23,000
Speaker 2: years earlier. This was Mick Taylor's first complete Stones album,

624
00:35:23,120 --> 00:35:26,600
Speaker 2: and he found himself wondering if things were always this haphazard, fractured,

625
00:35:26,640 --> 00:35:29,440
Speaker 2: and messy. He was pleased to earn as one and

626
00:35:29,560 --> 00:35:33,400
Speaker 2: only Stone songwriting credit for Ventilator Blues, with its title

627
00:35:33,480 --> 00:35:36,560
Speaker 2: inspired by the stifling heat in the Nlcott basement, but

628
00:35:36,680 --> 00:35:39,000
Speaker 2: he was less pleased when Mick Jaggers started hitting on

629
00:35:39,040 --> 00:35:44,280
Speaker 2: his wife that summer. They lived a dual existence. Upstairs

630
00:35:44,400 --> 00:35:49,000
Speaker 2: was Versailles, downstairs was Dante's Inferno, with just a small

631
00:35:49,120 --> 00:35:52,640
Speaker 2: fan above Charlie's drum kit for relief. The fetid, windowless

632
00:35:52,680 --> 00:35:56,040
Speaker 2: basement frequently reached upwards of one hundred degrees. They took

633
00:35:56,080 --> 00:35:58,560
Speaker 2: to playing with their pants off, but the humidity rot

634
00:35:58,600 --> 00:36:01,480
Speaker 2: havoc on their vocal cords. This made it even more

635
00:36:01,560 --> 00:36:04,840
Speaker 2: unpleasant for Mick when he decided to come around. Like

636
00:36:04,920 --> 00:36:07,640
Speaker 2: the rest of the band, his presence was intermittent. For

637
00:36:07,800 --> 00:36:10,440
Speaker 2: the first time in the group's history, his chief focus

638
00:36:10,560 --> 00:36:13,439
Speaker 2: was on something other than the Stones. This gave Keith

639
00:36:13,520 --> 00:36:16,520
Speaker 2: his first and really only time as the band's primary

640
00:36:16,560 --> 00:36:20,280
Speaker 2: creative force, the facto role he both relished and resented.

641
00:36:21,040 --> 00:36:25,359
Speaker 2: Mick predictably hated the unstructured nature of the sessions, which

642
00:36:25,400 --> 00:36:28,440
Speaker 2: would stop and start at random. It was impossible to

643
00:36:28,520 --> 00:36:31,279
Speaker 2: know if you were recording or having dinner, but it

644
00:36:31,360 --> 00:36:34,080
Speaker 2: was Keith's house and Keith's rules. He knew that the

645
00:36:34,160 --> 00:36:36,160
Speaker 2: Stones were at their best when they didn't realize they

646
00:36:36,200 --> 00:36:39,840
Speaker 2: were working. Keith later summed up their differing work methods,

647
00:36:39,880 --> 00:36:44,000
Speaker 2: thus mix rock on roll, but when they did join

648
00:36:44,120 --> 00:36:57,760
Speaker 2: forces and voices, the results were undeniable. The personal bonds

649
00:36:57,800 --> 00:37:01,080
Speaker 2: between Mick Jagger and Keith Richards continue to deteriorate during

650
00:37:01,160 --> 00:37:04,440
Speaker 2: sessions for Excel on Main Street, but there were business

651
00:37:04,520 --> 00:37:09,000
Speaker 2: concerns to consider. The Rocks fabled Glimmer Twins continue to drift.

652
00:37:09,320 --> 00:37:12,240
Speaker 2: They set aside their differences to focus on finishing the album,

653
00:37:12,600 --> 00:37:15,120
Speaker 2: which would allow them to earn some serious cash by

654
00:37:15,160 --> 00:37:19,480
Speaker 2: touring America in the upcoming summer. Regardless of relations they

655
00:37:19,520 --> 00:37:22,600
Speaker 2: simply weren't the Stones without one another. And if they

656
00:37:22,640 --> 00:37:24,680
Speaker 2: weren't the Stones, who were they?

657
00:37:25,440 --> 00:37:28,520
Speaker 3: Nick knows he can't do it without Keith. There's no

658
00:37:28,760 --> 00:37:30,960
Speaker 3: riff until Keith shows up.

659
00:37:31,160 --> 00:37:31,320
Speaker 4: You know.

660
00:37:31,480 --> 00:37:34,360
Speaker 3: Andy Johns told this great story, and this thing is

661
00:37:34,480 --> 00:37:36,640
Speaker 3: like dead on its feet, you know, and I can't.

662
00:37:36,680 --> 00:37:40,080
Speaker 3: They've been playing for twelve hours. Keith's always late, It's

663
00:37:40,160 --> 00:37:43,560
Speaker 3: never there on time. Ever, he shows up and says, oh, Andy,

664
00:37:43,680 --> 00:37:45,320
Speaker 3: give me that guitar, and he picks it up and

665
00:37:45,360 --> 00:37:47,480
Speaker 3: he plays this riff. They record the song in like

666
00:37:47,560 --> 00:37:50,319
Speaker 3: twenty minutes because they didn't have Keith to play the riff.

667
00:37:51,239 --> 00:37:54,520
Speaker 3: The point about it, once they get back in the studio,

668
00:37:55,880 --> 00:38:01,719
Speaker 3: there's no separation. They are one music brain. They don't

669
00:38:01,760 --> 00:38:02,120
Speaker 3: fight in.

670
00:38:02,160 --> 00:38:06,160
Speaker 2: The studio without each other's cooperation. They can't complete the

671
00:38:06,200 --> 00:38:09,560
Speaker 2: new album without the album. The Rolling Stones can't tour

672
00:38:09,600 --> 00:38:12,960
Speaker 2: America without the money. They'll aarn there. The Rolling Stones

673
00:38:13,000 --> 00:38:16,439
Speaker 2: can't survive as a band. The stakes couldn't have been higher.

674
00:38:17,080 --> 00:38:20,680
Speaker 3: It's a relationship of need and mutual respect.

675
00:38:21,000 --> 00:38:23,759
Speaker 8: They tolerated each other. They knew that they were both

676
00:38:23,840 --> 00:38:26,880
Speaker 8: dependent on each other to be who they were, so

677
00:38:26,960 --> 00:38:30,400
Speaker 8: there was a respect and accent, but there was no

678
00:38:30,560 --> 00:38:34,200
Speaker 8: wish that they would get closer together. I think that

679
00:38:34,320 --> 00:38:37,680
Speaker 8: they both understood that the differences between them, and they

680
00:38:37,719 --> 00:38:38,600
Speaker 8: were accepting of that.

681
00:38:39,160 --> 00:38:43,440
Speaker 2: Charlie Watts, the Stones resident Sage, articulated their differences when

682
00:38:43,480 --> 00:38:46,960
Speaker 2: speaking to Robert Greenfield in nineteen seventy two. Here he

683
00:38:47,120 --> 00:38:49,920
Speaker 2: is courtesy of the Northwestern University Archives.

684
00:38:50,760 --> 00:38:52,880
Speaker 4: Keith is always what he is when you look at him.

685
00:38:52,920 --> 00:38:56,840
Speaker 4: That's what he is there. He don't lie it. He

686
00:38:56,920 --> 00:39:00,759
Speaker 4: don't lie anyone, lie to anyone, lie about you. You

687
00:39:00,880 --> 00:39:05,680
Speaker 4: know it's not a liar. Mick is much more flamboyant

688
00:39:05,719 --> 00:39:08,000
Speaker 4: about that because it isn't you know it's it can move.

689
00:39:08,120 --> 00:39:11,279
Speaker 4: The whole thing can change. The situation would change, it

690
00:39:11,280 --> 00:39:12,000
Speaker 4: will change with it.

691
00:39:12,040 --> 00:39:13,080
Speaker 2: It's a former.

692
00:39:15,040 --> 00:39:20,440
Speaker 4: Situation which would change its Coke many times that well

693
00:39:20,520 --> 00:39:22,200
Speaker 4: he is, he changed very well.

694
00:39:22,480 --> 00:39:23,480
Speaker 3: I think I've seen him.

695
00:39:23,760 --> 00:39:25,719
Speaker 4: He can play anybody's game, can it. That's why he

696
00:39:25,960 --> 00:39:29,440
Speaker 4: know he can't play anything true love playing anybody else's.

697
00:39:30,160 --> 00:39:33,960
Speaker 2: Differences in personalities, men, differences in social groups, and Nick

698
00:39:34,040 --> 00:39:35,920
Speaker 2: began to move in more elite circles.

699
00:39:36,120 --> 00:39:37,759
Speaker 5: I know, it's spend a lot of time and any

700
00:39:37,840 --> 00:39:39,800
Speaker 5: one particular group of people to all.

701
00:39:41,719 --> 00:39:44,040
Speaker 4: I never do, you know. I really what I like

702
00:39:44,360 --> 00:39:46,320
Speaker 4: to be is just other musicians, you know.

703
00:39:47,160 --> 00:39:48,920
Speaker 1: But I find that rather limited.

704
00:39:50,800 --> 00:39:53,200
Speaker 4: English people are always brought up to get on with

705
00:39:53,360 --> 00:40:01,160
Speaker 4: everyone in every circumstance. I mean that's everyone, I mean one,

706
00:40:01,239 --> 00:40:02,520
Speaker 4: not particular class group.

707
00:40:03,520 --> 00:40:06,440
Speaker 2: Keith found such aspirational behavior distasteful.

708
00:40:07,880 --> 00:40:13,360
Speaker 6: He is always enamored with those society things in a

709
00:40:13,480 --> 00:40:14,640
Speaker 6: strange kind of way.

710
00:40:16,239 --> 00:40:17,120
Speaker 1: Godless boy.

711
00:40:18,040 --> 00:40:20,160
Speaker 3: So the two best things to my mind that Keith

712
00:40:20,200 --> 00:40:24,879
Speaker 3: ever said about Mick was one, Mick, he's a nice

713
00:40:24,880 --> 00:40:29,520
Speaker 3: bunch of guys, that's okay. And the second one was

714
00:40:29,640 --> 00:40:33,680
Speaker 3: when Mick took the knight ship, became a knight Mick,

715
00:40:33,760 --> 00:40:38,200
Speaker 3: you know, knighted. Keith said, it should have held out

716
00:40:38,280 --> 00:40:43,439
Speaker 3: for the lordship. It's a paltry honor. It's paltry man. Mick,

717
00:40:43,600 --> 00:40:45,920
Speaker 3: way back in London, was hanging out with members of

718
00:40:46,000 --> 00:40:48,759
Speaker 3: Parliament and he was he was always He went to

719
00:40:48,920 --> 00:40:51,960
Speaker 3: LSC London School of Economics. He was comfortable with these people.

720
00:40:52,320 --> 00:40:55,560
Speaker 3: He catered to them and they had you know, fostered him,

721
00:40:56,080 --> 00:40:58,120
Speaker 3: gave them both fame on some level.

722
00:40:58,440 --> 00:41:01,680
Speaker 8: Mick was English Parliament, Keith was Parliament Funkadelic.

723
00:41:02,840 --> 00:41:06,440
Speaker 3: But they were equally good at punishing one another.

724
00:41:11,800 --> 00:41:14,719
Speaker 2: They were drawn further apart by Keith's disturbing talent for

725
00:41:14,800 --> 00:41:20,600
Speaker 2: punishing himself with drugs. Naukot's geography on the French Riviera

726
00:41:20,760 --> 00:41:23,839
Speaker 2: was ideally suited to score with a heroin trafficking hub

727
00:41:23,880 --> 00:41:26,759
Speaker 2: of Marseilles on the right, when the Italian Mafiosa's on

728
00:41:26,840 --> 00:41:30,640
Speaker 2: the left, you could get anything you wanted. Sometimes Keith

729
00:41:30,719 --> 00:41:33,560
Speaker 2: enlisted fat Jack the Chef, for the task of procuring

730
00:41:33,640 --> 00:41:36,360
Speaker 2: from a gang of local thugs known as the Cowboys.

731
00:41:37,080 --> 00:41:40,640
Speaker 2: Other times it came direct from Corsican dealers who delivered

732
00:41:40,760 --> 00:41:44,560
Speaker 2: uncut pink cotton candy from Thailand or snowy China, white

733
00:41:44,880 --> 00:41:47,400
Speaker 2: and bags the size of two pounds sacks of sugar.

734
00:41:49,680 --> 00:41:53,360
Speaker 2: Keith's preferred method of consumption was skin popping, or injecting

735
00:41:53,440 --> 00:41:56,640
Speaker 2: directly into the muscles, opposed to the veins. It was

736
00:41:56,680 --> 00:41:59,200
Speaker 2: the distinction that, as far as he was concerned, meant

737
00:41:59,239 --> 00:42:02,160
Speaker 2: he was keeping his drug use and check the ugly

738
00:42:02,280 --> 00:42:08,640
Speaker 2: abscesses and scars on his arms suggested otherwise. No one

739
00:42:08,719 --> 00:42:11,760
Speaker 2: knows when Keith Richards first took heroin. Even he doesn't

740
00:42:11,800 --> 00:42:14,439
Speaker 2: know for sure. His best guess is that he first

741
00:42:14,480 --> 00:42:17,400
Speaker 2: snorted it by accident in the late sixties, mistaking it

742
00:42:17,480 --> 00:42:21,520
Speaker 2: for some other powder. By most accounts, his dangerous liaison

743
00:42:21,640 --> 00:42:24,600
Speaker 2: began in earnest after the Altamont disaster in December in

744
00:42:24,680 --> 00:42:28,040
Speaker 2: nineteen sixty nine. Keith would use and then head to

745
00:42:28,120 --> 00:42:31,000
Speaker 2: the toilet, where he would play guitar for hours, no doubt,

746
00:42:31,080 --> 00:42:33,480
Speaker 2: believing he was carrying on the grand tradition of blues

747
00:42:33,560 --> 00:42:37,080
Speaker 2: men since time immemorial. It helped him with the music,

748
00:42:37,120 --> 00:42:40,719
Speaker 2: he'd claim. It also provided an emotional hiding place for

749
00:42:40,840 --> 00:42:44,840
Speaker 2: this most extrovert of introverts. He'd later say, with a

750
00:42:44,920 --> 00:42:46,920
Speaker 2: hit of smack, I could walk through anything and not

751
00:42:47,080 --> 00:42:50,880
Speaker 2: give a damn. Within months, his use had slid into addiction.

752
00:42:51,800 --> 00:42:54,439
Speaker 2: Both Keith and Anita had managed to kick Heroin prior

753
00:42:54,480 --> 00:42:57,520
Speaker 2: to their arrival in France. Not wishing to jeopardize their

754
00:42:57,560 --> 00:43:00,840
Speaker 2: residency in their new home country, he remained opi it

755
00:43:00,960 --> 00:43:03,200
Speaker 2: free into a few months into his stay at Melcotte,

756
00:43:03,560 --> 00:43:07,000
Speaker 2: when a day at the gokart track turned tragic Keith,

757
00:43:07,400 --> 00:43:11,160
Speaker 2: someone inevitably flipped the four wheeler, sending himself skidding across

758
00:43:11,200 --> 00:43:13,800
Speaker 2: the pavement like a stone across the surface of a pond.

759
00:43:14,880 --> 00:43:18,040
Speaker 2: With his back now resembling raw steak, A well meaning

760
00:43:18,160 --> 00:43:21,920
Speaker 2: nurse offered him a painkilling morphine injection. It was a

761
00:43:21,960 --> 00:43:26,120
Speaker 2: slippery slope. Keith was candid about the lure of heroin

762
00:43:26,200 --> 00:43:29,640
Speaker 2: when Robert Greenfield traveled to Nelcott that summer to interview

763
00:43:29,719 --> 00:43:33,000
Speaker 2: him for a cover story in Rolling Stone magazine. If

764
00:43:33,040 --> 00:43:34,919
Speaker 2: you're going to get into junk, it takes the place

765
00:43:35,000 --> 00:43:37,960
Speaker 2: of everything, he said. You don't need a chick, you

766
00:43:38,000 --> 00:43:41,480
Speaker 2: don't need music, you don't need nothing. But it doesn't

767
00:43:41,520 --> 00:43:44,400
Speaker 2: lead you anywhere. It ain't called junk for nothing.

768
00:43:47,520 --> 00:43:48,000
Speaker 6: Keith was.

769
00:43:49,680 --> 00:43:52,080
Speaker 3: I was gonna say Keith was straight when I was there.

770
00:43:52,160 --> 00:43:56,560
Speaker 3: Keith was never straight. Okay, even using heroin, Keith Richards

771
00:43:56,600 --> 00:43:59,520
Speaker 3: could smoke more reefer in the course of a day

772
00:43:59,600 --> 00:44:03,240
Speaker 3: than any and drink constantly and go, you know, seventy

773
00:44:03,320 --> 00:44:07,000
Speaker 3: seven hours without sleep and just superhuman stuff, you know,

774
00:44:07,400 --> 00:44:10,880
Speaker 3: just not comprehensible. This is not a lie. I saw

775
00:44:10,960 --> 00:44:13,040
Speaker 3: him at nell Cut. I was up late one night.

776
00:44:13,040 --> 00:44:15,160
Speaker 3: It was just me and him. He's working his way

777
00:44:15,160 --> 00:44:18,640
Speaker 3: across the living room picking up Marlin's toys. He stops

778
00:44:18,680 --> 00:44:22,200
Speaker 3: and there's some pill like capsule lying on Now. There

779
00:44:22,239 --> 00:44:23,719
Speaker 3: have been guys in and out all day. It's not

780
00:44:23,880 --> 00:44:26,719
Speaker 3: his picked it up. He's not performing. He's all by

781
00:44:26,760 --> 00:44:29,760
Speaker 3: himself as me. I'm just in the corner, looks throws

782
00:44:29,800 --> 00:44:32,880
Speaker 3: it down his throat. I thought, oh, it was like midnight,

783
00:44:33,480 --> 00:44:36,440
Speaker 3: Like dude, what if that's major amphetami?

784
00:44:36,880 --> 00:44:41,440
Speaker 2: Didn't matter what prompted this pathological mad dash towards oblivion.

785
00:44:42,280 --> 00:44:45,360
Speaker 2: Was it a simple desire to numb physical pain? Or

786
00:44:45,480 --> 00:44:49,000
Speaker 2: was it something more? Some of linked Keith's Heroin used

787
00:44:49,000 --> 00:44:51,799
Speaker 2: to the murder at Altamont, a painful event for both

788
00:44:51,840 --> 00:44:55,200
Speaker 2: the Stones and the counterculture at large, less a cause

789
00:44:55,280 --> 00:44:58,520
Speaker 2: than an effect. The tragedy telegraphed the sad truth that

790
00:44:58,600 --> 00:45:01,840
Speaker 2: the idealism of the sixties, with his promises of universal

791
00:45:01,880 --> 00:45:05,560
Speaker 2: brotherhood and total enlightenment, were not to be, and the

792
00:45:05,640 --> 00:45:08,680
Speaker 2: cynicism and naked self interest of the seventies were nigh.

793
00:45:12,280 --> 00:45:15,839
Speaker 2: The drug use reflected this, as Heroin supplanted LSD as

794
00:45:15,880 --> 00:45:21,280
Speaker 2: a substance of choice on the street. Acid was aspirational, optimistic, hopeful.

795
00:45:22,239 --> 00:45:26,320
Speaker 2: Heroin was nihilistic. Perhaps for Keith it was just a

796
00:45:26,360 --> 00:45:30,080
Speaker 2: sign of the times, or maybe it was something more personal.

797
00:45:30,960 --> 00:45:33,960
Speaker 2: With financial concerns compounding the pressure to follow up their

798
00:45:34,040 --> 00:45:37,200
Speaker 2: last hit album, stress levels among the Stones were high.

799
00:45:38,120 --> 00:45:40,799
Speaker 2: In order to ensure the future of the group. Keith

800
00:45:40,920 --> 00:45:43,160
Speaker 2: was very aware that he needed not only to descend

801
00:45:43,239 --> 00:45:46,360
Speaker 2: into the dark, dank basement each night, but also plumb

802
00:45:46,440 --> 00:45:49,879
Speaker 2: the depths of his own musical soul. Maybe he felt

803
00:45:49,960 --> 00:45:52,759
Speaker 2: he couldn't make the trip without some serious chemical assistance.

804
00:45:53,560 --> 00:45:55,800
Speaker 2: Just as we'll never know when is heroin you started,

805
00:45:56,160 --> 00:46:04,400
Speaker 2: we'll also never truly know why. But each night at Nelcotte,

806
00:46:04,520 --> 00:46:07,440
Speaker 2: the musicians assembled in the basement waited for the inevitable

807
00:46:07,520 --> 00:46:10,520
Speaker 2: moment when Keith would halt the sessions and announced that

808
00:46:10,560 --> 00:46:12,359
Speaker 2: he was going to put his son Marl in the bed.

809
00:46:13,320 --> 00:46:15,839
Speaker 2: That was code that he needed to fix. He could

810
00:46:15,880 --> 00:46:18,759
Speaker 2: be gone for three hours or more, having knotted off

811
00:46:18,800 --> 00:46:19,279
Speaker 2: in his bed.

812
00:46:21,600 --> 00:46:24,960
Speaker 3: Nobody would dare go upstairs at Nelcott to wake up

813
00:46:25,040 --> 00:46:28,640
Speaker 3: Keith when they knew you did not want to wake

814
00:46:28,719 --> 00:46:32,320
Speaker 3: up Keith. I lived there for two weeks. Then a

815
00:46:32,360 --> 00:46:34,399
Speaker 3: week later I came back with the interview for Rolling

816
00:46:34,440 --> 00:46:37,160
Speaker 3: Stone Magazine. I never went upstairs.

817
00:46:38,160 --> 00:46:42,520
Speaker 2: Never Once Producer Jimmy Miller summoned the nerve to go

818
00:46:42,640 --> 00:46:46,640
Speaker 2: upstairs and check on Keith. He found him passed out

819
00:46:46,680 --> 00:46:50,000
Speaker 2: in bed, needle an arm, with blood splattered on the walls.

820
00:46:51,760 --> 00:46:54,000
Speaker 2: But Mick knew better than to invade the sanctity of

821
00:46:54,080 --> 00:46:57,840
Speaker 2: Keith's solitary refuge and a house overrun with users in

822
00:46:57,960 --> 00:47:02,000
Speaker 2: every sense of the word, growing more frustrated by the minute,

823
00:47:02,239 --> 00:47:04,439
Speaker 2: the singer would finally leave the sessions in a huff.

824
00:47:05,000 --> 00:47:07,600
Speaker 2: Then Keith would come to see that Mick had gone

825
00:47:07,920 --> 00:47:11,320
Speaker 2: and throw a fit. Needless to say, none of this

826
00:47:11,480 --> 00:47:14,640
Speaker 2: was beneficial to group morale, and yet none of the

827
00:47:14,719 --> 00:47:18,560
Speaker 2: Stones found it appropriate to intervene Keith had always lived

828
00:47:18,640 --> 00:47:21,040
Speaker 2: his life his way. That's just how it was.

829
00:47:22,320 --> 00:47:24,000
Speaker 6: But that's that's his business, you know.

830
00:47:24,040 --> 00:47:27,279
Speaker 4: If he wants to do that, it's fine. That's fine

831
00:47:27,320 --> 00:47:30,320
Speaker 4: by me, and it's nothing to do with me.

832
00:47:31,120 --> 00:47:33,920
Speaker 6: If I want to surround myself as any people I

833
00:47:34,080 --> 00:47:36,080
Speaker 6: cared to, I don't think that's any business of anybody

834
00:47:36,080 --> 00:47:40,279
Speaker 6: else's either. As I say, these things do result in

835
00:47:40,360 --> 00:47:43,239
Speaker 6: problems that affect the whole band.

836
00:47:44,520 --> 00:47:48,360
Speaker 3: It wasn't that Mick was with the elite although he

837
00:47:48,719 --> 00:47:50,320
Speaker 3: was even in the south of France.

838
00:47:50,480 --> 00:47:52,319
Speaker 4: You know, it's just that.

839
00:47:54,000 --> 00:47:57,040
Speaker 3: Keith's life was a circus and he loved it. He

840
00:47:57,200 --> 00:47:59,880
Speaker 3: was the greatest host of all time. Because the party

841
00:48:00,040 --> 00:48:03,879
Speaker 3: didn't end. Lunch was three hours, so Nick didn't live

842
00:48:03,920 --> 00:48:06,280
Speaker 3: that way. He didn't have twenty people in his house.

843
00:48:06,480 --> 00:48:10,000
Speaker 3: You know, that was the gap in the lifestyle while recording,

844
00:48:10,400 --> 00:48:12,640
Speaker 3: you know, Keith passing out in the bedroom while they're

845
00:48:12,680 --> 00:48:15,480
Speaker 3: waiting for him to come down and play. It took

846
00:48:15,560 --> 00:48:18,279
Speaker 3: forever and it still wasn't done. And then they had

847
00:48:18,320 --> 00:48:20,560
Speaker 3: to leave France because they would have all been thrown

848
00:48:20,640 --> 00:48:24,680
Speaker 3: in jail. It's amazing that all of them got out,

849
00:48:24,920 --> 00:48:28,480
Speaker 3: didn't go to prison, and survived to go on tour.

850
00:48:28,560 --> 00:48:43,080
Speaker 3: In seventy two, the mood.

851
00:48:42,920 --> 00:48:45,080
Speaker 2: Turned dark and now could have summer turn the winter,

852
00:48:45,560 --> 00:48:48,400
Speaker 2: and by November the Rolling Stones rock and roll circus

853
00:48:48,480 --> 00:48:52,839
Speaker 2: had left town. The choice wasn't entirely voluntary. The threat

854
00:48:52,880 --> 00:48:56,840
Speaker 2: of arrest, deportation and retribution from some powerful drug movers

855
00:48:57,000 --> 00:48:59,680
Speaker 2: was very real. The beginning of the end came some

856
00:48:59,800 --> 00:49:02,040
Speaker 2: month before, when Keith had run a foul of a

857
00:49:02,120 --> 00:49:05,160
Speaker 2: local harbor master pulling his son Marlin's toy gun on

858
00:49:05,280 --> 00:49:08,360
Speaker 2: him during a scuffle after someone had dented his red Jaguar.

859
00:49:09,200 --> 00:49:12,239
Speaker 2: The harbor master responded by pulling a real gun, which

860
00:49:12,400 --> 00:49:15,480
Speaker 2: did little to de escalate the matter. After a car

861
00:49:15,640 --> 00:49:17,800
Speaker 2: chase and a lot of bad noise with the local cops,

862
00:49:17,960 --> 00:49:20,480
Speaker 2: the matter was smoothed over with some autographs and vague

863
00:49:20,520 --> 00:49:24,120
Speaker 2: promises of good behavior, but the unwanted attention ensured their

864
00:49:24,160 --> 00:49:27,160
Speaker 2: cover had been blown. The authority started to keep a

865
00:49:27,200 --> 00:49:29,640
Speaker 2: close eye on the comings and goings at Keith's villa,

866
00:49:30,239 --> 00:49:35,440
Speaker 2: waiting for their moment to pounce. The consequence free hedonistic

867
00:49:35,480 --> 00:49:39,240
Speaker 2: caved of Nellcotte was finally breached that October when thieves

868
00:49:39,320 --> 00:49:42,040
Speaker 2: made off with the majority of Keith's beloved guitar collection,

869
00:49:42,560 --> 00:49:46,040
Speaker 2: vintage Gibson's, fenders and Martin's, valued at upwards of forty

870
00:49:46,080 --> 00:49:51,319
Speaker 2: four thousand dollars. The violation leaves him understandably shaken. Friends

871
00:49:51,360 --> 00:49:53,160
Speaker 2: would say it was the first time they'd ever seen

872
00:49:53,239 --> 00:49:56,719
Speaker 2: him cry. The house immediately goes into lockdown, and Keith

873
00:49:56,800 --> 00:50:00,400
Speaker 2: considers buying guard dogs and security cameras. He must have

874
00:50:00,480 --> 00:50:03,280
Speaker 2: known this would do little good. The theft had occurred

875
00:50:03,320 --> 00:50:06,120
Speaker 2: in the daylight hours, when Keith himself was home watching

876
00:50:06,200 --> 00:50:10,000
Speaker 2: TV with friends. Clearly it was an inside job. The

877
00:50:10,239 --> 00:50:12,839
Speaker 2: likely culprits were the local drug dealers, who not only

878
00:50:12,920 --> 00:50:15,719
Speaker 2: had access to the villa but were also owed substantial

879
00:50:15,719 --> 00:50:19,040
Speaker 2: amounts of money. But theft had probably been in their

880
00:50:19,080 --> 00:50:22,120
Speaker 2: eyes at least a form of payment. As with most

881
00:50:22,200 --> 00:50:24,400
Speaker 2: things that went down at Villa Neelcut, it was all

882
00:50:24,440 --> 00:50:28,520
Speaker 2: about dope and cash. The black seed of paranoia begins

883
00:50:28,600 --> 00:50:30,800
Speaker 2: to take root in the souls of Keith and company,

884
00:50:31,320 --> 00:50:34,960
Speaker 2: and no one's immune. Convinced that Corsican drug heavies will

885
00:50:35,000 --> 00:50:38,040
Speaker 2: kidnap Marlin and hold him for ransom. Keith applies for

886
00:50:38,080 --> 00:50:40,960
Speaker 2: a gun permit and then there are problems on the

887
00:50:41,040 --> 00:50:45,360
Speaker 2: other side of the wall. Months after the Harbormaster incident,

888
00:50:45,719 --> 00:50:48,799
Speaker 2: Keith finally managed to antagonize the authorities to the point

889
00:50:48,840 --> 00:50:52,160
Speaker 2: of reason. In the French riviera were all manner of

890
00:50:52,200 --> 00:50:54,759
Speaker 2: bad behaviors tolerated as long as the bills are paid

891
00:50:54,800 --> 00:50:58,200
Speaker 2: on time. This is an impressive feat. Police closed in

892
00:50:58,320 --> 00:51:01,560
Speaker 2: on Keith's dealers, who promptly ratted him out to save themselves.

893
00:51:02,840 --> 00:51:05,240
Speaker 2: A bus seems so imminent that the nel Cut residents

894
00:51:05,280 --> 00:51:09,040
Speaker 2: held drills. Recording sessions were suspended and the rest of

895
00:51:09,080 --> 00:51:12,040
Speaker 2: the Stones kept their distance, all without a certain amount

896
00:51:12,040 --> 00:51:15,040
Speaker 2: of resentment, especially on the part of the band's relatively

897
00:51:15,120 --> 00:51:16,640
Speaker 2: sober bassist Bill Wider.

898
00:51:16,760 --> 00:51:19,680
Speaker 6: It's very strange being involved in that when you won't.

899
00:51:20,960 --> 00:51:22,759
Speaker 4: Because unfortunately, if anything happens to.

900
00:51:22,920 --> 00:51:26,439
Speaker 6: Keith, it's always the Stones, the Stones on drugs cards.

901
00:51:27,600 --> 00:51:30,520
Speaker 6: You always get bunched in on it, you know, and

902
00:51:30,560 --> 00:51:32,440
Speaker 6: therefore it does affect you privately.

903
00:51:33,080 --> 00:51:34,480
Speaker 5: You still go through the same.

904
00:51:36,040 --> 00:51:38,120
Speaker 6: Things that they're going through in public.

905
00:51:41,560 --> 00:51:44,200
Speaker 2: When investigators finally showed up at new Cut that fall,

906
00:51:44,360 --> 00:51:46,719
Speaker 2: demanding to know why corsic and drug dealers have been

907
00:51:46,800 --> 00:51:51,400
Speaker 2: seen visiting the property, Keith started to form an exit plan. Unfortunately,

908
00:51:51,560 --> 00:51:53,840
Speaker 2: police got wind of his schemes to skip town and

909
00:51:53,920 --> 00:51:56,960
Speaker 2: forbade him to leave, pending a laundry list of charges,

910
00:51:57,040 --> 00:52:00,880
Speaker 2: including suspicions of heroin tracking because his orders were so massive,

911
00:52:01,239 --> 00:52:03,920
Speaker 2: as well as the slightly more dubious claims of organized

912
00:52:03,960 --> 00:52:07,800
Speaker 2: prostitution and supplying drugs to teens. Most people in this

913
00:52:07,920 --> 00:52:10,920
Speaker 2: situation would find themselves sitting in jail for an indeterminate

914
00:52:10,920 --> 00:52:13,600
Speaker 2: amount of time. The Stones, as you may have guessed,

915
00:52:13,680 --> 00:52:16,920
Speaker 2: are not most people. Thanks to their connections Keith was

916
00:52:16,960 --> 00:52:19,560
Speaker 2: given permission to travel abroad as long as he continued

917
00:52:19,600 --> 00:52:23,400
Speaker 2: paying the astronomical rent on Nelcotte supposedly proof that he

918
00:52:23,480 --> 00:52:27,239
Speaker 2: planned the return someday, and he would some two years later,

919
00:52:27,600 --> 00:52:29,800
Speaker 2: following the release of Exile on Main Street. In the

920
00:52:29,840 --> 00:52:33,480
Speaker 2: accompanying tour, in his haste to leave, the Mandras and

921
00:52:33,520 --> 00:52:37,520
Speaker 2: his Jaguar were abandoned, as were Marlin's toys, Anita's wardrobe,

922
00:52:37,560 --> 00:52:41,280
Speaker 2: and Keith's record collection. Making these legal headaches go away

923
00:52:41,480 --> 00:52:44,799
Speaker 2: through proper and improper methods would wind up costing him

924
00:52:44,840 --> 00:52:47,200
Speaker 2: roughly all the money he'd saved by moving to France

925
00:52:47,239 --> 00:52:51,239
Speaker 2: as a tax exile in the first place. Sylvie, at

926
00:52:51,320 --> 00:52:53,520
Speaker 2: least he got some new songs out of it, and

927
00:52:53,640 --> 00:52:56,560
Speaker 2: to Keith that pretty much made it all worth it.

928
00:53:14,360 --> 00:53:17,240
Speaker 9: Stone's Touring Party is written and hosted by Jordan Runtalk,

929
00:53:17,400 --> 00:53:20,680
Speaker 9: co Executive produced by Noel Brown and Jordan Runtalk, Edited in.

930
00:53:20,760 --> 00:53:23,120
Speaker 1: Sound designed by Noel Brown and Michael Alder June.

931
00:53:23,400 --> 00:53:26,360
Speaker 9: Original music composed and performed by Michael Alder June and

932
00:53:26,480 --> 00:53:29,399
Speaker 9: Noel Brown, with additional instruments performed by Chris Suarez, Nick

933
00:53:29,480 --> 00:53:31,960
Speaker 9: Johns Cooper and Josh Thay vintage Rolling Stones.

934
00:53:31,960 --> 00:53:35,120
Speaker 1: Audio courtesy of the Robert Greenfield Archive at the Charles.

935
00:53:34,920 --> 00:53:39,000
Speaker 9: Deering McCormick Library of Special Collections in Northwestern University Libraries.

936
00:53:39,200 --> 00:53:41,920
Speaker 1: Stone's Touring Party is a production of iHeart Radio.

937
00:53:47,280 --> 00:53:50,680
Speaker 9: For more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,

938
00:53:50,760 --> 00:53:53,280
Speaker 9: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your favorite shows.