
In 2010, Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards published a much-lauded autobiography, Life, recounting his page-turner of a life as a bona-fide rock star — vices, women, clashes and all. This month he releases a follow-up and… it’s a beautifully written children’s book. Gus & Me further tells the story, introduced in Life, of his grandfather Theodore Augustus Dupree (a.k.a Gus) and the impact he had on a young Richards growing up in London. It was Gus, a dance-band musician, who encouraged him to take up the guitar, who brought him to instrument repair shops as a kid — “Men tested the guitar strings: dinka-plink dinka-pink” — and taught him his first song, the Spanish Malagueña. It’s a touching read, all the more so when you discover the accompanying illustrations are done by Richards’ own daughter, Theodora. Bonus: The book comes with a CD of the rocker narrating the tale himself.
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