Keith Richards to publish children’s book

Musician will share with readers how he was first introduced to music by his grandfather and given his first guitar.

NEW YORK:

The Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, famous for surviving years of rock ‘n’ roll excess, will release a children’s picture book with illustrations by his daughter Theodora Richards, his publisher said on Tuesday.

The book, Gus & Me: The Story of My Granddad and My First Guitar, tells the story of how Richards was first introduced to music by his grandfather and given his first guitar.

“Gus & Me invites readers to be in the room at the electrifying moment that Keith holds a guitar in his hands for the first time,” Megan Tingley, executive vice president and publisher of Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, said in a statement.

In his memoir, Life, Richards also recounts the role his grandfather – a jazz big band member Theodore Augustus Dupree, who is known as Gus – played in his life.

In the best-selling book, Richards, 70, details his journey from being a shy, only child in London to co-founding the Rolling Stones in 1962 and becoming a rock and roll survivor following years of substance abuse.

“I have just become a grandfather for the fifth time, so I know what I’m talking about,” Richards said in a statement about the children’s book. “The bond, the special bond, between kids and grandparents is unique and should be treasured. This is a story of one of those magical moments.”

Gus & Me, which was written with Barnaby Harris and Bill Shapiro, will include pen-and-ink collages by Theodora, who was named after her grandfather, as well as photographs from the Richards family collection.

The hardcover and e-book will be released on September 9. The hardcover edition will have an audio CD featuring bonus book content.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 15^th, 2014.

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