Like what you see? Help keep it going! This site runs on the support of readers like you. Your donation helps cover costs and keeps fresh Rolling Stones content coming your way every day. Thank you!
Rolling Stones quotes: Keith Richards on being raised
KEITH RICHARDS: FROM HOUSING PROJECTS TO ROCK LEGEND Before he became the ultimate rock outlaw, Keith Richards was just a kid in post-war England, stuck between working-class grit and dreams of middle-class comfort. At ten, his family moved into a massive new housing project—thousands of homes thrown up overnight, whole neighborhoods uprooted, gangs forming, and chaos brewing. It wasn’t glamorous, but it was real. That raw, uncertain energy shaped Keith, laying the foundation for the tough, streetwise edge he carried into the Stones.
“Working class. English working class . . . struggling, thinking they were middle class. Moved into a tough neighborhood when I was about ten. I used to be with Mick before that . . . we used to live close together. Then I moved to what they’d call in the States a housing project. Just been built. Thousands and thousands of houses, everyone wondering what the fuck was going on. Everyone was displaced. They were still building it and really there were gangs everywhere. Coming to Teddy Boys. Just before rock and roll hit England. But they were all waiting for it. They were practicing”
Before the world knew him as Keith Richards, he was just a kid in post-war England trying to make sense of a shifting world. His family, like many others, carried themselves with the pride of being “working class, English working class” though at times chasing the idea of middle-class respectability. But life wasn’t easy. Around the age of ten, Keith’s world changed dramatically when his family moved into what Americans might call a housing project—brand new, sprawling, but unsettling. Entire communities were uprooted and dropped into these freshly built estates, where construction dust still hung in the air and everyone looked around, wondering what exactly was happening.
Gangs, Grit, and the Dawn of Rock ’n’ Roll
The atmosphere was tough. These new neighborhoods quickly bred gangs, and Keith found himself surrounded by Teddy Boys—the rebellious, sharp-dressed youth who were itching for something bigger. Violence and bravado simmered in the streets, but beneath it all was anticipation, as if everyone knew a cultural storm was coming. Rock ’n’ roll hadn’t fully landed in England yet, but its arrival was just around the corner. The Teddy Boys were already practicing, shaping an attitude that would soon find its soundtrack. Interestingly, before this move, Keith had lived closer to Mick Jagger—childhood friends who hadn’t yet realized how intertwined their futures would be. From the dislocation of housing projects to the charged energy of gang-ruled streets, Keith’s upbringing placed him right at the crossroads of grit and music. Out of that tension, the future architect of the Rolling Stones’ raw, dangerous sound was being shaped.
Like what you see? Help keep it going! This site runs on the support of readers like you. Your donation helps cover costs and keeps fresh Rolling Stones content coming your way every day. Thank you!
