Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Save Soviet Jewelry

The Keith Richards-snorted-his-dad story is, in fact, untrue.

In case you missed it, this little yarn first appeared in the pages of London's notoriously unreliable New Musical Express. The magazine quoted the Rolling Stones guitarist as saying, "The strangest thing I've tried to snort? My father. I snorted my father. He was cremated and I couldn't resist grinding him up with a little bit of blow. My dad wouldn't have cared. ... It went down pretty well, and I'm still alive."

This wildly dubious quote proved irresistible to newspapers, wire services and TV and online outlets on both sides of the Atlantic, from The Associated Press to Forbes, The Drudge Report, Breitbart and E! Online. In fact, it was such a great story that nobody bothered trying to confirm it with a Richards representative — why spoil the fun with facts?

In a buzz-killing mood, though, we decided to check with Richards' longtime manager, Jane Rose. We asked her about the dad-snorting quotes in the NME interview. She responded with an e-mail:

"Said in jest," she explained. "Can't believe anyone took [it] seriously."


Emily Litella regrets the error.

Nevermind.

What's terrifying is that it was completely believable, and why not? Did he also not snort rat poison? --NYM


Keith Richards Remembers his Papa.

2 comments:

CyFlorist said...

I'm looking at my digital issue of that NME right now, and I have to tell you, I really don't think that was taken out of context.

Poor Jane, she's been through this so many times before.

And MTV is calling someone else "unreliable?" Give me a break.

steve simels said...

I agree with you about MTV and NME.

That was a totally cheap shot.