I Was Keith Richards' Drug Dealer

HEY IF YOU WANT THE DIRT ON THE STONES FROM THE 60S AND EARLY 70S THIS IS ONE OF THE BOOKS TO GET. IT IS TOLD BY AN INSIDER- WITH A LOT OF EMBELLISHMENT NO DOUBT-BUT VERY ABSORBING AND THE WAY WE LIKE OUR STONES -DOWN AND DIRTY. NOTE- THIS IS THE SAME BOOK AS -UP AND DOWN WITH THE ROLLING STONES. DO NOT BUY IT TWICE...

There has been so much written about The Stones' supposed excesses during the 60's by outsiders, (eg. journalists). Those works tend to be tarnished with a lack of credibility that comes with a writer who wasn't actually there. Spanish Tony's book is way different. This is a very rare opportunity to be taken into a by-gone world of 60's hedonism, love, black magic, power, violence, wealth, death, overindulgence, corruption and of course sex, drugs and rock n roll. What separates this book really is the credibility of its author. According to Tony Sanchez, he was with The Stones as a friend, dealer, employee and lover of their girlfriends through much of their halcyon days as kings of the rock n roll world. Tony writes with humour, a great understanding of what was happening in the world back then, some anger and (most incredibly given what they all were consuming) great clarity. The title is a bit misleading, as it tends to make the consumer think the book as very Richards-centric. It's better than that. Tony Sanchez captures much detail about the lives of all three main Stones (Jones, Jagger, Richards) and is particularly close to the highs and lows of Brian Jones. He also chronicles (sometimes hilarious) encounters with other rock royalty such as The Beatles and Eric Clapton. But it's not a sycophantic account at all. Sanchez is scathing at times about the main players (particularly how Jagger and Richards treated Jones and their girl friends), is quite contemptuous about the "boring" Watts and Wyman and gives a classically graphic account of the disaster at Altamont. My only criticisms would be about the poor quality paper and printing (photos not on gloss, some pages were out of order!) and the brevity of the book, (seemingly it could have been 50% longer given the material Sanchez must have). Never the less, it's a great read from an incredibly reliable source. Stones fans will love the seemingly accurate insight.