Before They Make Me Run: Keith Richards and the Bust That Saved The Rolling Stones

In the mid-1970s, after a decade as the undisputed €œgreatest rock and roll band in the world,€ The Rolling Stones were confronting not only the cold reality of the new punk rock era, but how they could even exist within it in the face of guitarist Keith Richards€ mounting personal problems.
Keith€s glorified image as rock€s ultimate outlaw, as a counterpoint to singer Mick Jagger€s image as rock€s ultimate sex symbol, was the basis of the Stones€ mystique. But at the start of 1977, as the band agreed to work on a new album in Toronto and spark the creative process by playing a small club there, Keith€s good fortune was slipping away.
Before They Make Me Run, by veteran Canadian music journalist Jason Schneider, is the first accurate account of the three years spanning 1977-1979, which marked both Keith Richards' and The Rolling Stones' darkest period. From the raid that found Keith facing a lengthy prison term for heroin trafficking, to his ultimate redemption by playing undoubtedly the most unusual benefit concert in history, no detail is overlooked or unexamined.
Along the way, Schneider uncovers the truth behind the El Mocambo concerts, what Canadian First Lady Margaret Trudeau's involvement with the Stones really was, the creation of the band's last true masterpiece, Some Girls, and the inner workings that led to Keith's exoneration.
Before They Make Me Run is an essential addition to any Rolling Stones library.