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The Rolling Stones: Sleeping With the First Lady and Trafficking Heroin · DISGRACELAND

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Disgraceland as a production of Double Elvis. In the nineteen seventies,
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: The Rolling Stones were a mess that were busted countless
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: times for heroin, marijuana, a legal possession of guns. Keith
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Richards in particular, was a special kind of indestructible mess.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: He drove his Bentley off the road too many times
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: to count while smoking heroin and cocaine. He'd lit multiple
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: homes on fire, including the Playboy Mansion, and he may
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: or may not have had something to do with stealing
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: the dead body of his friend and fellow musician, Graham Parsons.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: But Keith Richards and his band, The Very Dangerous Rolling
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: Stones made great music, especially in the seventies. That music
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: you were hearing at the top of the show, though,
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: that wasn't great music. That was a preset loop for
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: my melotron called Fox Trot Swinging Saxes MK Two. I
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: played you that loop because I can't afford the license
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: for New Kid in Town by the Eagles. And why
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: would I play you that awful piece of Johnny cum
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: Lately Peaceful Easy Cheese?
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: Could I afford it?
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: Because that was the number one song in America On
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: February twenty seventh, nineteen seventy seven, and that was the
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: day that Keith Richards was busted for heroin trafficking. Just
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: days before, members of his group, the most Dangerous band
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: on the planet, The Rolling Stones, would sleep with the
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: First Lady of Canada and set.
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: Off an international incident.
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: On this episode, Fox Trot swinging saxes, The Rolling Stones,
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: lots of sex, even more.
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: Drugs in Great rock and Roll.
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: I'm Jake Brennan and.
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: This is this Graceland.
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: The Rolling Stones, it should be noted for the purpose
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: of this podcast, are probably my favorite band of all time.
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: It's a toss up between them and the Bad Brains
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: and depends on my mood and how organized my record
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: collection is. When you ask me, but to me, the
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: Rolling Stones and body everything good and bad about rock
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: and roll. And by bad, I mean even when they
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: were bad, they were good. Let me rephrase that, even
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: when things were bad, they were fucking great, especially in
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: the seventies. Don't believe me, Okay, when they're founding member
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: Brian Jones got fucked up and drowned in a pool.
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: A kid from John Mayo Blues Breakers, Mick Taylor overfilled
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: Brian's big shoes to help the Stones make their most
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: creatively consistent run of records, Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers,
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: and Exile on Main Street. When the band missed out
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: on playing in front of half a million people at
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: Woodstock because their singer, Mick Jagger was off in Australia
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: making a western nobody would ever see called ned Kelly,
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: the Stones created their own Woodstock up in northern California,
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: a free concert for their own fans at a speedway
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: called Altamont. Less universal, flower power and more Stones Centric.
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: When things went sideways at Altamont because the Hell's Angels,
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: the biker gang the band hired to run security, killed
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: a dude in the audience, the Stones found themselves at
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: the center of a generation punctuating moment. The seventies were
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: about to begin, and the Stones got credit for putting
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: a dagger into the heart of the Flower children. Rock
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: and roll was meant to be dangerous, and the Stones
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: were now the most dangerous and on the planet. They
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: then hit the road with a circus of sex, drugs,
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: and rock and roll, a true traveling outlaw road show,
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: scared the shit out of Middle America cops, parents, Holy Rollers,
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: and left almost as many casualties as they claimed in converts.
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: They sold countless records and sold out stadiums, and in
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: the process led the music industry into a new era
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: of bank making concert touring. And all of this it
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: happened before nineteen seventy four. Given what the Rolling Stones
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: have become a cultural institution, Dad rock that ban, Martin
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: Scorsese makes videos for an expensive night out with the wife,
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: one where your Instagram posts from their concert will engender
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: both envy and snark from your friends. Given all of this,
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: it's hard to imagine or remember if you were there,
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: just how dangerous the Stones actually were in the seventies.
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: In nineteen seventy the band owed their record label Decca
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: one more single, which they did not want to deliver.
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: The relationship had long since soured and the Stones were
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: eager to move on, but contracts being what they are,
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: the band had to give the label something. So they
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: went into the studio and recorded a simple mid temple blues,
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: but with lyrics referencing anal and oral sex and with
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: Mick Jagger gleefully singing, screaming and moaning from the receiving
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: end of both. Knowing the lyrical content would make the
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: song unsellable for the label. They took it a step
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: further and delivered the song to Decca with the title
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: Cocksucker's Blues in twenty eighteen. It's hard to imagine any
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: mainstream artists bucking their industry kingmakers with so much attitude,
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: but this happened in nineteen seventy. By the mid seventies,
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: guitarist Mick Taylor, despite being able to match Keith Richards
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: for lick a guitar, could not match Keith's drinking and
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: drugging and suddenly up and quit the band to save.
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: His own life.
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: He was replaced by Ron Wood, which is like replacing
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: a flickering out light bulb with a bolt of lightning.
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: Would he quickly fit into the Stone's way of doing things,
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: both on and off stage and off stage. In the seventies,
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: the Stones were a disaster. They were arrested almost too
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: many times to count for heroin, marijuana, a legal possession
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: of handguns rifles. Keith in particular was a special kind
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: of disaster. He regularly drove his cars off the road
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: too many times to count, to the point where Mick
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: Jagger was convinced that his guitar player's end was near
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: Keith and the Stone. Sacks player Bobby Keys almost burned
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: down the Playboy Mansion while getting high in Heff's bathroom.
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: To get through their live shows, the band were on
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: ultra pure pharmaceutical grade cocaine and an elaborate tunnel system
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: behind beneath their stage, where they could quickly disappear in
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: the middle of a show, do a bump or two,
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: and get back to their marks. Another fire, this one
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: a rager, had Keith escaping out of a girlfriend's Laurel
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: Canyon home wearing only a T shirt and left of
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: Pooh bearer to safety. He survived unscathed, as did his
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: friend his gun in five hundred rounds of ammunition. In
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: the nineteen seventies, the world regarded the Rolling Stones as
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: an insular band of hedonistic but glamorous rock and roll
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: outlaws and dangerous pan sexual junkies. But all the trouble
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: they had stirred up to this point would be dwarfed
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: by the trouble they would find themselves in in Canada
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: in nineteen seventy seven. Up until that point, Keith's constitution,
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: the band's money, and their collective luck had fended off
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: death and destruction, but the scam they were about to
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: embroil themselves in would touch the highest levels of government
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: and threaten to destroy the band in their so far
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: indestructible guitar player. The current Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau,
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: was five years old in nineteen seventy seven. His father,
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: Pierre Trudeau, was at the time Canada's Prime Minister, a popular,
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: respected liberal leader of a free western country. Pierre's wife,
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: Justin's mom, Margaret, was nearly thirty years younger than her husband.
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: In nineteen seventy seven, Margaret Trudeau, the first Lady of Canada,
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: was a beautiful and glamorous twenty nine year old. She
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: was also filled with intense rests lessness, the kind that
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: only a glamorous woman in her twenties who has been
• 9:04
  Speaker 3: romantically involved with and married to a powerful man nearly
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: thirty years older than her since her late teens can feel.
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: After the Trudeau's married, they were content. Margaret gave birth
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: to three children and ran the home and took to
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: photography while Pierre ran the country, and for the most part,
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: Canadians loved their prime minister and his young flower child
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: wife and growing family. But for Margaret, any contentment she'd
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: felt would soon make way for that pesky restlessness. Domesticity
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: was no match for the waiting jet set. The First
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: Lady enraged Canadians when word got out that on the
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: eve of Canada's national elections, she was in London partying
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: at the Tramp Nightclub. The Tramp was no ordinary nightclub.
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: It was a private members only club that catered to
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: London's celebrity elite. Ringo Starr and Liza Minelli had their
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: wedding receptions there. It was where Shirley maclain felt comfortable
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: enough to pass out for the night on one of
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: the club's tables and wake up in the morning to
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: start drinking all over again. It's where the who is
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: Keith Moon would strip down to his birthday suit for
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: a quick laugh, and where mel Brooks would get on
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: all fours and howl at the Moon. My point, the
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: Tramp Nightclub wasn't exactly the environment one would expect the
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: First Lady to hang out in, but young Margaret Trudeau
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: would prove to be full of surprises. Her restless promiscuity
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: from this time is legend. She betted Prince Charles US
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: Senator Ted Kennedy, Jack Nicholson darker corners of the Internet
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: would have you believe that her rumored affair was Cuban
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: dictator Fidel Castro led to the illegitimate birth of her
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: first son, the current Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau.
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: Keep that in mind next time you read or hear
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: Justin Trudeau's fawning tribute to Fidel Castro after his death.
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: You might want to check the resemblance too, But I digress.
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: In March of nineteen seventy seven, Margaret and Pierre Trudeau
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: were about to celebrate their sixth wedding anniversary, and oh
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: Canada was all hell about to break loose.
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: We'll be right back after this word word word.
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: In the fall of nineteen seventy six, Mick Jagger and
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: Rolling Stones manager Peter Rudge began scouting for a small
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: venue to complete their double live album Love You Live.
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: It was decided that the intimate El Macambo nightclub in
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: Toronto would be the place. It was perfect, small, good sound,
• 11:40
  Speaker 3: and situated so the production logistics would be relatively uncomplicated.
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: If the Rolling Stones, the biggest and baddest band on
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: the planet, were to perform in a four hundred capacity club.
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: Secrecy was of the utmost importance. If word got out,
• 11:57
  Speaker 3: the ensuing shit show would prevent the gig from going off,
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: and the whole trip would be a waste of time
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: and money. In February nineteen seventy seven, band members, with
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: the exception of Keith, were already in Toronto under the
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: guise of rehearsing for their upcoming summer stadium tour. Keith
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: and his wife, Anita Pallenberg rolled into Canada late, as
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: junkies are wont to do. When their plane landed, authorities
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: were waiting for the notoriously drugged out rockstar. Keith had
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: fixed on the plane, but somehow the spoon ended up
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: in Anita's pocket. She got busted. Keith once again had
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: managed to escape, but the Canadian.
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: Mounties were now onto it.
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: While Missus Richards pondered her uncertain fate, Keith and the
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: rest of the rock and roll circus took over six
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: floors at the Harbor Castle Hilton in downtown Toronto. The
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: entourage was immense, management publicists, attorneys, aids, security, texts, wives, girlfriends, groupies, journalists,
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: local scenisters, and other assorted hangars on. The party was endless,
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: while Stone's management tended to the setup of the El
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: Macambo shows. The band rehearsed at night and fell back
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: afterward into the ongoing entourage party back at the hotel
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: into the morning. Meanwhile, the Mounties descended upon the hotel
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: with undercovered cops dressed as waiters to take in the
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: scene and scope out where amongst this madness Keith was
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: holed up with his stash. They soon determined which room
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: he was copping in and waited until he passed out
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: before beginning their raid. When they entered the room on
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: February twenty seventh, nineteen seventy seven, Keith was passed out.
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: He'd been awake for days rehearsing and partying. It took
• 13:59
  Speaker 3: some time for the Mounis to rouse. When they finally did,
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: Keith reminded them that he needed to be conscious in
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: order to be arrested. The joke didn't land. The Mounis
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: found Keith's entire stash, some cope, a bit of wheat,
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: and the mother load twenty two grams of heroin. The
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: Moundis knew their stuff too. This wasn't low grade local shwag.
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: This was grade a smack, the kind the Royal Canadian
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: Mounted Police took pride in keeping off of their streets.
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: The quantity in origin meant one thing, intent to distribute.
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: They had Keith on trafficking. This meant a minimum of
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: seven years. And this wasn't some back county local sheriff
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: who could be bought off, or some local constable who
• 14:47
  Speaker 3: owed the band's high powered attorney in favor. This was
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: pissed off police FEDS, who felt they'd been embarrassed at
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: the airport, made to look like fools for allowing this
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: traveling shit show to establish its own own private Gomorrah
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: in the middle of downtown Toronto. Fuck this, bring the
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: scarny prick in, throw the book at him, send them
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: away for seven years, and teach the rest of the
• 15:10
  Speaker 3: world not to fuck with the Mounies. But the Mounies
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: themselves fucked up. They booked Keith in a police station
• 15:18
  Speaker 3: out of their jurisdiction, and because of this technicality, Keith
• 15:22
  Speaker 3: bounced after paying a next to nothing no deposit bail,
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: But the pending trial and looming seven year prison stent
• 15:30
  Speaker 3: hung heavy on the mines of the band and their handlers.
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: This could very well mean the end of the Rolling Stones,
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: but the band pressed on. They continued to prep for
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: their secret shows that somehow still remained a secret rehearse
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: and of course party, even with an increased Moundi presence
• 15:48
  Speaker 3: hanging out in the hotel lobby. The date of the
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: shows couldn't come soon enough. On March fourth, nineteen seventy seven,
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: pedestrians passing by the Elma Combo heard what they thought
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: was a Rolling Stone's tribute band rehearsing in preparation for
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: that evening show with Canadian rock band April Wine. But
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: later that evening, when the first Lady of Canada, Margaret Trudeau,
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: was spotted backstage, it was clear that this was no
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: tribute band, Ladies and gentlemen. This was the Rolling Stones,
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: burning through an intimate club show, their first in thirteen years,
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: and there were no flies on Keith. Inspired by Ronnie's
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: new take on early Stones covers of blues classics like
• 16:34
  Speaker 3: Chuck Berry's Around and Around, Holland Wolfe's Little Red Rooster
• 16:38
  Speaker 3: and hell bent originals like Brown Sugar and Jumpin' Jack Flash,
• 16:42
  Speaker 3: the Stones laid waste to the tiny elm Copo Sweat Sex,
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: Pure rock, and roll. The crowd was mesmerized for a minute,
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: they'd forgotten that the first Lady was in the house.
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: But when the show ended and Margaret Trudeau was spotted
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: hopping into a limo with Mick and Ronnie, things took
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: a turn. The press noted that this was the sixth
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: anniversary of her marriage to the country's prime minister. What
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: was she doing out alone with the most dangerous rock
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: and roll band in the world. Rumors started to circulate
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: that back at the hotel, Missus Trudeau was seen running
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: through the halls wearing only a bathrobe. The press, as
• 17:25
  Speaker 3: the cliche goes, had a field day, but that didn't
• 17:28
  Speaker 3: stop Maggie from hanging out while the band remained in
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: Toronto for their last show at Elma Combo. She hung
• 17:34
  Speaker 3: out at the hotel, looked after Keith's young son, Marlin,
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: and in her own words, it was innocent. All she
• 17:41
  Speaker 3: did was quote, smoke a little hash, play dice and
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: drink a little wine. Keith later claimed that she did,
• 17:48
  Speaker 3: in fact do a bit more than that. To be blunt,
• 17:52
  Speaker 3: Keith claimed she'd slept with both Mick and Ronnie at
• 17:56
  Speaker 3: the same time. Maggie hit the second show in the
• 17:59
  Speaker 3: company of both men. The press could not believe what
• 18:03
  Speaker 3: they were seeing. Asked for a comment. While posing for
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: a picture with the first Lady, The Rolling Stones drummer
• 18:10
  Speaker 3: Charlie Watts claimed, I wouldn't want my wife associating with us.
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: The whole thing turned into an international incident. The New
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: York Daily News proclaimed ron Wood is Missus Trudeau's very
• 18:39
  Speaker 3: special stone. Mick Jagger, who was married to Bianca at
• 18:42
  Speaker 3: the time, issued a press release in The New York
• 18:45
  Speaker 3: Post saying that he and Margaret Trudeau had no romantic ties,
• 18:49
  Speaker 3: just to quote, passing acquaintance for two nights unquote. And
• 18:53
  Speaker 3: the Prime Minister himself weighed in with dry wit, saying
• 18:56
  Speaker 3: of his wild flower wife, I hope she doesn't start
• 18:59
  Speaker 3: to see the Beatle. It wouldn't be the Beatles. It
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: would first be the famous dancer Mikhil Bishnikoff, then the
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: famous photographer Richard Avedon. After arriving in New York with
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: the Stones after the Almacambo mess, but not all of
• 19:16
  Speaker 3: the Stones would make the trip out of Canada. Left
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: behind in the wreckage, was illegally vulnerable, strung out Keith
• 19:24
  Speaker 3: Richards hold up in a hotel with his wife and
• 19:27
  Speaker 3: young son, alone and afraid in a country he had
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: just made a mockery of and that had lost its
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: patience with him. Awaiting trial for a sentence that was
• 19:38
  Speaker 3: likely to lock him up and break up his band.
• 19:41
  Speaker 3: Keith's fate, and ultimately the fate of the band, would
• 19:44
  Speaker 3: be decided in court soon. It was tough to gauge
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: public opinion one way or the other. The Stones had
• 19:51
  Speaker 3: their fans, for sure, but a good portion of Canadians
• 19:54
  Speaker 3: were pissed the band had blown through their town and
• 19:57
  Speaker 3: disrespected their laws and their leader. In the months before
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: the trial, Keith publicly sweated the end of his band,
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: putting it out to the press that if he were
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: to go to jail, the band wouldn't continue. Mick sang
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: a different tune, claiming the show must go on. In
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: nineteen seventy eight, who could have possibly replaced Keith Richards
• 20:17
  Speaker 3: in a band made in his image Eric Clapton, George Harrison,
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: Jeff Beck Or they go with a relative unknown, someone
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: like Johnny Thunders. Perhaps I'm guessing Mick had a plan
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: to talk Mick Taylor out of retirement, or was this
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: hit for the Rolling Stones? Who was going to carry
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: the weight for rock and roll. The Beatles were gone.
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: The Eagles were huge, but come on, the Eagles led Zeppelin. Maybe,
• 20:45
  Speaker 3: I mean, maybe this was it for rock and roll.
• 20:48
  Speaker 3: Disco had taken over the charts. Punk was making waves
• 20:51
  Speaker 3: on both sides of the Atlantic, and up in the
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: Bronx a bunch of kids were starting to rhyme over
• 20:56
  Speaker 3: mixtapes from local DJs and producers, and what the hell
• 20:59
  Speaker 3: was that all about? The what IFFs weighed on everyone,
• 21:03
  Speaker 3: especially Keith. The day of the trial finally arrived on
• 21:06
  Speaker 3: October twenty third. By now, Keith had kicked smack and rehab,
• 21:11
  Speaker 3: but always the renegade. He faced the judge wearing white
• 21:14
  Speaker 3: socks and a three piece tann suit with shoes more
• 21:17
  Speaker 3: scuffed than buffed. Keith lawyers flew in Toronto Natives Saturday
• 21:22
  Speaker 3: Night Live producer Lauren Michaels to testify on Keith's behalf.
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: Prosecutors were not impressed. They sought the maximum penalty life
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: imprisonment for trafficking. Keith pled guilty to possession of heroin,
• 21:38
  Speaker 3: but not to drug trafficking. Then, in a stunning development,
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: the judge dropped the trafficking charges altogether. And accepted Keith's plea.
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: What just happened a guardian angel, That's what just happened.
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: The judge had been prevailed upon by a young blind
• 21:55
  Speaker 3: girl who was a fan of Keith's. She wrote the
• 21:58
  Speaker 3: judge countless letters detailing Keith's kindness toward her. When they
• 22:03
  Speaker 3: went unanswered, she went to the judge's house to make
• 22:05
  Speaker 3: her case in person. She claimed, whenever the band had
• 22:09
  Speaker 3: come to town, Keith had sought her out, made sure
• 22:12
  Speaker 3: she had a great time, and made it home safely,
• 22:15
  Speaker 3: instructing his road crew to see to it. A kindness
• 22:18
  Speaker 3: the rock star took upon himself to see to was
• 22:21
  Speaker 3: a kindness the judge would see to repaying with leniency.
• 22:25
  Speaker 3: He sentenced Keith to probation and mandated the Stones perform
• 22:29
  Speaker 3: a benefit for the blind within six months. Keith later
• 22:33
  Speaker 3: claimed that this chick went to the judge's house in
• 22:36
  Speaker 3: Toronto personally, and she told him this simple story, you know,
• 22:40
  Speaker 3: And from there I think he figured out the way
• 22:42
  Speaker 3: to get Canada himself and myself off of the hook.
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: And so I was sentenced to a concert for the blind,
• 22:48
  Speaker 3: which I gladly performed.
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 22:51
  Speaker 3: In my blind angel came through bless Her Heart. After
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: the incident with Keith, free from the grips of Heroin,
• 23:01
  Speaker 3: the Rolling Stones went on to become a bigger forest
• 23:03
  Speaker 3: than ever. Their next album, Some Girls, became an instant masterpiece.
• 23:08
  Speaker 3: Their nineteen eighty release Tattoo You Would Rock At the
• 23:12
  Speaker 3: band to a level of superstardom that even they would
• 23:15
  Speaker 3: have been unable to imagine. In the seventies, they embarked
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: upon the biggest tour in the history of the music
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: business and were on their way to becoming a cultural institution.
• 23:25
  Speaker 3: No band in the history of music has been able
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: to achieve and sustain the level of success that the
• 23:32
  Speaker 3: Rolling Stones have. Would that have happened without the intervention
• 23:36
  Speaker 3: of a blind guardian angel, probably not, And judging from
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: the Honky Tonks send up on side two of Some Girls,
• 23:44
  Speaker 3: aptly titled far Away Eyes, Mick and Keith seem to
• 23:48
  Speaker 3: agree with me.
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: I'm Jake Brennan in this this Disgraceland.
• 24:15
  Speaker 3: Disgraceland was created by Yours Truly and is produced in
• 24:18
  Speaker 3: partnership with Double Elvis. Credits for this episode can be
• 24:22
  Speaker 3: found on the show notes page at disgracelampod dot com.
• 24:25
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• 24:28
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• 24:33
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• 24:37
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• 25:01
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• 25:05
  Speaker 2: Rock a Roller.
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: He's a bad, bad man.