Here is a scene that neither of them probably expected to see: Keith Richards, who is still rocking at the age of 73 despite a lifetime of drink and drug abuse, enjoys a tipple with former Rolling Stones ‘wild child’ groupie, 70-year-old Marianne Faithfull.
The pair were reunited after a Stones concert this week in Paris, where Marianne — whose poor health has led her to describe herself as a ‘cripple’— now lives.
Dressed in a camouflage jacket and a lurid bandana, Richards raises a glass of what looks like rosé wine, while she toasts him with a cup of tea at his hotel.
Five decades on: Keith Richards (left), who is still rocking at the age of 73 despite a lifetime of drink and drug abuse, enjoys a tipple with former Rolling Stones ‘wild child’ groupie, 70-year-old Marianne Faithfull (right) in Paris this week
Looking elegant in a white blouse, dark jacket and colourful scarf, Marianne lifts her eyes to meet Richards’ and they share an intimate look that seems to roll back the years.
Army officer’s daughter Marianne was the long-term girlfriend of the Stones lead singer Mick Jagger when she was seduced by guitarist Richards in 1969.
He later admitted he made his move to gain revenge on Jagger, now 74, who had enjoyed a fling with Anita Pallenberg, Richards’ girlfriend at the time.
Richards claims he has never been a jealous man, but he wrote the Stones’ song Gimme Shelter — with the lyrics ‘Oh, a storm is threat’ning, My very life today; If I don’t get some shelter, Oh yeah, I’m gonna fade away’ — on a stormy day when Anita was clearly falling for Jagger.
Stone Age: Keith and Marianne in their heyday in Morocco the 1960s
It was ‘not the first time that we’d been in competition for a bird’, Richards wrote in his 2010 autobiography, Life, adding: ‘It was like two alphas fighting. Still is, quite honestly.’
His revenge in bedding Marianne — which he says happened only once — was interrupted when Jagger returned home early.
Their ‘hot and sweaty’ episode was cut short as Richards ‘did one out the window’ clutching his clothes, although he accidentally left his socks behind.
On top of the world! L-R: Mick Jagger, Marianne, Anita Pallenberg and Keith in the 60s
He revealed: ‘Marianne and I still have this joke. She sends me messages: ‘I still can’t find your socks.’
In his memoirs, Richards summed up the bed-hopping pantomime of the Sixties with a bravado taunt to Jagger: ‘I was knocking Marianne, man.
Richards is still going strong, having played a European tour with the rest of the Stones over the last few weeks
‘While you’re missing it, I’m kissing it.’
In a final stab, he mocked Jagger’s sexual prowess, saying Pallenberg found the singer under-endowed and ‘had no fun with the tiny todger’.
Pallenberg died in June at the age of 75, owing to complications from hepatitis C.
However, Marianne, who shot to fame in 1964 with her version of the Stones song As Tears Go By, is still performing, albeit with the support of a walking stick.
Last year, she opened up about her history of medical problems to her fans at a London concert.
‘It’s been very, very hard with all these terrible injuries and La Faithfull actually ending up disabled,’ she said.
Having overcome drug problems in the late Sixties and Seventies, she was treated for exhaustion in 2004 and for breast cancer two years later.
The singer, who divorced her third husband, American writer Giorgio Della Terza, in 1991, has also been treated for hepatitis C.
Richards, Bill Wyman, Brian Jones, Charlie Watts and Mick Jagger pose on a movie-set staircase in Los Angeles some time between 1964 and 1966
Army officer’s daughter Marianne was the long-term girlfriend of the Stones lead singer Mick Jagger when she was seduced by guitarist Richards in 1969 (pictured with Ronnie Wood on stage in Paris on Sunday)
She was forced to cancel a string of U.S. dates after breaking a bone in her back and suffers from emphysema. It was also reported that in May 2014 she broke her hip after a fall while on holiday on the Greek island of Rhodes.
Following surgery, it was said Faithfull developed an infection where the prosthetic was placed. It is thought she has used a stick ever since.
Richards, who has been married to ex-model Patti Hansen since 1983, shared this picture with his followers online, writing: ‘Loved seeing Marianne!’
One delighted fan commented, ‘That look between them,’ while another remarked: ‘Your eyes meet and . . . Magic.’
In his memoirs, Richards (third left) summed up the bed-hopping pantomime of the Sixties with a bravado taunt to Jagger (second left): ‘I was knocking Marianne, man. While you’re missing it, I’m kissing it’