Famous Genealogies

Biography

Keith Richards is the only child of Bertrand Richards and Doris Dupree Richards. He was born at Livingston Hospital in Dartford, Kent. His father was a factory worker who was injured in World War II during the Normandy invasion.

Richards' paternal grandparents were socialists and civic leaders whose family originated from Wales. His maternal grandfather, Augustus Theodore Dupree, who toured Britain with a jazz big band, "Gus Dupree and his Boys," fostered Richards's interest in guitar.

Richards's mother bought him his first guitar and he played at home, recording Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and others. His father on the other hand disparaged his son's musical enthusiasm. One of Richards's first guitar heroes was Scotty Moore.

Richards attended Wentworth Primary School with Mick Jagger and was his neighbour until 1954, when the family moved. From 1955 to 1959 he attended Dartford Technical High School for Boys. Recruited by Dartford Tech's choirmaster R. W. "Jake" Clare, Richards sang in a trio of boy sopranos at, among other occasions, Westminster Abbey for Queen Elizabeth II.

Source :  http://www.wikipedia.org/