{"id":313550,"date":"2025-11-25T21:58:20","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T21:58:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/313550\/"},"modified":"2025-11-25T21:58:20","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T21:58:20","slug":"the-night-keith-richards-was-electrocuted-then-played-a-show-the-very-next-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/313550\/","title":{"rendered":"The Night Keith Richards Was Electrocuted\u2014Then Played a Show the Very Next Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

The lore surrounding Keith Richards<\/a>\u2018 heyday with the Rolling Stones is unparalleled. The guitarist has more than enough antics to keep fans talking about him for the foreseeable future. Perhaps one of his most consequential anecdotes comes from the mid-\u201960s, when Richards nearly died and yet lived to play a show just a day later. Learn more about this harrowing Richards moment below.<\/p>\n

[RELATED: The Beauty Is in the Imperfections: Why Keith Richards Thought The Band Was \u201cJust a Little Too Perfect\u201d]<\/a><\/p>\n

The Time Keith Richards Defied Death<\/p>\n

Richards has had many close calls with the Grim Reaper, by his own admission. He, like many rockers, has lived a life that most of us can\u2019t imagine surviving. But perhaps his nearest brush with death came during a 1965 concert in Sacramento, California. This incident was no fault of his own; it was purely accidental.<\/p>\n

During the show, Richards struck his guitar against an ungrounded microphone stand. The instrument ignited, sending Richards flying backward before an awestruck crowd.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was right there in the front row, in front of Keith,\u201d Sacramento blues musician Mick Martin once recalled.<\/a> \u201cI saw the blue light. I literally saw Keith fly into the air backward. I thought he was dead. I was horrified. We all were. Silence fell over the crowd.\u201d<\/p>\n

Richards\u2019 Speedy Recovery<\/p>\n

Though it was surely memorable, it wasn\u2019t the concert experience anyone was hoping for that night. Understandably, the show was abruptly stopped, and Richards was rushed to the hospital.<\/p>\n

There was uncertainty about whether Richards would wake up, but he persevered. The guitarist brushed off the massive electrical shock that would\u2019ve killed most mere mortals and got back on stage the next night in California.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t Richards\u2019 only close call. His track record isn\u2019t glowing, with endless examples of drug abuse and other on-stage injuries.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeveral times I\u2019ve thought, \u2018This is it,\u2019\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Richards once said<\/a>. \u201cAnd it\u2019s quite a comforting feeling, actually, thinking, \u2018Jesus Christ I\u2019m getting out of it now.\u2019 I\u2019ve no pretensions about immortality \u2013 I\u2019m the same as everyone else \u2013 same as you, same as everybody, I\u2019m the same old bugger, just kind of lucky. I tens Number one on the Who\u2019s Likely To Die list for 10 years, I mean, I was really disappointed when I fell off the list.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though no one can in good conscience condone that kind of behavior, it certainly adds to the mystique of Richards as a rock star. We rely on emblems like Richards to do what we all can\u2019t. We rely on them to live fast so we can vicariously experience the rush.<\/p>\n

(Photo by Ali Lorestani\/TT\/Shutterstock)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The lore surrounding Keith Richards\u2018 heyday with the Rolling Stones is unparalleled. The guitarist has more than enough…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":313551,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[88,1731,216,2156,1735],"class_list":{"0":"post-313550","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-keith-richards","10":"tag-music","11":"tag-rock-music","12":"tag-the-rolling-stones"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=313550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313550\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}