Keith Richards Remembers ‘Totally Singular, Unique’ Marianne Faithfull

A decade ago, when Rolling Stone published a Keith Richards special collectors’ issue, Marianne Faithfull submitted a moving tribute to her friend. “I like Keith more than almost anybody in the world,” she wrote. Faithfull thanked the Rolling Stones‘ guitarist in the missive for co-writing “As Tears Go By,” the baroque-pop ballad that launched her career as a gentle-voiced folk songbird at age 17. That single, released in 1964, was also the first original composition by Richards and Mick Jagger (with a co-credit going to manager Andrew Loog Oldham). Later that year, Richards played acoustic guitar on Faithfull’s cover of Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind.”

Faithfull also credited Richards in the tribute with turning her on to blues musicians like Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters, as well as Merle Haggard’s “Sing Me Back Home,” a song they eventually recorded together. And she applauded him for standing up for her when the British tabloids came after her following a drug bust at Richards’ estate in 1967. The Stones recorded a song she co-wrote with Jagger and Richards, “Sister Morphine,” about her struggles with drugs, on their 1971 album, Sticky Fingers. “All those experiences we had together kept us close,” she said.

Faithfull’s career blossomed in the late Seventies and Eighties after she made forays into country, New Wave, post-punk, and jazz on albums like Broken English and Strange Weather, the latter of which featured a new arrangement of “As Tears Go By.” That rendition, recorded when she was 40, complemented the way her voice deepened with age. “Forty is the age to sing it, not 17,” she told Rolling Stone. She recorded albums with help from artists like Beck, Nick Cave, and PJ Harvey in the past few decades, reworking the song again, at age 71, with Warren Ellis, for her 2018 album, Negative Capability.

When Faithfull died last month, Richards posted a photo of the two of them with a short note expressing his heartfelt condolences to her family. In a new interview with Rolling Stone, the guitarist — who says he’s talking to Jagger about going back in the studio this year — opens up about losing his dear friend. “I’ve kind of known and expected to hear [she had passed] for quite a while,” he says. “She’s not been well. It’s a very sad thing.” In his own tribute to her, Richards says he’ll always remember her perseverance.

Here is Richards remembering Faithfull in his own words.

Marianne was a great friend and a very strong woman. It was interesting to watch her grow up through the years. The first time I met her, she had just got out of convent [St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Convent School]. Mick and I looked at each other and said, “Is that what they’ve got behind those walls, man?” [Laughs.]

She was managed by Andrew Oldham, who was the Stones’ manager in the beginning. He had said to Mick and me, “Look, we really need songs if we are going to get things happening here. I mean, look at the Beatles.” I go, “Yeah, but we’re a blues band.” Andrew said, “Go in the kitchen for the night, and I’ll lock you in and see what you come up with.” And I’m saying, “Well, OK.” “Good luck.” We struggled through the night in this kitchen, and we did actually come out with “As Tears Go By.”

We played it to Andrew the next day, and he said, “OK.” Within a week, he’s playing me a dub of Marianne singing it, and I go, “Wow, this is pretty quick. Who’s this girl?” And Andrew introduced us.

She was totally green at recording, but she walked into it very confidently and took it away. She was very sure of herself. And then of course, Mick and I are looking at each other and saying, “Well, if this is songwriting, let’s do some more.”

Marianne’s voice then was very pure, very untrained, which is great. She had a form of sincerity that she always kept, even as her voice changed through the years. She always meant what she did. She loved it, but she had none of that sort of showbiz side, which can get in the way. If you listen to her first record, her voice is incredibly pure and simple — but it had just the right edge on it. She knew what to do with it.

It was hard to argue with Marianne. Luckily, I had no reason to, but from other people who did, it was a no-go, really. She was also a great laugh, and there was absolutely no pretension about her, which is very hard to believe sometimes with singers like that.

We became very good friends a few years later, when she was living with Mick. I stood up for her after the Redlands bust [when tabloids reported she’d been found naked in Richards’ home] because it was unfair to pick on the lady, and also it was my damn house. She just happened to be there. She had nothing to do with it, and I just felt that was a bit unfair. I felt that I had to.

I used to see her when I’d pop around to pick Mick up to go to the studio. She was honing her songwriting skills then because she was throwing Mick pages of ideas for songs as well. Marianne was always ready to listen to anything. She had a great ear for music. She really liked good folk music and jazz. She was always curious.

There’s sort of a vein of Marianne that runs through a certain number of the Stones’ Sixties songs. She’s definitely behind them somewhere. I can hear her influence in “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” and some of the songs around the time of Beggars Banquet. “Sister Morphine” [the Sticky Fingers cut she co-wrote] was pretty much finished by the time I’d gotten to it. When I heard it, I thought, “Now she’s really setting it down.” She did have her moments with the devil, but there again, it’s probably one of the best dope songs that there is. It’s a beautiful visual, too.

I would say [1979’s] Broken English is where she started to make her own statements as an artist. I loved Broken English. I hadn’t heard anything about her for a while. But when I heard that, I thought, “Marianne’s back. That’s cool.” I didn’t see or hear a lot of her for years. I’d never know when I’d bump into her. Suddenly, she was there and, “Oh, Marianne’s here.” She’s just always been a cool friend in the background, and I’ve always admired her for taking that job on as a woman, especially in the Sixties, Seventies, and Eighties; she’s a very bold girl. I mean, Christ, I saw her singing up in the Rainbow Room alongside Darlene Love [in 1996]. I thought it was incredibly gutsy of Marianne to do that.

I haven’t heard the other versions of “As Tears Go By” that she recorded, but I understand what she meant [by saying the song is for an older person to sing]. You could do the young version and the song ages with it.

I recorded a version of Merle Haggard’s “Sing Me Back Home” with her [in 2007] as an overdub. I’d heard that she’d recorded it, and they sent the tape, and I did it on an overdub because both Marianne and I love Merle Haggard; that song was a staple with Gram [Parsons] and me. We loved Merle too.

The last time I spoke with Marianne was a couple of years ago, probably ’22 — the last time we were on tour in England, but that’s basically how Marianne and I always were. We were always briefly passing by. She was a great girl. I’m going to miss her very much.

She should be remembered as being Marianne Faithfull. She was a totally singular, unique character who stood her own ground, and I think she should be proud of what she did.