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Keith Richards

Keith Richards keeps it all in the family for kids' book

Elysa Gardner
@elysagardner, USA TODAY
Theodora Richards plays the drums with her father,  Keith Richards,  circa 1985. Image from the book 'Gus & Me: The Story of My Granddad and My First Guitar' by Keith Richards. Theodora is the book illustrator.

NEW YORK — Keith Richards knows exactly what you're thinking: Him, doing a children's book?

That was the Rolling Stones guitarist's initial response when his publisher approached him with the idea that flowered into Gus & Me: The Story of My Granddad and My First Guitar (Little, Brown Books For Young Readers), the new picture book featuring illustrations by Theodora Richards, the elder of his two daughters with wife Patti Hansen.

"This one came around sort of behind my back," says Richards. "It happened to coincide with my first daughter, Angela" — from a previous relationship — "having my fifth grandchild (Otto, now 9 months old). And I realized that I wanted to give my own grandfather his due for having turned me on to music."

There was also the chance to work with Theodora, 29, whom he chose to provide art for the book. "With those three ingredients I couldn't say no."

"Cover of 'Gus & Me: The Story of My Granddad and My First Guitar' by Keith Richards and art by his daughter Theodora Richards.

The characters and story required no embellishment. Theodore Augustus "Gus" Dupree, Richards' maternal grandpa and Theodora's namesake, was a big-band jazz musician who had seven daughters and owned and played a number of instruments. And he often took grandson Keith, also the name of the boy in the book, on outings like Gus & Me's journey through London's streets and a music store.

"I would be the only lad at family gatherings," Richards recalls. "He'd say, 'Let's take the dogs for a walk,' and we'd wander off. He would take me to music shops, thrift shops. … I was too young to always know what he was up to, but there was usually a bit of wheeling and dealing. He'd come out with a brand-new set of strings for his violin, or a nice piece of fish to take home to Mother."

Dupree "sussed me out for a guitar player" at the age of 5 or 6, Richards adds. "I was a Roy Rogers freak. There was a man who could ride a horse, shoot straight and play a guitar. To me that was the epitome of a hero. Nothing to shoot? Just get the guitar out. And that's how Gus got hold of my imagination."

An inside spread from "Gus & Me: The Story of My Granddad and My First Guitar" by Keith Richards.

Theodora, who describes her style as that of "a doodler," received a lot of input from her dad. "I would draw him in a school uniform, with his socks pulled straight up, and he would tell me, 'I would never wear a tie when I was with my grandfather, and my socks were always rolled down.' "

Gus & Me's illustrator notes that her father, like his cohorts in the Stones, was schooled in her craft himself.

"Those boys, when they were going to school – Mick, Ronnie, Dad – they were all taught art. And they're all ingenious artists. Dad can do a portrait of you in three lines. There's stuff he's done of Mom that he doesn't put out there. But I think he should do something massive, because his stuff is gorgeous."

Where the book is concerned, at least, Richards says, "The only juice I'm trying to get out of this is to put grandparents more in touch with grandkids, and vice versa. Look — I'm a shining example of what could happen!"

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