Keith Richards Book Bidding Passes $7.3 million

Highest autobiography advance of its type ever – and in true Keith form, getting higher

By Jeffrey Jolson for Hollywood Today

HOLLYWOOD, CA (rushprnews)July 28, 2007— Keith Richards, fabled co-founder of the Rolling Stones and the dubious role model for generations of rockers, is strumming up the biggest bidding war of the year for rights to publish his memoirs. Price has soared from a $5 million ante to $7.3 million and rising.

“This is Bill Clinton money,” one non-bidding publishing executive said, referring to the highest advance ever paid for a non-fiction book, $10 million for the former President’s memoirs. And we have to admit, Richards’ memoirs will be much juicier than even Clinton’s.

The book was written with Richards’ friend of 30 years, noted non-fiction author James Fox. That gives Richards an edge memory-wise over his Glimmer Twins partner, Sir Mick Jagger, who once said he didn’t remember enough of his wild times to write a book about them. As they say, if you can remember the ’60s and ‘70s, you weren’t really there.

In the early 1980s, Sir Mick accepted $1.6 million advance from Bantam for his life story, but returned it several years later. “We were told he said he couldn’t remember enough to do a book,” said Stuart Applebaum, a spokesman for Random House Inc., which also owns Bantam.

Publishing industry paper Crain’s reports that the publishers most ardently looking for a little Satisfaction are HarperCollins and Little, Brown. The legendary guitarist and survivor against all odds has already passed the advance received by fellow strummer Eric Clapton, who got a $5 million advance. “Clapton: The Autobiography” will be released by Doubleday in October with a huge 300,000 first printing. Not “Happy Potter” numbers, but massive for the genre.

Richards’ London-based agent Ed Victor told the tome is potentially “the greatest rock ‘n’ roll book of all time.”