Keith Richards wins literary prize for his memoir
Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards accepted the Mailer Prize for Distinguished Biography Tuesday for his best-selling memoir, Life. The awarded was handed to him by former President Bill Clinton.
Richards was his typical self, failing to clean up his speech and dress any differently than he would if he was playing at a typical arena concert as he accepted the award in front of guests in suits and gowns, The Associated Press noted. "This is one for the books, if you get my drift, you hacks," he said, behind sunglasses and with a bandanna wrapped around his messy hair.
While Clinton introduced Richards, he paid tribute to his mother-in-law, Dorothy Rodham, who died last week. Clinton said that she was a big fan of the Rolling Stones. "Do you have any idea what it's like to have a 92-year-old groupie living in your home, a woman who lived and breathed for the Rolling Stones?” Clinton said, according to Contact Music.
During his speech, Richards tried to justify his presence, claiming that since he started writing songs when he was 16, he was not an “intrusion,” Third Age reports.
Nobel laureate and author of Night Elie Wiesel was honored with the Mailer prize for lifetime achievement.
The Mailer awards have been handed out for the past three years and are named in honor of Norman Mailer, the well-known writer that died in 2007. The Norman Mailer Center and the Norman Mailer Writers Colony sponsors the awards.
