Dear Keith Richards: You Made Me the Musician I Am Today

Dear Keith Richards,

You don’t know me, but I certainly know you. I’ve actually known you my entire life. I was fortunate enough to be raised by some really cool parents who shaped my musical tastes in the best way possible from day one. I’ve heard and enjoyed your riffs since before I could form sentences. It’s your music that led me to learning the guitar at a young age. I wanted to impress my parents and their friends with my covers of Stones songs, as well as learn my own favorites. I became a little miniature jukebox because of you, and it was the best introduction into music I could ever ask for.

Decades later, I still find myself gravitating toward writing blues riffs in my music, very much inspired by you… maybe unconventional for electronic music, but it is just what I know best from that early exposure. I just wanted to say thank you for all you’ve done for me as a child and an adult (and a side thank-you for showing me the five-string open G trick; it’s brilliant). If it weren’t for you, or my parents’ wonderful taste of music, I would have been humming some other licks as a kid and been a totally different musician today.

With the utmost respect and many thanks,

Pierce Fulton

Illustrator Credit: Emily Fromm

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