How Bobby Keys' Death Hit Keith Richards: A Brotherhood of Whiskey and Sax

When saxophonist Bobby Keys died in December 2014 at age 70, Keith Richards lost more than a longtime sideman — he lost a drinking partner, a road brother, and one of the few people who could match him shot for shot. The two met as teenagers in the early 1960s when the Stones and Keys’ band Buddy & the Juniors crossed paths in Texas. By the time Keys played the iconic sax solo on “Brown Sugar,” they’d already cemented a bond that Richards later described as “blood brothers.”

Keith was visibly shaken in the weeks after Keys’ death. He canceled a book signing appearance and took to social media to write: “I have lost my greatest friend and brother. My heart is shattered.” In his autobiography Life, Richards devoted an entire chapter to Keys, recalling how they’d sneak booze onto planes in hollowed-out Bibles and once stole a police car together in Louisiana. The grief wasn’t just nostalgic — it was the loss of the one guy who understood the wild, reckless side of fame without judgment.

At the Stones’ 2015 tour opener in San Diego, Richards paid tribute by playing a solo version of “The Nearness of You” on acoustic guitar. He’d later tell an interviewer that he sometimes still picks up the phone to call Keys before remembering he’s gone. For a man who’s outlived dozens of friends, Bobby Keys’ death cut deeper than most — because, as Richards put it, “He was the only one who could drink me under the table and still make the gig.”