How Keith Richards Beat a Heroin Rap with a Benefit Concert for the Blind

In 1977, Keith Richards was busted in a Toronto hotel room with 22 grams of heroin, a stash that under Canadian law could have meant life in prison. Instead, he walked out with a suspended sentence, a $5,000 fine, and an order to perform a benefit concert for the blind — which turned into one of the Rolling Stones’ most mythical club shows.

The arrest was a wake-up call Richards later called “the thing that saved my life.” His lawyer argued that Richards had sought medical help for his addiction, even registering with a Swiss doctor, and that the drugs were for personal use during a withdrawal attempt. The judge bought it, but added a creative condition: a charity concert for the Canadian National Institute for the Blind.

That show happened on December 9, 1979, at the Oshawa Civic Auditorium, a small hockey rink outside Toronto. The Stones played a blistering set,