How the Rolling Stones overcame heroin addiction to make ‘Exile’
“Exile on Main St.” album.In fact, the drug-fueled debauchery had Keith Richards — in the throes of a heroin addiction — going MIA within his French villa where the Stones recorded the sprawling double LP, which was released 50 years ago on May 12, 1972. “Keith had his son Marlon with him, and he would say, ‘Oh, I’m gonna go put Marlon to bed.’ And then you wouldn’t see him for a day and a half,” said Anthony DeCurtis, who wrote the liner notes for the 2010 reissue of “Exile on Main St.” as well as the 2021 book “The Rolling Stones: Unzipped.” “And I think that that was beginning to create issues in the band. One of your main songwriters and, in many ways, the musical driving force of the band is somebody who’s having drug problems.