Keith Richards' mother dies

Apr 24, 2007, 11:30 GMT

03/12/2007 - Keith Richards - © Janet Mayer / Photorazzi

Keith Richards' mother has died.

Doris Richards peacefully passed away on Saturday night (21.04.07) aged 91 after a lengthy battle with cancer.

Rolling Stones guitarist Keith, 63, had been keeping a bedside vigil at the clinic in London's Harley Street where she was treated before her death.

The band's spokesman Bernard Doherty said: "Doris Richards, aged 91, mother of Rolling Stone Keith Richards, passed away peacefully in her sleep on Saturday 21 April 2007.

"Family and friends request that their privacy is respected at this time."

Doris separated from Keith's father Bert - who passed away in 2002 aged 84 - in 1962. Before her death she had been living with the rocker's stepfather William in Kent.

Doris was responsible for buying her son his first guitar on his 15th birthday, setting him on the path to rock 'n' roll success.

Her father, Gus Dupree, toured the UK as a jazz musician and gave grandson Keith his earliest guitar lessons.

Earlier this month, Keith caused outrage after claiming he had snorted his dead dad's ashes mixed in with a line of cocaine.

He said: "I snorted my father. He was cremated and I couldn't resist grinding him up with a little bit of blow. My dad wouldn't have cared, he didn't give a s**t."

The wild musician, who is famed for his drug use, has since retracted the statement insisting he only meant it as a joke.

(C) BANG Media International