In the mid-1970s, after a decade as the undisputed “greatest rock and roll band in the world,” The Rolling Stones were forced to confront not only the cold reality of the new punk rock era, but how guitarist Keith Richards’ mounting personal problems were threatening the band’s very existence. Keith’s glorified image as rock’s ultimate outlaw, as a counterpoint to singer Mick Jagger’s image as rock’s ultimate sex symbol, was the basis of the Stones’ mystique. But at the start of 1977, as the Stones agreed to work on a new album in Toronto and spark the creative process by playing a small club there, all that Keith represented seemed to be finally catching up to him. Before They Make Me Run, written by veteran Canadian music journalist Jason Schneider, is the first accurate chronicle of Keith Richards and The Rolling Stones’ darkest period, from the bust that led to charges of heroin trafficking laid against Keith, to his ultimate exoneration after playing what was surely the most unexpected benefit concert in history. No detail is overlooked or unexamined, including eye-witness accounts of the Stones’ El Mocambo concerts, the truth behind Canadian First Lady Margaret Trudeau’s involvement with the band, the creation of the Stones’ final masterpiece Some Girls, and the complex political and legal wrangling behind the outcome of Keith’s trial: a concert to benefit the Canadian National Institute for the Blind. Written in a lively tone befitting the Rolling Stones’ music, Before They Make Me Run is an essential addition to any Stones library.