7 Rock Legends Who Really Have No Business Still Being Alive

5. Keith Richards

Born: 18 December 1943; Dartford, Kent Career Highlights: Probably the most influential and widely imitated rhythm guitarist who will ever live, Keith Richards co-founded The Rolling Stones with Mick Jagger, Brian Jones, and Ian Stewart in the spring of 1962. Not originally one of the band's public faces, Richards' stature increased as Jones was slowly marginalized before ultimately being sacked shortly before his death in 1969. From there, Jagger and Richards set about establishing themselves as the most prolific, productive, and influential songwriting duo in rock history, and made their own rules €“ later copied by pretty much everyone €“ about what lead singers and guitarists are supposed to look and act like. Notable Addictions: Heroin, Cocaine, Alcohol, PCP, Painkillers, Speed, LSD, Mushrooms, Nicotine, Rhinoceros Tranquilizer, Snorting His Dead Father's Ashes. Why He Should Be Dead: To put it simply, Keith Richards has done enough drugs to kill the entire population of Denmark nine times over. It is rumored that when he finally quit doing heroin, the economy of Afghanistan experienced an immediate and total collapse. Jo Wood, ex-wife of Ronnie, related a story in her memoir about Richards finding some pills on a coffee table, crushing them up and loading the mixture into a syringe, and jamming the needle directly into his heart, all the while engaged in casual conversation. If that's not rock and roll, this writer has no idea what is. To Richards' credit, he is not without a taste for variety, as he experienced a non-drug-related brush with death in Fiji 2006, when he fell out of a tree, landed on his head, and required life-saving brain surgery.