Surprisingly, Playing the Guitar and Writing Have Little In Common

I saw “Pirates of the Caribbean 3,” and even though I didn’t like the first two, I was excited about the third solely because of two people: Geoffrey Rush, slated to make his return as Captain Barbosa, who, in my opinion, was far more entertaining than Jack Sparrow, and Keith Richards, appearing in the flesh, rather than in spirit as one of Depp’s inspirations for his swashbuckling alter ego. Richards’ short cameo was punctuated by two things: his lack of lines, and his guitar work.



The following fact is made obvious by the knowledge that Richards is a famous musician: the man is not an actor. Though “Pirates…” was not his acting debut, it was his first role in a major blockbuster. And what did they have him do? They had him play the guitar, as if to emphasize that the man is not an actor, but a guitarist.



I’m not going to fool myself into thinking many celebrities don’t have their books ghostwritten, but I’m not sure what to think about the new deal Richards inked with Little, Brown. As an iconic figure, Keith’s book should be of great interest to many—and I’m proud to include myself among them. But when he makes his major motion picture debut hiding behind a guitar, I’m a bit skeptical about where his major written word debut is going to go.



I can’t imagine the man doesn’t have stories to tell. I’m hoping he does as good a job telling them with a pen as he does with a six string (and I bet Little, Brown is too).