In the pantheon of rock and roll legends, Keith Richards has long been cast as the ultimate survivor, the swashbuckling guitarist with a seemingly indestructible constitution. He is the archetype of the rock rebel, the “Clyde” to the world’s perception of a fast-lived, lawless existence. But in a raw and revealing new documentary, Richards himself is rewriting that myth, repositioning the narrative to place his former partner, the late Anita Pallenberg, in her rightful place: not as his follower, but as his leader. As the true “Bonnie” of their shared, chaotic universe, Richards confesses he spent much of their time together simply “trying to keep up.”

The documentary, which draws from the intimate and long-unseen pages of Pallenberg’s unpublished memoir, serves as a powerful corrective to a history often told through a male lens. For years, Pallenberg was relegated to the simplistic roles of “muse,” “it girl,” or “rockstar’s girlfriend.” This new telling, however, frames her as she truly was: an actress, a fashion icon, a mother, and the undeniable sixth member of the Rolling Stones, whose artistic and stylistic influence was so profound it forever altered the band’s DNA.

Their relationship, which began in the mid-1960s after she famously left his bandmate Brian Jones for him, was never a simple love affair. It was a creative and destructive vortex, a partnership forged in the fires of fame, genius, and crippling addiction. They were an outlaw couple who defined the aesthetic of an era—her fur coats, his eyeliner, their shared insouciance creating a visual language of rebellion that millions would attempt to emulate. They were beautiful, dangerous, and inseparable, crafting a public-facing mythology that was as captivating as it was perilous.

Richards’ admission that he was the one struggling to match her pace is a seismic shift in our understanding of their dynamic. It dismantles the trope of the male rock god and his adoring muse. Instead, it paints a picture of Pallenberg as the vanguard—the one pushing the boundaries of style, art, and even hedonism. “She was a very, very strong woman,” Richards has stated, his words tinged with a mixture of awe and melancholy. “She was a powerhouse.” Friends and insiders from the era have long whispered that it was Anita who introduced the Stones to a darker, more sophisticated European aesthetic, steering them away from their boyish R&B roots and toward the decadent, androgynous mystique that would define their golden age.

She was more than just a stylist; she was an intellectual and artistic peer. Her uncredited backing vocals can be heard on the sinister classic “Sympathy for the Devil,” a track whose dark theatricality feels indelibly stamped with her influence. She was his harshest critic and most trusted confidante, often sent into the studio control room to give the final verdict on a track. If Anita didn’t like it, the band knew it wasn’t good enough. Her presence wasn’t peripheral; it was foundational to albums like Beggars Banquet and Exile on Main St., records that captured the beautiful decay and defiant spirit that she and Keith embodied.

But their Bonnie and Clyde saga was not without its profound darkness. Their life together was a tightrope walk over an abyss of heroin addiction, a shared disease that nearly consumed them both. The glamour was shadowed by immense tragedy, most devastatingly the 1976 death of their infant son, Tara, from SIDS. The heartbreak was a wound that never truly healed, a ghost that haunted their relationship until its eventual end in the late 1970s. Their world was further rocked by the mysterious 1979 death of 17-year-old Scott Cantrell in their New York home, an event that, while Richards was cleared, added another layer of notoriety and pain to their story.

The new documentary doesn’t shy away from these harrowing chapters. Instead, by using Pallenberg’s own words from her memoir, it provides her perspective on the events that were so often sensationalized by the press. Voiced by an actress and supported by interviews with her children, Marlon and Angela Richards, the film seeks to reclaim her narrative from the clutches of tabloid history. It’s a story of a woman navigating motherhood amidst chaos, fighting for her own identity in the shadow of one of the world’s biggest bands, and battling demons that would have destroyed anyone less resilient.

Even after their romantic relationship dissolved, their bond remained unbreakable. They were co-parents and, in many ways, soulmates tethered by a history too intense to ever fully sever. Richards eventually found sobriety and a stable life with his wife, Patti Hansen, but his love and respect for Pallenberg never waned. His participation in this project is a testament to that enduring connection, an act of ensuring her legacy is finally understood in its full, complex glory.

Ultimately, this is more than just another rock documentary. It is a vital re-examination of a cultural icon who was systematically underestimated. Anita Pallenberg was not a passenger on the Rolling Stones’ train; she was laying the tracks. Keith Richards’ heartfelt confession serves as the final, definitive word on the matter. In the wild, electrifying, and often tragic opera of their life together, he may have been the one holding the guitar, but she was the one composing the music. The world is finally ready to listen.