How Keith Richards came to be known as the man death forgot

See also: The greatest guitarists of all time

The Rolling Stones’s Keith Richards got the nickname ‘the man death forgot’ after cheating death when he was electrocuted during a show.

As Keith Richards ran towards the microphone to join in the first verse of their hit track ‘The Last Time’ during a sell-out concert in America in 1965, the guitarist crashed to the floor, the Daily Mail reported.

For some reason his microphone stand was not earthed properly that night and when he brushed it with his electric guitar, a bolt of blue flame preceded an unearthly screech and Richards fell on the floor.

A ghastly burning smell pervaded the unfortunately named Memorial Auditorium in Sacramento, California. There were a few screams, then deathly silence as police and medical attendants began swarming all around the prostrate rocker.

Richards was down so long, seven minutes in most estimates, that there seemed little chance of him surviving.

But then, just as everyone had given up hope, he suddenly opened his eyes and absent-mindedly scratched his chin.

“What do I do for an encore?” he asked and the set resumed again soon afterwards.

Such resilience, not to mention his weathering of years of heroin and alcohol abuse, has earned Richards the nickname ‘the man death forgot’.