Keith Richards' legendary Beggars Banquet-era Gibson Les Paul is being put on display for the first time. Artdependence.com reported the psychedelic hand-painted guitar will make its debut on June 30th at the ongoing Rolling Stones Unzipped exhibition in The Netherlands at the Groninger Museum.
The exhibition — formerly known as The Rolling Stones Exhibitionism — marks the final stop in the band's multimedia artifact show after lengthily runs in London, Sydney, the U.S., and Asia.
Keith Richards' iconic hand-painted Les Paul was featured in the 1968 “Jumpin' Jack Flash” promo film, that year's Rock And Roll Circus, and Jean-Luc Godard's 1970 film One Plus One — which has since been retitled, Sympathy For The Devil.
Mick Jagger explained to us that for the Unzipped exhibition, every era of the Stones is chronicled in an exhaustive — but still entertaining — manner: “It's interesting because you go from a long time ago into, almost, the present day. It is not an exhibition about the '60s only. It's a long thing. So, you say, 'Okay, more or less, I saw him in that outfit, y'know, when I lost saw the concert.' So, I think it's good, it's pretty bang up to date.”
One of the most brilliant parts of the exhibit is the recreation of Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and co-founder Brian Jones' squalid apartment in London's Edith Grove, complete with filthy bedroom and kitchen. The exhibit underscores the horrible living conditions with a putrid smell that can only be described as spoiled milk, garbage, and filthy clothes pushed through from the overhead vents.
Keith Richards admitted to us he was taken aback at how well the production team got the vibe of Edith Grove: “Man, uncannily accurate. I mean. . . I'm lookin' at it and I'm going — a weird feeling, like 'I'm home' (laughs).”
