Editing Stanley Booth (section)

==Life and career==
Booth was born in [[Waycross, Georgia]], and received a degree in English and [[art history]] from [[University of Memphis|Memphis State University]] (where he cultivated a lifelong friendship with fellow student [[Jim Dickinson]]) in 1963.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://tulane.edu/news/tulanian/knee_deep_in_the_blues.cfm |title = Tulane University|website=Tulane.edu}}</ref> After leaving a graduate program at [[Tulane University]] without taking a degree, he began his journalistic career while maintaining a [[day job]] with the Tennessee Department of Welfare.<ref name="auto"/> His early oeuvre includes notable articles on Memphis musicians like Presley (including a seminal 1967 article for ''[[Esquire (magazine)|Esquire]]'' regarded by James Calemine as "the first serious article" written about the singer)<ref name="auto1">{{cite web |url=http://swampland.com/articles/view/title:stanley_booth_can_i_get_a_witness |title = Swampland:Stanley Booth: Can I Get A Witness|website=Swampland.com}}</ref> and Redding, the latter of whom Booth witnessed writing the famous song "[[(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay]]" with [[Steve Cropper]] at [[Stax Records|Stax Studios]] on the Friday before Redding's death.

After befriending Keith Richards at the instigation of [[Ian Stewart (musician)|Ian Stewart]] while covering the trial of [[Brian Jones]] in 1968, he ensconced himself in the band's inner circle; shortly thereafter, he traveled with the band during their [[The Rolling Stones American Tour 1969|1969 American tour]]. During this period, Booth was introduced to fellow Richards confederate and Waycross native [[Gram Parsons]] of [[The Flying Burrito Brothers]] (he reviewed ''[[The Gilded Palace of Sin]]'' for ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' contemporaneously) and was present at the infamous [[Altamont Free Concert]], where a concertgoer was killed by a member of the [[Hells Angels]].

Although his 1970 profile of [[Furry Lewis]] received the annual ''[[Playboy]]'' Best Nonfiction Award, Booth retreated to a cabin in the [[Boston Mountains]] of [[Newton County, Arkansas]] for many years following a 1971 drug conviction of a year's probation. Subsequent setbacks, including circumspection toward the Rolling Stones' [[The Rolling Stones American Tour 1972|1972 American tour]] (which he attempted to cover but ultimately castigated as "an ugly scene full of [[amyl nitrate]], [[Quaaludes]], [[Tequila Sunrise (cocktail)|tequila sunrises]], [[cocaine]], [[heroin]], and too many pistoleros, and it left me with more material than I could ever use"), precipitated a long creative interregnum typified by "[[clinical depression]], drug problems and domestic upheaval"; these problems were exacerbated by a [[LSD]]-induced back injury in 1978.<ref name="auto2">{{cite web |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/rockandpopfeatures/9212321/True-Adventures-Of-the-Rolling-Stones-author-Stanley-Booth-interview.html |title = True Adventures Of the Rolling Stones: author Stanley Booth interview|website=Telegraph.co.uk| date=19 April 2012 }}</ref> Nevertheless, his long-gestating account of the 1969 tour (''Dance with the Devil: The Rolling Stones and Their Times'', later republished as ''The True Adventures of the Rolling Stones'') was finally released to rapturous reviews in 1984.<ref name="auto1"/> However, the book's effusive reception (including plaudits from Richards, who has characterized the book as "the only one I can read and say, 'Yeah, that's how it was...'") belied lingering contractual issues that ensured Booth made "next to nothing" from his work.<ref name="auto2"/>

In addition to an essay collection (''Rythm Oil'') and a biography of Richards, Booth also published articles in ''Rolling Stone'', ''[[GQ (magazine)|GQ]]'' and many smaller journals. He appeared in many documentaries, not only on Southern music and the Rolling Stones, but [[Tom Thurman]]'s ''Movies of Color'' and ''[[Peckinpah]]''. For some years Booth lived near [[Brunswick, Georgia]] with his wife, the poet [[Diann Blakely]]. Subsequently he resided in Memphis, and was finishing the successor to ''Rythm Oil'', currently entitled ''Blues Dues''; a memoir, ''Tree Full of Owls''; and ''Distant Thoughts'', a series of letters chronicling the unfolding literary relationship and love story between Booth and poet Blakely.

Booth died in Memphis, Tennessee, on December 19, 2024, at the age of 82.<ref>[https://www.commercialappeal.com/story/entertainment/music/2024/12/20/stanley-booth-obituary-rolling-stones-music-historian/77107271007/ Stanley Booth dies: Memphis author, music historian covered Rolling Stones, Elvis and more]</ref>