Keith Richards (born 18 December 1943), sometimes credited as Keith Richard, is an English singer-songwriter, composer, and actor, best known as a guitarist and founder member of the Rolling Stones. Rolling Stone magazine credited Richards for "rock's greatest single body of riffs" on guitar and ranked him 4th on its list of 100 best guitarists in 2011. Fourteen songs that Richards wrote with the Rolling Stones' lead vocalist Mick Jagger are listed among Rolling Stone magazine's "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".
Richards plays both lead guitar and rhythm guitar parts, often in the same song, as the Stones are generally known for their guitar interplay of rhythm and lead ("weaving") between Richards and the other guitarist in the band (Brian Jones (1962-1969), Mick Taylor (1969-1975) and Ronnie Wood (1975-present)). In the recording studio, Richards sometimes plays all of the guitar parts, notably on the songs "Paint It Black", "Ruby Tuesday", "Sympathy for the Devil" and "Gimme Shelter". He also is a vocalist, singing backing vocals on many Rolling Stones songs as well as occasional lead vocals, such as on the Rolling Stones concert favorite "Happy", as well as with the side project The X-Pensive Winos.