Keith Richards Recalls Anita Pallenberg Romance in Revealing New Doc (Exclusive)

Keith Richards may have a reputation for his rockstar lifestyle in the ‘60s and ‘70s, but there was one person he admits that even he was “trying to keep up with” — his ex, Anita Pallenberg.

The 80-year-old Rolling Stone is among the late model’s inner circle who are offering an intimate look at the style icon and muse in the upcoming documentary, Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg. And PEOPLE has the exclusive first look at the official trailer.

“We’re talking about a one off here,” Keith says in the clip. “Basically, I was trying to keep up with her most of the time and most of the time it was fun.”

The legendary guitarist is among those who can be heard against the backdrop of private home videos, offering a window into the private life he shared with the actress, who was his common-law wife and mother of three of his five children.

But the trailer also features news footage of their headline-making lifestyle, which included a 1977 arrest in Toronto, Canada for drug possession. “There was this sort of Bonnie and Clyde thing,” Keith says, “zooming off with cops in the trees.”

At one point their son Marlon Richards says, “The police hauled her off to jail.” “It was very, very dark,” adds Keith who, like his ex, struggled with substance abuse and addiction.

Oscar winner Scarlett Johansson gives Anita a voice, narrating from the Italian’s unpublished memoir. In one excerpt, the actress — who died in 2017 at the age of 73 — writes, “I’ve been called a witch, a slut and a murderer. Maybe people confuse me with the characters I’ve played.”

She also recalls meeting the Rolling Stones in 1965, adding, “My friends dared me to kidnap one of them.”

Instead, Anita dated one of the band’s founding members, Brian Jones. It was a relationship marred by domestic abuse and, after a 1967 trip to Morocco, they broke up and she started dating Keith.

They were a couple for the next 13 years and went on to have two sons and a daughter together — Marlon in 1969, Angela in 1972, and Tara, a baby boy, who died in 1976.

Their surviving children have contributed to Catching Fire, with Marlon acting as one of the executive producers. In the trailer, he remembers growing up with his parents, whose peers were fellow rock stars and celebs.

He says, “Keith would invite them over and they would stay all hours and it was her job to kick them out.”

Anita’s influence transcended generations and later in life she became friends with Kate Moss who idolized her. “She was everything you want a rock star to be. For me, everything you want a woman to be,” the British model says.

Anita was also a muse. “I was bursting in love,” says Keith who cowrote “Honky Tonk Women,” “Wild Horses” and “Angie” among other Rolling Stones hits with Mick Jagger, during their romance. “Anita is in a lot of those songs. She’s a muse, I’m sure. And not just for me.”

Catching Fire is a labor of love for Anita’s family, who want to show a different side of the woman whom newspaper headlines have dubbed a “rock ‘n’ roll goddess,” a “voodoo priestess” and an “evil seductress” at various times in her life.

As for the directors Alexis Bloom and Svetlana Zill, they hope that her “humor — and theirs — shines through a story that’s unsparing at times.”

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Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg opens in the U.S. on May 3 and in the U.K. on May 17.