Five Minutes with with Terry Serio from A Riff On Keef: The Human Myth

Everything about Keith seems to resonate with black cat bone, magic… Did he do a deal with the devil like his idol, Robert Johnson? He certainly seems to move above the realm of mere mortals. His life seems to be part-miracle, part-legend, part-hoodoo man.

Your background isn’t only in acting – what else are you bringing to the role, starring as the man himself?

I also have my own band, The Ministry Of Truth, and recently recorded a soon-to-be-released studio album with Simon Relf from The Tambourine Girls and Marcus Gordon from Spookyland (produced by Tony Buchen). So you bring these kind of cool experiences to the table so that being Keith onstage, in the band onstage or studio, or swanning about in one of his mansions, is the most normal thing in the world. Hanging out in a previous life with my old pal Michael Hutchence helped, and not unlike Keith I’ve battled some furious demons myself and survived.

You also went the extra mile in costuming for the role – tell us about your skull ring.

The ring is my Keith totem. It is special. Since Keith himself was given his ring all those years ago, I’ve never seen a photo of him without it. I had to find one of my own I could endow with that same kind of magic. Luckily my now dead friend, the legendary Ian Rilen, was once married to Sofia Fitzpatrick, who makes skull jewellery in Sydney. I rang her and said, “Something Keith, this way comes.” She laughed and said, “You need a skull ring.”

Does the play take a sincere approach to Keef’s life, or is it as tongue-in-cheek as perhaps the man himself?

Magic, mystical, sincere, arrogant, outrageous, fantastical, deluded, wealthy (over $300 million): all these words resonate ‘Keith’. And within these words is a simple man of music. There is a UK show on TV where Mick and Keith run a corner shop. Parody is fun but ultimately kind of undermines something he has already done and is an expert at – self-parody – so within this crazy world of Keith I am looking for a kernel of truth, a glimpse of the man.

Rumour has it Keef is actually immortal. Does the current generation of rock stars have anyone to rival him?

You’ll have to come see the play, but let me just pose the question: in a head-to-head for immortality for Lord of The Underworld, who would win – Nick Cave or Keith?