Marianne Faithfull, British Pop Star and Rolling Stones Muse, dies at 78

Marianne Faithfull, the British pop star who inspired and helped write some of Rolling Stones’ greatest songs is dead at the age of 78.

Faithful died Thursday in London, her Music Promotion Company Republic Media said in a statement to CBS News.

“It is with deep sadness that we advertise the singer, songwriter and actress Marianne Faithfull,” her spokesman said. “Marianne died peacefully in London today in the company of her loving family. She will be missed a lot.”

Faithfull was born in Hampstead, London, in December 1946. She was a folk singer who one day met with the manager of the Rolling Stones at a party, which led to her recording “As tears go off” by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards in 1964. She was just 17 years old when she recorded the hit single.

“They came up and said to the person I was with,” can she sing? “” Faithful told CBS on Sunday morning during an interview in 2009.

The pop song ended up in the UK and US charts. More Hit singles and two debut albums followed.

Jagger said on Thursday he was “so sad to hear about the death”.

“She was so much a part of my life so long,” Jagger said on social media. “She was a wonderful friend, a beautiful singer and a great actress. She will always be remembered.”

The daughter of an eccentric British professor and an Austrian baroness, faithful, was just out of monastic school when her career started. Like 18 -year, she married a London art dealer and got a baby, but later went away from both her marriage and her career for Jagger.

She and Jagger began to see each other in 1966 and became one of the most notorious couples in “Swinging London”, with faithful when he once declared that if LSD “was not intended to happen, it would not have been invented.”

But in 1967, when faithful was at a party, the police went into a Rolling Stones party in Richards’ home where drugs were found. The charges were later dropped, but her angel picture was disgraceful.

After Jagger and faithfully broke down, she fell into drug addiction and was homeless in the mid -20s.

In 1979, she contracted to publish a raw and bold comeback album, the critically acclaimed “Broken English.” But faithful was still a drug addict and it would take six more years before she finally cleansed up.

Faithful told CBS That she appreciated her “beautiful extraordinary life.”

“I really do. I think I’ve been unconscious for a very long time. And only now have I started to get it.”

contributed to this report.