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 the Rolling Stones’ greatest songs has died at the age of 78.

Faithfull passed away Thursday in London, her music promotion company Republic Media said in a statement to CBS News.

“It is with deep sadness that we announce the death of the singer, songwriter and actress Marianne Faithfull,” her spokesperson said. “Marianne passed away peacefully in London today, in the company of her loving family. She will be dearly missed.”

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 By” 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?'” Faithfull said to CBS Sunday Morning during a 2009 interview.

The pop song ended up on the U.K. and American charts. Multiple hit singles and two debut albums followed.

Jagger said on Thursday that he was “so saddened to hear of the death” of Faithfull. 

“She was so much part of my life for 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, Faithfull was just out of convent school when her career took off. At 18, she married a London art dealer and had a baby but later walked away from both her marriage and her career, for Jagger.

She and Jagger began seeing each other in 1966 and became one of the most notorious couples of “Swinging London,” with Faithfull once declaring that if LSD “wasn’t meant to happen, it wouldn’t have been invented.” 

But in 1967 when Faithfull was at a party, police barged into a Rolling Stones party at Richards’ home where drugs were found. The charges were later dropped, but her angelic image was disgraced.

After Jagger and Faithfull broke up, she fell into drug addiction and was homeless by her mid-20s. 

In 1979, she pulled herself together to release a raw and daring comeback album, the critically acclaimed “Broken English.” But Faithfull was still an addict and it would be six more years before she finally cleaned herself up.

Faithfull told CBS that she appreciated her “pretty extraordinary life.” 

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

contributed to this report.