Keith Richards in the context of "Fender Telecaster"

The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for over six decades, they are one of the most popular, influential, and enduring bands of the rock era. In the early 1960s, the band pioneered the gritty, rhythmically driven sound that came to define hard rock. Their first stable line-up consisted of vocalist Mick Jagger, guitarist Keith Richards, multi-instrumentalist Brian Jones, bassist Bill Wyman, and drummer Charlie Watts, after pianist Ian Stewart was side-lined by their manager Andrew Loog Oldham. During their early years, Jones was the primary leader. Oldham encouraged them to write their own songs. The Jagger–Richards partnership soon became the band's primary songwriting and creative force.

Rooted in blues and early rock and roll, the Rolling Stones started out playing cover versions and were at the forefront of the British Invasion in 1964, becoming identified with the youthful counterculture of the 1960s. They then found greater success with their own compositions: "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction", "Get Off of My Cloud" (both 1965) and "Paint It Black" (1966) became international number-one hits. Aftermath (1966), their first album to be entirely of original material, is often considered to be the most important of their early albums. In 1967, they had the double-sided hit "Ruby Tuesday"/"Let's Spend the Night Together" and experimented with psychedelic rock on Their Satanic Majesties Request. By the end of the 1960s, they had returned to their rhythm and blues-based rock sound, with hit singles "Jumpin' Jack Flash" (1968) and "Honky Tonk Women" (1969), and albums Beggars Banquet (1968), featuring "Sympathy for the Devil" and "Street Fighting Man", and Let It Bleed (1969), featuring "You Can't Always Get What You Want" and "Gimme Shelter".

The Mark Series is a line of guitar amplifiers designed and produced by California-based manufacturer Mesa/Boogie since 1972. The first "Boogies," as they were originally known, were based on a Fender Princeton modified by company founder Randall Smith to produce more power and gain. The resulting production model, the Mark I, was popularized by guitarists like Carlos Santana and Keith Richards and helped establish Mesa/Boogie as a brand. A Mark II model followed, introducing amplifier milestones like channel switching and effects loops. The line experienced a sea change in 1983 with the Mark IIC+ variant, which revoiced the amp for more aggression and midrange and tighter lows. Metallica would famously use the IIC+ on Master of Puppets, a major factor in it later becoming one of the industry's most coveted vintage amp models. Despite its success, the IIC+ was only produced for little more than a year. The Mark series, with its constantly-expanding feature set, maintained its status as Mesa/Boogie's flagship offering through Mark III and Mark IV iterations, before being supplanted by the Rectifier series in the early 1990s. Mesa/Boogie has since released Mark V and Mark VII models, as well as a John Petrucci signature version and a IIC+ reissue.