IMAGINATION AND THE MISFIT KID
STRIDING across a smoke-filled stage, Ronnie Wood flung an arm around Rod Stewart as the two men shared an emotional hug. It appeared a simple, friendly gesture but the embrace held a deeper meaning for both. Just moments earlier Rod, 74, had confessed that he, like Ronnie, had endured a battle with cancer to hundreds of people packed into Surrey’s Wentworth Golf club for a charity Faces reunion. Ronnie added at the gig in September: “Someone up there likes us.”
Rod’s admission that he’d had prostate cancer sparked headlines.
Ronnie, 72, was diagnosed with cancer in May 2017 and went public three months later. The Stones legend got the all-clear after a five-hour operation.
Rod had found out he had prostate cancer in February 2016 during a routine check-up and got the all-clear this year.
Rod had fretted shortly before the gig about going public with his cancer battle. Ronnie says: “He was like, ‘Should I mention that I’ve had cancer?’ I said, ‘Rod, it’s personal, do whatever you want. If you want to tell them, tell them.’”
Ron’s friendship with Rod dates from 1967, when they were both in The Jeff Beck Group, before they jump ship to joining the remaining members of the former Small Faces to become the Faces in 1969.
Despite the Faces splitting in 1975, they’ve stayed pals.
Rod was Ronnie’s best man at his 2012 wedding to theatre producer Sally Humphreys.
Sitting with Ronnie in his suite at a five-star London hotel, it’s clear his brush with mortality has not slowed him down.
Up close, he is a bundle of energy. Sipping a Coca-Cola, “my only vice these days”, Ronnie enthuses about his new album – live covers of musical hero Chuck Berry, joined by singer Imelda May.
He’s got the backing of the Stones for the project, which will also see him go on tour. He says: “Keith, Mick and Charlie told me to go out there and spread the word. They love that I did this live, and I’m keeping Chuck going.”
Then there is documentary Somebody Up There Likes Me, the first in-depth film biography of Ronnie’s life from acclaimed director Mike Figgis, in cinemas next month.
It traces Ronnie’s life from his raucous upbringing in Hillingdon, Middlesex, where dad Arthur drank so much he would fall asleep anywhere on the way home from the pub.
Ronnie laughs: “Dad was hilarious, you’d never know whose garden he was going to wake up in next.
“But my poor mum, it worried her sick... When we moved out of our cute little council house, it literally had a crack down the side because of all the parties.
“It was mad but mum and dad were so lovely, and encouraging with my art, and my music.”
They were right to be as his career soon hit stratospheric levels when he replaced Mick Taylor in the Stones, in 1975.
Hailed as one of the greatest guitarists of all time – and with a £50million bank balance – Ronnie had it all. But life in the fast lane has not been without its troubles.
At his worst he was downing two bottles of vodka a day, contributing to the breakdown of his 30-year marriage to wife Jo as he took up with an 18-yearold Russian waitress. Then there was his addiction to freebase – a highly addictive form of cocaine – in the 80s.
Such was its hold over him, Ronnie even banned his kids from eating meringue in the house when he was kicking the habit as he often confused the crumbs with rocks that he wanted to smoke.
He says: “It was a learning curve I had to go through. Because while you’re actually using it, you don’t see you’re in that dark place. Only when you look back, you go, ‘f***ing hell, that was terrible.’
“The human animal can
Ron Wood is healthy and happy after his cancer battle survive a lot of stuff.”
Now he is transformed, thanks largely to
Sally, 41, and their twin little girls Gracie and Alice, aged three. He has quit cigarettes and drink, and prefers crime dramas on Netflix to wild nights out. He is clearly smitten with his twins and even hints that his wife may want more children, though he seem undecided.
“She wants the adventure to continue, you know? I wish I could put the clock back a bit... But I’m so grateful, too. Every day, every hour, now, is like, ‘Yes!’ You’ve got to live life to the full.”
●●Ronnie Wood with his Wild Five will release Mad Lad – A Live Tribute To Chuck Berry on Friday, via BMG. The band will perform the album at Symphony Hall, Birmingham, on Monday. Somebody Up There Likes Me will be at UK cinemas next month. For details see ronniewoodmovie. com
LABRINTH
HHHHH IT’S hard not to see Imagination And The Misfit Kid, the tale of a boy who sells his imagination to a businessman in exchange for success, as a cautionary tale based on Labrinth’s own journey.
The album is more experimental and more jam-packed with potential pop hits than his debut.
All For Us and Misbehaving recapture the glitchy swing of his 2011 hit Earthquake, with added futuristic soul, while Like A Movie repurposes a fizzing Bond-style beat for the dance floor.
Seven years in the wilderness have served Labrinth well. This is a comeback to be proud of.