Ronnie Wood
After early days as a signwriter, Ronnie Wood joined the Jeff Beck Group, the Faces and the Stones. More recently he's beaten cancer, recorded a Chuck Berry tribute and fathered twins.
Recently he’s beaten cancer, recorded a Chuck Berry tribute, fathered twins… The Rolling Stone just keep rolling.
Honest Ron – Rolling Stone, ace Face, patron saint of smokers, artist, broadcaster, Jack the lad, all-round diamond geezer – bounces into the Presidential Suite of the hotel like a bright-eyed endless party in skintight black strides. Ebony thatch tilted skyward, open black shirt over Chuck Berry T-shirt, bright red sweater draped over his shoulders, Ronnie Wood, addiction-free, cancer-free, is as close to the living, breathing embodiment of rock’n’roll as one might expect. He did it all so you wouldn’t have to.
What’s the strongest memory you have of your childhood? Up in my bedroom with my Dansette player, learning Chuck Berry licks.
Where did you get your first guitar? During my colourful childhood my brothers, Art and Ted, got me my first guitar. It was lent from a guy called Davey Hayes. But when he got called up for the army he said: “I’ve got to take my guitar with me.” So I only had a guitar for a few months before it was taken away. I was only about seven, and it was really heart-rending to have to do without a guitar. So my brothers saved up the deposit and got me one on hire-purchase. That was the first one I owned, which I swapped-up for my Rogers guitar when I was doing my signwriting job.
You seem to have always put yourself in the way of opportunity, and never just stood back and waited for good luck to happen. Were you always naturally confident? Yeah, I suppose I was, in a very humble way. I’d always go in through the back door, always make sure I was in the right place at the right time, I’d feel the situation.
You’re often asked if it was a difficult decision to choose between art and music, but I get the impression you never did. I tried to make my money as an artist when I was young, tried to get into scenic design at the film studios, but it was a closed shop, you had to be a member of a union. There was a lot of red tape to get through for commercial art jobs. And the interviews? I don’t know how anybody ended up getting a job in the graphic field I was trying for. That’s why I took the signwriting route, a looser way in but still some form of draughtsmanship. I’d develop my freestyle of painting, while getting my letter shapes dead right. But the struggle I had with art was eclipsed by my musical freedom within my garage band, rehearsing in the garage with my mates. We’d get a fiver a gig, and before you know it I could make five quid a week and give my mum two-pound-ten, which was unbelievable. I was the main breadwinner in my family in my teens.
You immediately recognised the Stones as being your people. When I first saw them I said: “I’m going to be in that band.” I never doubted it, and that was it. I reckon if you have a big enough belief in something, it’ll happen. It was the same with my art. People would say you’ve got to be up to such a high standard, you’ll never make it. I was like: “Yes I can. I can be an impressionist, a draughtsman, I can be whatever I want.”
Obviously the Jeff Beck Group were a fearsome unit, but you were on bass. Although it was Jeff who ultimately split the band, were you getting a bit itchy to move on yourself by then? Yeah, because The Birds, The Creation and the Jeff Beck Group were my stepping stones towards the Stones, and then the Small Faces split up right before my eyes, which wasn’t long after the split-up of the Beck Group. [JBG drummer] Tony Newman put the cat among the pigeons, saying: “Unless we get more money we’re going on strike.” Suddenly Jeff’s not there. We weren’t really surprised. We were used to him not turning up for the odd show. But when he went back to England, we thought: “Oh.”
“The Stones never make an album overnight, but we’re just fitting studio
visits in and it’s shaping up nicely.”
There’s been a lot of speculation since that had the Beck Group played Woodstock (which they turned down), been in the film and reached a wider audience, they wouldn’t have left the vacuum later filled by Led Zeppelin, and would have gone on to attain the enormity latterly enjoyed by Zeppelin. But could you have stood being the bass player in the Jeff Beck Group for the rest of eternity? Would we have been more famous if we’d played Woodstock? We’d have certainly carved our notch in history for being part of Woodstock, but I think as fate had it, it was what was