Rolling Stone led to me ... and nearly killed me
It’s the dark reality behind the glamour: how, as a child, the son of Ronnie and Jo Wood was drawn into their drug-fuelled world, triggering a near-fatal heart attack at 42 — as revealed in his own brave words
producer Harvey Goldsmith — the organiser of Live Aid — before doing tours for bands including Guns N’ Roses and Nirvana.
A promotions assistant job followed with the Stones, then he began managing his father’s art business. Jamie’s hard partying may have ended more than 20 years before but could it have been responsible for his subsequent heart problems?
‘ Did partying contribute? I certainly damaged myself. What do you expect? I grew up in that environment. I thought it was natural for me to take drugs.
‘Mum and Dad always knew about the drugs but were pretty aware that I was going to make my own decisions.
‘I remember being 16 years old when we went on this holiday to
Antigua. At this point I was doing drugs every day. I was sitting in my room and I get this knock on my door and it’s Dad, who’s come to chat to me about drugs. He said: “Do what you gotta do and have fun doing what you do but don’t let the drugs control your life. you control the drugs!”
‘Stones band member Keith Richards also was aware of how hard I liked to party. He pulled me aside once and said: “Jamie, there is a difference between itching your a*** and tearing it to pieces.”
‘I definitely had a few accidental slight overdoses as a kid. Although having plaque build-up in my artery and it causing a heart attack was probably more due to consistent smoking.’
Another symptom of his bohemian upbringing was a liking for cannabis, which at its worst became a daily habit, although he’s now been forced to give up.
Ironically, it was cannabis that became a source of friction with his famous father — despite the Stone’s own hell-raising
THEY
had patched up their relationship after falling out when Jamie took his mother’s side when she split from Ronnie in 2008 following his affair with 21-year- old Russian ekaterina Ivanova.
But it fell apart again around four or five years ago after Ronnie had cleaned up his act.
Jamie claims that after his father ‘went full AA’, he ‘liked to preach’. He admits: ‘I got upset with him
— the biggest drug-taker in the world was telling me what to do. I didn’t take too kindly to it.’
He sees things rather differently now: ‘I did recently apologise and tell him he was probably right and that I was in denial about the cannabis, but I thought he could have handled it better.’
Like many rock stars’ children, Jamie has flitted from job to job not really knowing what he wanted to do, often working with his parents. He was Ronnie’s manager for several years before selling his dad’s paintings.
Just before his heart attack, he had won the British franchise for an American gourmet hamburger restaurant, BurgerFi. But his ill health meant he couldn’t work for six months and ‘ by then, the business landscape had changed.
It was a tough time for me. Most of the money had been spent on staff wages, Jamie Oliver had just gone into administration and no one wanted to invest. I had to watch my business disappear.’
It was a low point. He adds: ‘I was quite depressed. I can understand now how people struggle with mental health. For a couple of weeks I wasn’t suicidal but you can see how.’
Salvation came out of the blue. While staying in Miami with his family, Jamie discovered electric weed pens — vapes made with CBD (cannabidiol), a part of the cannabis plant which doesn’t get you high but is said by some experts to be therapeutic.
It has been touted as a way to tackle a wide variety of health issues and may help with some forms of epilepsy and multiple sclerosis, although most fans swear by it to help relieve insomnia, anxiety and pain.
AFTER
his heart attack, Jamie began researching CBD and set up his own laboratory to experiment with it, launching his new company, Woodies, last November. the website sells CBD oils, flavoured vapes and even hand-sanitiser.
While his mother has welcomed the venture — he says the products have helped her migraines — his father is less enthusiastic.
‘I texted Dad not so long ago and sent some products but he’s not impressed.’ Not that that particularly bothers Jamie.
He says: ‘For the first time in my life, this doesn’t involve him. I haven’t asked him for money or to put his name to it. that is liberating for me. Maybe if I hadn’t had the heart attack, I wouldn’t have found my true niche.’
His enthusiasm is clear: ‘I make every product myself. every cream and every oil, from extraction to the final product,’ he says.
the hand-sanitiser was inspired by his wife, a former model.
‘ It was at the beginning of coronavirus in January and February when everyone started washing their hands a lot and Jodie’s hands were getting sore.’
He has good reason to join the fight against coronavirus: the disease claimed the life of his uncle Paul — his mother’s brother — while her sister Lize was also hospitalised with the virus but thankfully survived. ‘Mum’s in absolute bits,’ says Jamie. ‘My uncle was a good man, an amazing artist.’
the lockdown hasn’t hit Jamie’s business too hard.
He adds: ‘ Maybe I was a bit greedy before — I wanted nice things, Ferraris and stuff. then the heart attack happened and I don’t want any of it. Money’s not the be all and end all. I just want my business and family.’
Probably not sentiments shared by the Jamie of old who took selfies in the ambulance on the way to have a heart operation. But then his priorities have been given something of a jolt since then.