A new book celebrating 50 years of the Rolling Stones reveals what it was really like being a rock and roll superstar in the 70s
Stealing his first guitar to break into rock ‘n’ roll as a penniless musician, Ronnie Wood is now sitting on a £150 million fortune.
But he stole his first Fender bass, saying:”I went round to a music store called Sound City and said, ‘If you let me borrow one for tonight, I promise I’ll come back?’
“But I didn’t go back, until five or six years later when I was in The Faces when I could pay them. I told them that I was the person who stole the Fender Jazz bass and I’d come back to pay them and they just smiled, and said: “We thought it was you!”
Celebrating 50 years with The Rolling Stones with a coffee table book alongside the re-issue of the band’s album Black and Blue – the first he recorded with them in 1976 – he continues: “I welcomed the chance to play bass, but I couldn’t afford one.”
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Ronnie’s new book, Fearless: The Anthology, captures the whole shebang, from the clubs of Sixties’ London with The Birds, through his time as bassist with the Jeff Beck Group and co-founder of The Faces, and on to The Stones.
He shows off his vast collection of guitars and stage gear for the first time. These include a replica of his iconic Birds Op Art–customised white Fender Telecaster, the two Fender basses he played with the Jeff Beck Group, the Disc-Front Zemaitis he’s used since The Faces, and an array of Fender Stratocasters – his favoured instrument during his Stones years.
His collection of custom-made guitar straps also feature, alongside designer stage wear, plus concert set lists he has transformed into art pieces. Ronnie, 78, says: “People say “If you’re going to be successful at something, pick something that you enjoy doing. I love playing guitar and I love the challenge of learning something new. My guitars are the tools of my trade. They are really precious to me.”
Ronnie’s love of music was fuelled when he first saw Jeff Beck and The Yardbirds tear the famous Crawdaddy club apart back in the Sixties, while studying art at Ealing College. He recalls: “There were people swinging from the rafters and there was sweat dripping from the ceiling. It was so incredible the atmosphere. It was fantastic. I said to Jeff, ‘If you ever leave The Yardbirds shall we get together?’”
And in 1967 Ronnie joined The Jeff Beck Group on bass. Ronnie says: “I met Bo Diddley back in the Sixties at the 100 Club in London. He was topping the bill and The Birds were one of the support acts, but he didn’t have a band with him so he asked us if we could back him up. What made him so great was his freedom, his reckless abandon, and the confidence that shone through in his music. He could break and change a guitar string onstage without stopping the song.” After two years in The Jeff Beck Group, Ronnie quit in 1969, quickly finding himself alongside Rod Stewart, Ronnie Lane, Ian McLagan and Kenney Jones in The Faces.
Currently recording a reunion album with The Faces, he says: “I wrote Gasoline Alley for Rod and while The Faces were still going I wrote Every Picture Tells A Story. It all snowballed into touring in England, Europe and America and we carved our legend in America. I sing on Ooh La La. Everyone thinks it is Ronnie Lane singing but it is actually me. Nobody knows it is me singing, even Rod. He does not believe it.”
Ronnie reunited with Rod onstage for his legends slot at Glastonbury this summer, where they played the hit Stay With Me. Ronnie says: “Stay With Me is the Faces stamp song.” In 1974, Ronnie finally got to join the band of his dreams – The Stones – when guitarist Mick Taylor suddenly quit after five years. Ronnie says: “I just had the Stones in my sights. Like, ‘Right, this is where I am meant to be. This is all going according to plan. I don’t see anybody else’.”
And he was credited with taking the band in a new musical direction, as they set to work on their 1976 album Black and Blue, which saw the band embrace funk and reggae styles. Ronnie laughs, recalling how he almost signed his Stones contract the wrong way up. He says: “My driving force when I first came into the fold was Billy Preston, who played keyboards for the Stones. We had the same manager, Bob Ellis who was married to Diana Ross. He managed me, foolishly, and Billy foolishly. When I first met him he said “Ronnie, do you need a hand with that contract?” I said “Why?” And he said “You’ve got it upside down.”
Soon after, Ronnie bounced into the studio, saying he’d already added a Jamaican riff to the song Hey Negrita – later included on Black and Blue. He recalls the eight songs on the album as “eight crackers.” He says Mick Jagger chose to unveil him on a flatbed truck, as the band played an impromptu gig on New York’s Fifth Avenue. Before Black and Blue came out Keith said to me ‘I’ve got a great idea. Lets not tell anyone you are in the band.’
“Then I remember in New York turning the corner playing Brown Sugar. We had all the equipment set up on the back. We had all the press gathered in a restaurant and they thought the Stones were going in and we just drove by playing Brown Sugar and they were all running out of the restaurant with their pads.” He laughs recalling how Charlie Watts chose to wear a beloved Savile Row suit on a hot day shooting the Black and Blue album cover on a beach in Florida.
He says: “Normal beachwear for Charlie! Every request made of him that day he was not amused! And Bill [Wyman] was living the dream there in that very vampire-esque jacket.” Next year will see a new album from the Rolling Stones plus hopes of a European tour. And the band gathered at Metropolis Studios in west London earlier this year to record tracks for what will be their 25th studio album.
Produced by Andrew Watt, who helped their 2023 album Hackney Diamonds win a Best Rock Album Grammy, former bassist Bill Wyman featured, as did Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Elton John, Stevie Wonder and Lady Gaga. But Ronnie remains tightlips about further collaborations, teasing: “Andrew Watt adds a lot of spice and vitality and adventure. You know if you have an open mind anything can happen… and anyone can show up.”
