Everything about Ronnie Wood totally explained
Ronald David "Ronnie" Wood (born
1 June 1947 in
Hillingdon,
London) is an
English rock guitarist and
bassist best known as a member of
The Rolling Stones,
Faces, and
The Jeff Beck Group.
Music career
1960s
Wood began his career as a professional musician in 1964 as a guitarist with
The Birds, a
rhythm & blues band based in
Yiewsley, West
London. A popular live act with a considerable fan base, The Birds released several singles in the mid-60s; Wood wrote or co-wrote nearly half the songs the group recorded.
By 1967 the Birds had disbanded and Wood had joined the
Jeff Beck Group as a bassist. Along with vocalist
Rod Stewart, Wood did several tours with Beck, and recorded two albums:
Truth in 1968 and
Beck-Ola in 1969. In between Jeff Beck Group projects Wood also worked with
The Creation.
In 1969, after
Steve Marriott left the
Small Faces, Wood began working with the remaining members of that group, returning to his instrument of choice: the guitar. This line-up, plus Rod Stewart and ex-Bird
Kim Gardner, teamed up with Wood's brother
Art Wood in a formation called Quiet Melon, making a handful of recordings in May 1969.
1970s
In the first half of the 1970s the Faces released four studio albums and were among the top-grossing live acts of the period. Besides his distinctive guitar work, Wood contributed harmonica, vocals and bass to the band's recordings, and co-wrote many of their songs, including "
Stay With Me" (1971) and "Ooh La La" (1973). He also played on bandmate Stewart's first few solo albums, and is co-writer of the Rod Stewart classics "Gasoline Alley" (1970) and "Every Picture Tells a Story" (1971), Both Jagger and
Keith Richards contributed to Wood's first solo album,
I've Got My Own Album to Do, released in 1974. Although still a member of the Faces, he toured North America with the Rolling Stones in
1975; the Faces announced their break-up in December of that year, and Wood was officially pronounced a member of the Rolling Stones in February 1976.
In the Rolling Stones, Wood specializes in playing
slide guitar,
lap steel and
pedal steel guitar, and contributes one half of the "ancient art of weaving" - his and
Keith Richards' term for a style of interchange between guitarists that blurs the boundaries between
rhythm and
lead. He also occasionally plays
bass guitar, as seen during 1975 concert performances of "
Fingerprint File", when
Mick Jagger played rhythm guitar and bassist
Bill Wyman moved to
synthesizer. The Rolling Stones single "
Emotional Rescue" also features Wood on bass. He has been given credit as a co-writer for a dozen songs, including "Dance", "
Black Limousine", "
One Hit (to the Body)" and "
Had It With You".
In 1975 Wood released his second solo album,
Now Look; his third,
Gimme Some Neck, came out in
1979. To promote it, Wood formed and toured with
The New Barbarians, playing 20 concerts in Canada and the US in April/May and the
Knebworth Festival in the UK in August.
1980s
Throughout the 1980s, Wood played as a member of the Rolling Stones; continued his solo career, releasing the album
1234 in 1981; painted; and collaborated with a number of other artists, including
Prince,
Bob Dylan,
David Bowie,
Eric Clapton,
Bo Diddley and
Aretha Franklin.
At the
1985 Live Aid Concert in
Philadelphia, Wood along with
Keith Richards performed in the penultimate set with
Bob Dylan. During the performance of "
Blowin' in the Wind", one of Dylan's guitar strings broke. Wood gave Dylan his guitar in order to keep the performance seamless, and played
air guitar until a stagehand brought him a replacement.
In 1988 Wood opened "Woody's on the Beach" in Miami, a club featuring a house band headed by
Bobby Keys, hosting performances by local acts, friends of Wood's and occasionally Wood himself. The defunct hotel which housed the club allowed Wood to set up a VIP area upstairs, displaying Wood's artwork and providing private party areas. The club was popular, but was closed due to complaints from neighbours who found it too loud.
1990s
In 1990 Wood was made a fully-fledged partner in the Rolling Stones' financial organization. During the '90s the Rolling Stones released two studio albums and three concert albums, as well as touring in 1990, 1994-95 and 1997-99. Both of his older brothers,
Art and Ted, were graphic artists as well as musicians. Ted Wood died in 2004, and Art Wood in 2006.
Wood has four children. Jesse is his son with first wife, Krissy (nee Findlay), a former model to whom he was married from 1971 to 1978; Krissy died in 2005. In 1985 Wood married his second wife
Jo Wood (nee Howard), mother of his daughter
Leah and son Tyrone; her son Jamie from a previous relationship completes the family. Also a former model, Jo Wood has developed a successful line of organic beauty products. The Woods currently live between homes in
Kingston Vale and
County Kildare, Ireland.
Wood has been frank about his struggle with
alcoholism; although reports between 2003 and 2006 had indicated that he'd been sober since the Rolling Stones' 2002-03 tour, in June 2006 it was reported that Wood was entering rehab for a couple of weeks following a spell of increased alcohol abuse.
Artwork
Wood is an accomplished artist. When he was a child his drawings were featured on the
BBC television programme
Sketch Club; he won one of that programme's competitions, an achievement he refers to as his "awakening to art". He went on to train at the
Ealing Art College, as both his brothers had.
Wood's paintings, drawings and prints frequently feature icons of popular culture and have been exhibited all over the world. Several of his paintings, including a work commissioned by
Andrew Lloyd-Webber, are displayed at
London's Drury Lane Theatre. Art critic
Brian Sewell has called Wood "an accomplished and respectable artist"; and the
South Bank Show has devoted an entire programme to his artwork. Wood is also the co-owner (along with sons Jamie and Tyrone) of a London art gallery called Scream.
Books, films & television appearances
To date, Wood has three books to his credit: a short collection of autobiographical anecdotes entitled
The Works, illustrated with Wood's artwork, co-authored by Bill German and published in 1988; a limited-edition art book entitled
Wood on Canvas: Every Picture Tells a Story, published in 1998; and his 2007 autobiography
Ronnie.
In addition to numerous Faces and Rolling Stones concert films, broadcasts and documentaries, Wood performed alongside
The Band,
Bob Dylan and many others in the finale of the documentary
The Last Waltz, filmed in 1976. He has made cameo appearances in feature films including
The Deadly Bees (1967),
The Wild Life (1984) and
9½ Weeks (1986), as well as on television programmes including (1978). In October 2007 Wood appeared on the television motor show
Top Gear, achieving a celebrity lap time of 1:49.5.
Solo discography
Further Information
Get more info on 'Ronnie Wood'.
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