Ronnie Wood: sex, drugs, rock 'n' roll and the art of staying alive

From sex, drugs and rock'n'roll to marriage, sobriety and pastel'n'oils: the extraordinary life and times of Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood. By James Brown.

The darker parts of Ronnie Wood's life read like a long list of things you shouldn't do. In Hollywood he free-based cocaine; he was rescued off the coast of Rio de Janeiro from a burning boat ahead of a Stones concert on Copacabana beach; in the Caribbean he was almost implicated in a serious cocaine bust, and on more than one occasion he's had to jump out of the way of Richards firing his handgun.

Many of his friends, including Jimi Hendrix, Keith Moon, Alex "Hurricane" Higgins and Amy
Winehouse, were killed by drugs and drink, his good mate John Lennon was murdered, and long-time pals David Bowie and George Harrison died from cancer. And yet, despite a life of extreme rock 'n' roll excess, Wood has just turned 73, is still going strong and is now a father of young twins.
The first question that has to be asked - and it's a question he must have asked himself: "Ronnie, how are you still alive?"

"Ha ha ha, well, I got clean! My life's better now." Were you ready to clean up? "Yes I was. I don't have any bitterness or anger. I'm wiser now; I had a great time and I still do, but in a different way."

Today we're talking via Zoom (Ronnie's in the "vulnerable" age group) and, sitting in his rural
Hertfordshire painting studio, he looks remarkably well. He still has his trademark inky-black woodpecker hair and is wearing a white T-shirt emblazoned with the word "Addicted", along with a slimline silver necklace. He's extremely upbeat but, having known him a little for a few years now, he's been like this every time we've met.
"This is my morning face, my morning energy." Only a man who has spent a lifetime of nights playing live music to millions would think that 3pm is morning.
After many years of hard living, this decade has seen him sober up and, in 2012, marry theatre producer Sally Humphreys, whom he first met when he was hanging an exhibition at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, where she was working backstage. Their twins Gracie and Alice have just turned 4. He enjoyed the Stones' two-year-long No Filter world tour, which ended last year, has released new music with them and he continues to develop his work as a painter.

The late, much-revered Brian Sewell, art critic of the Evening Standard, described Wood as "an accomplished and respectable painter". Lucian Freud, Sir Peter Blake and art historian Edward Lucie-Smith have all praised him and Tommy Hilfiger is a collector of his work.

Most of this is covered in a recent Sky Arts documentary, Somebody Up There Likes Me, from movie director Mike Figgis, in which Wood admits to being puzzled by his age - as he has felt 29 for the last 40 years. Life flashes past you when you're having a good time, I observe, and ... "I've had a very, very good time," he finishes in laughter.
He's not the only one in his family noticing the passage of time, though. "When I told the girls they wouldn't be three ever again they just ..." and he tightens his fists into his eyes and pretends to bawl.

He has spent lockdown with Sally and the twins, going for walks close to their home and posting video messages on his Instagram account in support of fellow recovering addicts and anyone suffering with mental health issues. The couple celebrated the twins' birthday with two giant cakes from Costco and a private visit to the grounds of his local stately home, Ashridge House, with the girls dressed in their Frozen costumes. He has also been doing an awful lot of painting, including an exclusive work auctioned in aid of NHS workers, which sold for £17,000 [$33,000] at Bonhams.

Wood has been painting ever since he won a prize on a BBC television show as a child. After school he followed his older brothers, Ted and Art, to Ealing Art College and initially considered a career in theatre set design before being seduced into the pop music scene of early-60s London. For many years he has managed to sneak away from the hectic schedule of Rolling Stones tours to quietly enjoy the world's greatest galleries, from the Hermitage in St Petersburg to the Prado in Madrid, sometimes after hours. In his cottage studio he is surrounded by paintings of ballerinas, brightly decorated Rolling Stones set lists (some of them published in a book in 2018) and paintings of his two most famous gangs, the Stones, whom he joined in 1975, and the Faces from 1969.

"The studio is a mile from my house, so I get exercise walking here and back," he says. "Sometimes Sally can tell I'm itching to paint and just tells me to get down here. I've got two workers' cottages and I've built this extension on the back of one for painting. I also paint in Barcelona and Ireland [where he owns second homes]."

Wood is particularly ebullient about having beaten lung cancer three years ago and happily puts it down to the protective hand of the angel Gabriel (known for the gift of problem-solving and prophecy), who he name-checks with the familiarity of an old friend. He quit smoking before the twins were born but has he had to change his diet? He thinks about it for a second or two and then leans forwards and laughs "No! Not at all." He's a man who loves to celebrate getting away with things, it's the thriving child in him.

He has nine grandchildren and six children of his own from three marriages, his eldest Jesse, 43, with model Krissy Findlay, was named after the outlaw Jesse James. He had adopted Jamie, the son of second wife Jo Karslake, before the couple had Leah, now 41, and Tyrone, 36, and now he has Gracie and Alice. Does he see anything of himself in the twins?
"There's a bit of the wildness and the chaos with the girls. They both like to paint. When I decided to do these set lists before we go on stage, I didn't want to bring oil paint or pastels because it would be too much messing about. So I have felt-tip pens and the girls love to pick them up and draw.
"Gracie, in particular, really likes to create. She's got a very musical ear, too. She's got a lot of my genes. Like her dad, she's drawn to and tempted by the things you shouldn't do."
Do the older kids see the twins? "Well, with the lockdown they can't but when they do see each other they all love it and get on." Given his status, in a world where drugs and drink were often seen as being as creative as they were destructive and his overt using in and around his home, how did he set boundaries as a father for the older children? Was he ever concerned it might encourage them to dabble? "Well, yes, but I had to talk with my boy Ty and admit that I had lied a lot about my using and behaviour, and he said, 'Dad, I don't want to hear this.' I'd rather just be honest and if they do go and experiment I hope they'd get to a point where they said, 'Okay, that's that, I don't want to do that any more.'''

Is there anything, looking back, that you regret doing? "I know there were times when I could have been a bit more careful. There were close calls and I suppose if I'd been using my brain properly they wouldn't have been so close. There were times over the years when Jimmy White [the snooker player] and I were up all night partying in London when I had to go straight into being Dad at breakfast."
Yet he has managed to scrape through a lifetime of high-speed over-indulgence in alcohol, heroin, cocaine, and swerved jail on a couple of occasions. You can only assume he simply hasn't had time to die. But it has always been this way.

Growing up in the 1950s in Yiewsley, Middlesex, "near the park Heath Row that the airport was named after", there were so many instruments and post-pub singalongs led by his dad Archie and brothers that, 70 years later, he accidentally refers to the backroom of their council house as "backstage" before correcting himself. Just as today, his family was his world. His parents were the last generation of water gypsies to be born on barges, working and meeting around the Paddington Basin area.

Despite loving music, his own father only saw Wood play a handful of times. Once in 1982 from the side of the stage at Wembley Stadium in his mid-70s.

"He was dancing in his wheelchair, singing along, partying with Michael Caine. He was having the time of his life." What did he say to you afterwards? "I love you, Kid. He used to call me Kid a lot. That was a big thing for him to say because although we were a physically close family we weren't really open like that ... He was proud of me, he'd call me 'Ronnie Wood of The Rolling Stones'."

Has Wood ever asked the other Stones for parenting advice? "If I asked Mick, his answers might be of another world. Say we were discussing allowances for my kids. It wouldn't be like asking Joe Blow down the road who might say: 'Oh yeah, give 'em a fiver.' The answer might be, 'I'm not the person to answer this.' It's a bit like pulling teeth with us giving each other advice."

Wood's talent was his passport, his personality his visa. His life encompasses the whole of the postwar music scene, from playing in the Jeff Beck Group, the Faces and The Stones to working with Chuck Berry, Bob Dylan, Fats Domino and all the former Beatles. His contemporaries litter his conversation: Clapton, Harrison, Townshend, Moon. He even performed at George Bush snr's inauguration gala as a guest of long-time hero Bo Diddley. But before he joined The Stones, the Faces were the great party band; Wood co-wrote many of their hits and early solo singles for Rod Stewart, too. In many ways, the Faces encapsulated Wood's outlook on life. A good time, all the time.

Is there anyone he missed? "Elvis, one time he was ill in hospital, in Memphis I think, and they wouldn't let me in to see him. Turns out Robert Plant and Jimmy Page were in there with him. If I'd known that I'd have gone, 'I'm Ronnie Wood from The Rolling Stones.'"
You can sense the fondness the remaining Stones founders, Jagger, Richards and Charlie Watts, have for "the new guy". Did they give you an ultimatum that helped you finally clean up? "Mick asked me if I wanted to help myself, and was there anything he could do to help. I appreciated that, they've been very caring around me."

Despite having a life full of crazy anecdotes about Hollywood parties, famous friends, clubs, snooker, and rock 'n' roll record-setting, he genuinely seems to have steered himself into a better place. How could that possibly be? Well, he has admitted the consequences of his past behaviour to himself and those close to him, and decided to move forward. And in past interviews he's discussed how the 12 Step programme of AA helped him to finally achieve long-term sobriety.

"There was a time when everyone I was around was doing drugs and drink, it was everywhere. It's not like that now, I focus on my recovery books, I speak to other ex-addicts. I'm happy how I am and glad I'm around for my family now."

The most touching moment in the Mike Figgis documentary is when his wife, Sally, 30-odd years his junior, explains how they make sure his recovery is always at the forefront of every day. I couldn't imagine him taking that sort of guidance well 25 years ago - does he think he has found the right person at the right time? He nods his head, smiling, "Yes."

And then we're back to the paintings and another tour of his studio. His interpretations of Picasso and El Greco featuring The Stones - "Here's the triptych here, in pencil, then inks, and then oils" - are for sale now, he says, for prices ranging between a hundred and thousands of pounds.

Does he get something from working on his own as a painter that he doesn't in the band? "Yeah ... NO LIP! No one telling me what to do."

And there's his smile, and he's laughing again.

A series of Ronnie Wood's new works (including signed and numbered limited-edition prints) are available to purchase online via shop.ronniewood.com
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