Ronnie Wood
Ronald David Wood (born 1 June 1947)[1] is an English rock musician, best known as an official member of the Rolling Stones since 1975, as well as a member of Faces and the Jeff Beck Group.
This article is about the English rock musician. For the British ice hockey player, see Ronnie Wood (ice hockey). For the Australian footballer, see Ron Wood (Australian footballer). For the English footballer, see Ron Wood (footballer, born 1925). For the baseball player, see Ron Woods.
Ronnie Wood
Ronald David Wood
- Ron Wood
- Woody
1 June 1947
Hillingdon, Middlesex, England
- Musician
- songwriter
- record producer
- painter
- radio personality
- Guitar
- bass
- vocals
1964–present
Wood began his career in 1964, playing lead guitar with several British rhythm and blues bands in short succession, including the Birds[2] and the Creation. He joined the Jeff Beck Group in 1967 as a guitarist and bassist, playing on the albums Truth and Beck-Ola. The group split in 1969, and Wood departed along with lead vocalist Rod Stewart to join former Small Faces members Ronnie Lane, Ian McLagan and Kenney Jones in a new group named Faces with Wood now primarily on lead guitar. The group found great success in the UK and mainland Europe, though it achieved only cult status in the US. Wood sang and co-wrote the popular title track from their final LP, Ooh La La, released in 1973. He also worked extensively on Stewart's first few solo albums.
As Faces began to split, he started several solo projects, eventually recording his first solo LP, I've Got My Own Album to Do, in 1974. The album featured bandmate McLagan as well as former Beatle George Harrison and Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones, a longtime friend of Wood. Soon after Mick Taylor left the Rolling Stones, Richards invited Wood to join them; he did so in 1975, initially temporarily, but became an official member in 1976.[3] However, he was not officially inducted as a financial partner until bassist Bill Wyman's departure in 1993.(need citation)
Besides I've Got My Own Album to Do, Wood has recorded several other solo efforts. Now Look was released in 1975 and peaked at No. 118 on Billboard; he also collaborated with Ronnie Lane for the soundtrack album Mahoney's Last Stand. Wood also released Gimme Some Neck in 1979, which hit No. 45 in the US; 1234 was released in 1981, peaking at No. 164. He released Slide on This in 1992, Not for Beginners came out in 2002.[2] and I Feel Like Playing in 2010. As a member of the Rolling Stones, Wood was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989 and was inducted a second time, as a member of Faces, in 2012.[4][5]
Early life[edit]
Wood was born in Hillingdon, west London, into a family of English "bargees" (river or canal barge operators, sometimes called "water gypsies"). He has said that his generation was the first in the family to be born on dry land.[6] He grew up in Yiewsley and attended St Stephen's Infant School, St Matthew's Church of England Primary School and St Martin's C of E Secondary Modern School West Drayton.[7]
Wood's elder brothers, Art and Ted, were graphic artists as well as musicians; Ted Wood died in 2004 and Art Wood in 2006.[8]
Music career[edit]
1960s[edit]
Wood began his career as a professional musician in 1964 as a lead guitarist with the Birds, a R&B band based in Yiewsley, Middlesex. A popular live act with a considerable fan base, the Birds released several singles in the mid-1960s;[9] Wood wrote or co-wrote nearly half the songs the group recorded.[10]
By 1967 the Birds had disbanded, and Wood briefly took part in a project called Santa Barbara Machine Head which included later Deep Purple co-founder Jon Lord, before joining 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.[11]
In Wood's radio show on 14 November 2011, both Wood and Alice Cooper claimed that Wood performed the bass on The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown's number one hit "Fire";[12] Polly Marshall's biography of Arthur Brown states that "according to the-faces.com, Ronnie claims he played on the Track Records studio sessions recording Fire, but he must have confused it with the BBC session [of 8 April 1968]."[13] There is no bass guitar on the recording, only bass pedals.[13]
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 former 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.[11] After the Jeff Beck Group's fifth US tour in July, Wood and Stewart joined the former Small Faces full-time, and the band's name was changed to Faces.[14] During the summer of 1969, Stewart and Wood also set the template for what would become Faces on An Old Raincoat Won't Ever Let You Down, Stewart's first solo album (known as The Rod Stewart Album in the US). The backing band on the album also included Ian McLagan, Keith Emerson, Micky Waller and guitarists Martin Pugh (of Steamhammer and later Armageddon and 7th Order), and Martin Quittenton (also from Steamhammer).[15]