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FEARLESS

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ANTHOLOGY

GENESIS PUBLICATIONS Fine Limited Editions Since 1974

We didn’t have money for a PA system, and it was the flip of a coin as to whether the venue would have one. A lot of the time we’d have the vocals and guitars coming out of one or two amps. Often the bass was the only one that had its own cabinet. It got pretty hairy with the acoustics. Terry Slater served us in Marshall’s. He was the authority on the different amps and all the technical details. In the evenings, Terry would play with bands that came over from America. His main gig was backing the Everly Brothers, so we’d get first-hand stories about them. All the good-looking girls at school had a copy of the Everly Brothers’ record under their arm, so all the guys wanted to look like them. We used to have a cabinet with four speakers, and then another underneath. I said to Jim Marshall, ‘Why don’t you make me a cabinet with eight speakers?’ Pete Townshend came in and went, ‘You bastard!’ Above, l–r: Dick Ashby (roadie for the Birds, who went on to manage the Bee Gees), Ali MacKenzie and Ronnie in the Jim Marshall and Son music shop, 76 Uxbridge Road, Hanwell, London, 1965

Left: Ronnie’s sketch of him and Pete Townshend in Jim Marshall’s

BIRDS: 1964–1967

Above: 1965 Marshall JTM45 head and cab used by Ronnie during his time in the Birds (left); a sketch by Ronnie from his 1965 diary (right) Below: The Birds, Nottingham Boat House, Nottingham, England, 13 June 1965 Note the violin on Ronnie’s Telecaster, which he created with brown Fablon

FACES: 1969–1975

Ronnie Lane is playing my Fender Jazz Bass. These are early days in the Faces at rehearsals in Bermondsey and before Zemaitis guitars came along.

Top: The Faces, 1972 (l–r: Rod Stewart, Ronnie Lane, Ronnie Wood, Ian McLagan and Kenney Jones) Above: Ronnie Wood with his early 60s Fiesta Red Fender Stratocaster and Ronnie Lane playing the Jazz Bass that Wood used in the Jeff Beck Group Opposite: Recording at BBC Radio in London, early 1970

When Steve Marriott left the Small Faces to form Humble Pie, Rod Stewart and I were really disappointed that he’d split up that wonderful foursome. Ronnie Lane said to me, ‘I don’t know what we’re going to do. Will you come over, Ronnie?’ So I said, ‘Sure!’ We all played with our backs to each other to get the feel of it because we were so shy. Later, Rod came on and put his vocals over our funky sound. We’d give anybody a run for their money, because we worked hard at rehearsals. We’d rehearse all day long, every day. Everyone played their guitar or keyboard and would just hang out. We listened to Otis Redding, Buddy Guy, whatever was going on, and we’d just play and sing and write songs, round each other’s houses. The Meters were a favourite of mine with songs like ‘Cissy Strut’ and ‘Ease Back’. Those were my favourite songs when the Faces were getting together and building their initial rhythmic background for when Rod Stewart came over to us. It’s important to get a funk structure and a lot of that came from the Meters’ drummer, Zigaboo Modeliste. Rod gave the Faces a dynamic that we didn’t have with the Jeff Beck Group, and the others never had with the Small Faces. Thinking back, trying to put my finger on the most important thing that made it all different: it was fun. We relied on the fun we had on stage and the people that we met. Guys, girls, whoever, it was good people, good encouragement. We were a hard-partying band. That was one of the stipulations, an unwritten rule – the celebration factor spread from the band to the audience and we would give out cases of booze instead of having a support band so the audience would be in the same frame of mind as the band. Everyone was nicely wrecked! The air of mischief was ever present. So was the continual striving for our kind of musical perfection, which was attained only by hours of dedicated attention to tempo, style, authenticity and maximum impact. Genuine respect was our goal when attempting any covers songs as a tribute to the respective artists, like Zigaboo in the Meters, Booker T. & the M.G.’s, with Al Jackson on skins, and the blues back beats of Francis Clay and Fred Below cracking under the bass ground of Willie Dixon and the cry of Muddy Waters. My harmonica playing was influenced by Sonny Boy Williamson, Junior Wells and Little Walter. From rehearsals to stage we tried to carry this musical message through. 34

FACES - Introduction

This guitar got stolen in America, quite early on in the Faces’ career.

During his early days with the Faces, Ronnie played a Gibson SG, followed by an early 1960s Fiesta Red Fender Stratocaster (pictured this page and opposite) and then a Danelectro, all of which were subsequently stolen. 35

ROLLING STONES: 1975–1979

T IOTLLLEI N- GS uSbT OT iNt El eS : 1 9 8 0 s R

The Stones bring out the best in me. I think I’m most powerful when I’m with them. It’s because they give me confidence but it’s also that added ingredient that is the Stones, although no one really knows what that is.

Ronnie is playing his second metal-front Zemaitis guitar built for him in 1978 Above: Tattoo You European tour, Ashton Gate Stadium, Bristol, England, 27 June 1982 Opposite: Wembley Stadium, London 26 June 1982 Previous pages: Tattoo You European tour, 1982 (page 90); Ronnie’s 1971 disc-front Zemaitis (page 91)

TITLE - Sub Title

The first gig I played with the Rolling Stones was on my birthday, 1 June. I had a sea of thoughts going through my head, along with all the songs that I had had to learn, but I’ve always loved a challenge. It was the first time I’d met a band with any kind of organisation. We’d get newsletters, we’d know what we were doing and when we were going to be doing it. We’d know what we were going to be playing, and all the keys of the songs. All of this was foreign to me. In the Faces I think we might have just written down a few songs before we went on stage. It was funny to go from that to the efficiency of the Stones. Ronnie Wood, Billy Preston, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, Tour of the Americas ‘75, Madison Square Garden, New York, NY, 24 June 1975

ROLLING STONES: 1975–1979

In this photo, I’m wearing a boiler suit I got from Eric Clapton. He wore them all the time, so Keith and I got them. We did six nights at Madison Square Garden and Keith and I didn’t go to bed. On the fifth night Keith said, ‘Well, we may as well stay up now, no point in going to bed. Let’s go to the studio and see Eric again.’ So, we went down to Electric Lady.

NEW BARBARIANS: 1979–1980

Keith got busted in Canada for possession of heroin and part of his court deal was that he had to play a benefit for the Canadian National Institute for the Blind. I already had this band going with Keith, Stanley Clarke, Bobby Keys, Zigaboo Modeliste from the Meters, and Ian McLagan on keyboard. Keith playing a gig with the New Barbarians fulfilled his obligation. That was our debut, as the Stones’ support act, and then we rolled straight into a tour of the States. The New Barbarians was the only band that toured all the major stadiums without ever releasing a record. We managed to fill them. It was quite an eye opener for me, playing the stadiums with me as the frontman. I designed the band’s logo for T-shirts and other merchandise. The artwork depicts a German officer engaged in a barbaric act with a woman.

Page 82 (top): The New Barbarians backstage, 1979 (l–r): Bobby Keys, Stanley Clarke, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood, Ian McLagan and Ziggy Modeliste Page 83: Ronnie backstage with Keith Richards and Stanley Clarke, North American tour, 1979 Above: Ronnie and Keith performing with the New Barbarians, Omni Coliseum, Atlanta, GA, 10 May 1979 Opposite: Ronnie with the New Barbarians, 1979 The guitar Ronnie is playing in these photos is his 1978 metal-front Zemaitis (see page 79)

NEW BARBARIANS: 1979–1980

ROLLING STONES: 2000–2024

When I’m backstage, I’m always doing a set list. They’re handy to have and I haven’t got rid of any of them. One day they’ll make a great collection in a museum or somewhere like that. For shirts such as the one featured here, created for Ronnie to wear on the SIXTY tour, the process begins with Ronnie sketching doodles and handwritten elements on paper. In this case these included his interpretation of the Rolling Stones tongue and the phrases ‘60 Years’ and ‘Rolling Stones’. The drawings are resized and digitised using embroidery software, then stitched onto sample fabric with a 12-head embroidery machine to test scale and quality before being embroidered onto tailored silk panels and assembled into the finished shirt. SIXTY tour, Wanda Metropolitano Stadium, Madrid, Spain, 1 June 2022 Ronnie is playing his first Versoul Raya Blue Light, finished in gold leaf (see page 169)

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SOLO WORK & OTHER ADVENTURES

When I bought my house in Ireland, I redesigned one of the outbuildings to make it just like an old-fashioned pub. The sign that hangs above the door is a painting of my dad wearing a naval uniform with the name of the pub in big bold letters: ‘Yer Father’s Yacht’. What I love about Ireland is the quietness, the peace, the being able to go out without having a camera stuck in your face. Sometimes you just want to be Ronnie Wood, regular bloke, rather than Ronnie Wood, rock star.

The Rolling Stones used Ronnie’s home studio in Ireland to work on their 1994 album Voodoo Lounge.

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SOLO WORK & OTHER ADVENTURES

I learned a lot from Bo. I got to know him really well and he was always very affectionate towards me. Bo was quite a regular guy. He would more or less sit you on his knee, a bit like your granddad, and tell you a story about back in the old days and how he never used to understand racial segregation. ‘There’s a tap over here for black people and a tap over there for white people,’ he’d say, ‘but the pipe is joined underneath. It’s the same pipe.’

Bo Diddley recording with Ronnie in his home studio, c. 2002

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SOLO WORK & OTHER ADVENTURES

These painted guitars sold like hot cakes.

A selection of Ronnie’s old electric guitars, which he painted in mixed media, Sandymount, Ireland, 2009

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SOLO WORK & OTHER ADVENTURES

Imelda’s my rock. When I do solo stuff, I always take her with me.

Performing ‘Mother of Pearl’ with Imelda May, Jools’ Annual Hootenanny 2025/2026, BBC Studios, London, Broadcast 31 December 2025 Ronnie is playing his ‘Primo’ Fender Stratocaster

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SOLO WORK & OTHER ADVENTURES

My desert island set-up would be my Gibson J-200 Ronnie Wood model or a Martin, my Primo Strat and just a little Fender tweed amp.