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| TheSavageYoungXyzzy |
I *love* it. Especially Keith's little not in there. Hahaha... Keith & Ronnie. What a pair.
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Sunday Mail (QLD)
February 2, 2003, Sunday
Sober on stage for the first time
by David Thomas
As The Rolling Stones prepare to hit Brisbane next
month, guitarist Ronnie Wood tells DAVID THOMAS how he
finally cleaned up his act after three decades of
alcohol abuse
JO WOOD, wife of Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood,
distractedly brushes a strand of blonde hair from her
normally cheerful face and forces herself to relive a
past she would rather forget.
"When Ronnie was drinking, it was an absolute
nightmare," she says with unexpected frankness.
For more than an hour, Jo and Ronnie have been chatting
about his music and his art, describing an
extraordinary group portrait of London's most famous
faces that Ronnie is painting as a commission from
Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Ronnie, 55, has been his usual friendly, unassuming
self, living up to his reputation as one of the nicest
guys in the music industry, and they have bantered with
the relaxed affection of a couple who've seen good
times and bad and come through both.
But now, Ronnie has left the room -- and suddenly the
mood has changed, as Jo's mind goes back to the early
months of last year. "I was at the end of my tether,
thinking, 'I don't know how much more of this I can
take'. It was every day, all night long, every night.
Socially, everybody loved him. Ronnie was great. But
when he got back home, he was horrible."
She gives a nervous laugh. "I used to dread going to
parties because I knew we were going to be the last
people to leave. Everyone would be thinking, 'Oh my
God, I've got to get home'.
"But there was no way we were going to get out until
the last person had left.
"The children have seen so much with their father," she
says, referring to Tyrone, 19, Leah, 24, Jesse, 26, and
Jamie, 28.
"They'd see their dad rolling round the place."
She shakes her head and shouts out incoherently, like a
rambling drunk. "And they'd be saying, 'All right, Dad'.
"Anyway, I talked to Mick (Jagger) and he said, 'You've
got to get Ronnie clean for the Stones' tour'.
"It was great to hear but that was the easy bit. The
hard thing was getting him into the clinic."
She finally persuaded Ronnie to check into the
Cottonwood de Tucson rehab clinic, in Arizona, in the
United States.
But, as she admits: "Ronnie didn't agree until the day
before he was due to go. It was very emotional getting
him there. It was really tough because you feel as if
you're putting him into some kind of prison.
"But after I went to see him the first weekend, I
thought, 'Yes, I know I've done the right thing'. He
got better and better. By the time we returned home, I
knew it was going to be great."
It is now almost a year since Ronnie touched alcohol
and Jo is thrilled by her new, improved, sober husband.
"He was good fun but I still think he's fun. He's grown
up. They say that when you're indulging in
God-knows-what, you don't mature. But I can really see
him maturing now."
She grins at the idea of a man of 55 finally deciding
to grow up. "Ronnie's more responsive," she says. "His
concentration level has gone up and his guitar-playing
is fantastic -- and his painting. Everything's got much
better. He can really concentrate, whereas before he
had one hand on the brush and another on the glass."
Ronnie comes back into the room, a scarecrow-slim
figure. His black hair (which, he insists, has never
seen a drop of dye) is cut in that familiar
crow's-feather mop.
He's wearing dark-blue jeans and a skin-tight black
T-shirt and he's carrying the evidence of two habits he
still can't break: a cup of coffee and a cigarette.
We last met in a Miami hotel room during the Stones'
1999 US tour. In those days, Ronnie didn't bother with
the hotel mini-bar -- the band's roadies simply
installed a giant case filled with cold cans of
Guinness.
"That's not with us any more," he says. "There's a
portable stove and a coffee-machine now."
The Stones are soon to be in Australia as part of
another huge tour, celebrating their 40th anniversary
by proving that they are still the world's biggest
concert attraction.
Wood, of course, will always be the band's new boy -- a
mere stripling of 28 years' service. He's known the
Stones since he was a student in London at Ealing Art
College and they were starting out at the local clubs,
back in 1962. But it wasn't until April 1975 that he
officially became a member.
"I always wanted to be in the Stones and my dream came
true," he says, speaking with the enthusiasm of a man
who still can't believe his luck.
There's real excitement, too, when he talks about what
it's like to be sober on-stage for the first time in
his life.
"It's tough. But it's a challenge, too, and that's also
something that's good for me. I feel proud of myself."
Back in the early '70s, when he first made his name
alongside Rod Stewart as the guitarist in The Faces,
Ronnie used to drink to overcome his nerves.
"We used to drown our stage fright with martinis and
port-and-brandies," he says. But if the booze calmed
his nerves, it did nothing for his guitar-playing.
"Looking back, it was more like an, 'Eyes down, I'll
meet you at the end' approach to every song. Now I'm
playing with a lot more insight. And it shows,
hopefully."
Wood admits he was the last person to realise the state
he was in.
"I thought I was fine, I could conquer anything. It was
more the family saying, 'Dad, we don't like you like
this. We want you to live to a ripe old age and we
don't want you to destroy yourself'.
"Mick was saying, 'You can't carry on like this, Woody.
We've got a tour coming up. I want to see you finish it
in some kind of reasonable state'. It was that kind of
thing that got to me."
With Jagger long committed to a fitness regime worthy
of an Olympic athlete and drummer Charlie Watts another
reformed alcoholic, the only Stone still committed to
the band's traditional rock 'n' roll lifestyle is
Ronnie's fellow guitarist, Keith Richards.
"He drinks what he calls nuclear waste," says Ronnie.
"It's vodka with orange Fanta and cranberry juice, and
a bit of cigarette smoke on the top.
"He's still doing good, Keith. He comes and has a
coffee with me in Recovery, my backstage room. He has
Camp X-Ray, and I have Recovery."
The proof of that recovery can be heard on stage every
night, for Ronnie has never sounded better. It can also
be seen in the art exhibitions he is mounting to
coincide with the Stones' appearances in some parts of
the world.
The London exhibition is planned for when the Stones
hit Britain in August, but his paintings can already be
seen on his website, www. ronniewood.com.
Ronnie takes his paper, pencils and pastels with him
whenever he's on the road. But the serious work is done
at his two studios: one at his Irish estate in County
Kildare, the other at his home on Kingston Hill in
Surrey in England. To reach the latter, Ronnie leads me
through his multi-million dollar home. We begin in the
TV room, which houses his collection of gold and
platinum albums, 15 Picasso prints and a dozen more by
Goya.
Next door, there's a downstairs loo covered in
souvenirs of Stones' tours; pictures of their children;
party snaps of friends such as Rod Stewart and jockey
Frankie Dettori; and joke messages scrawled by Keith
Richards, one of which reads: "Just some of the reasons
why I think you should die."
Ronnie leads me on through a massive baronial hall
decorated with a grand piano, giant fireplace and suit
of armour. We go into his magnificent snooker room.
"(Snooker professionals) Jimmy White and Ronnie
O'Sullivan come round and have grudge matches," he
says, as we pass the table.
Finally, we reach a massive conservatory. To one side
sits a drawing of Elton John. This, it transpires, is a
study for the 5m-wide picture that Ronnie is painting
for Lloyd Webber. It will feature the cream of London's
high society, dining at the Ivy restaurant.
"They all came here and sat for me," he says proudly,
pointing to the stars' letters of acceptance stuck to
his studio wall.
"It was quite a cross-section -- everyone from Kate
Moss to Salman Rushdie. There was Elton, Naomi
Campbell, Michael Parkinson, Melvyn Bragg, Joan
Collins. (Model) Betty Jackson came round with Jennifer
Saunders."
Two easels have also been set up. On top of one, a
small pencil sketch is resting -- a ravishing nude
portrait of Jo. It turns out that I've met them on
their wedding anniversary.
"It's 18 years," says Jo. "I think it's lovely."
Ronnie turns to show me a tiny silver star pinned to
his left ear and Jo puts on a sweet, mock-innocent
girly voice: "Because he's my star, you see."
He could say the same about her. The Woods are one of
the closest couples in the music industry and they've
been through a lot together.
IN 1980, they were arrested on the Caribbean island of
St Martin and charged with possession of 200g of
cocaine. And in the mid-1980s, when the Stones weren't
touring and there was no money coming in, they lost
their house in Los Angeles and came within a whisker of
bankruptcy.
Now Jo is the only Stones wife who tours full-time with
her husband.
"They pay me," she says, with considerable
satisfaction. "Mick came to me and said, 'Since you
always come on tour, I'd like you to be Ronnie's
personal assistant and do his clothes'.
"I do his clothes anyway, so I jumped at the chance.
His dress sense used to be really flash, particularly
the jackets. Now it's more understated."
All of Ronnie's old outfits, including a matador
costume and a suit made from fabric designed like a
Japanese painting, are sitting upstairs in his attic.
His model/singer daughter Leah sometimes goes there
when she's looking for something outrageous to wear to
a party.
"Great," I say, "Can I go up and see it all?" Ronnie
hesitates for a moment, then gives me an apologetic
"No".
He doesn't mind me knowing about his alcoholism. He'll
show me nude pictures of his wife. But there are some
things so private -- or could that be so embarrassing?
-- that even a man as honest as Ronnie Wood is not
prepared to make public.
* The Rolling Stones bring their Forty Licks world tour
to the Brisbane Entertainment Centre on March 4 and 5.
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| Nellcote |
Xxzy;
Great Find! Wicked Pissa read. Guess we found out where all the old Esso outfits are, eh? |
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| Child of the Moon |
Thank you very much for the read, Xyzzy. I'm real glad to know that Ronnie's finally on top of his game. |
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| MP |
Bravo, Ronnie..... |
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| full moon |
Excellent.. Kudos... |
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