| September 3rd, 2005 08:50 AM |
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| IanBillen |
Here is an interview I seen on another messageboard. Thanks to the user :"Ruby Friday" for making it known to all of us. It is taken from a German newspaper. It is kinda sad but you really got to give him his due credit for rolling with the punches and keeping himself in check by doing what is necessary. Woody will get much much stronger, we hope as time goes along and he will one day be doing really super with it all.
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You are still smoking ,didn't the doctors advised you to stop ?
RW: I know ,it is the worst - the cigarettes .I'm wearing plasters ,which help me stop smoking at least at work .But when I've finished I have to smoke one.
How much do you smoke ?
RW:Earlier I smoked 40 a day.Nowadays it is about a box .
And what does your doctors say ?
RW:.....it is strange , one doctor says ,I should smoke instead of drinking ,the other says the opposite
You still have to fight the alcohol ?
RW:I try to control my drinking . My therapists are with me on tour .....And my friend Adam - also belonging to the Stones team - is clean since 12 years .It is helpful to have people like him around you - otherwise I would drink and smoke all the
time.
What do you do against the desire ?
RW:I try to look for me .For example I have a coach ,we do boxing,stretching and Yoga . And I found a new clinic In Ireland ,I was treated there before the recordings and now again before the tour .
Is it true your wife Jo is travelling with you to look after you ?
RW:She always does when I'm on tour
Cause the temptation is that big on tour ?
RW:It is really difficult for me.Keith is enjoying his life everytime and everywhere . He can't pass a bar - like me . But I try to be strong ,instead of a mini bar I have a coffee machine in my room .
How long could you stay without alcohol ?
RW:Only daywise ,each day is a new fight . But in the end you give up ,you can only capitulate .I've lost the fight ...This addiction is so much stronger than me .That's why have a strong team around me , caring for me.
RW:How long did it take - under these conditions - to finish the new record ?
Something about a year ........Mick and Keith doing the basics and we then get a call to join next week or month .They mix it then with Don Was.
You have 4 kids between 21 and 30 years.Do you talk with them about drugs ?
RW:I know that they tried alcohol and drugs.But they can handle it ,I wished I had their control......
Keep your chin up Woody, we understand what your going through.
Ian
[Edited by IanBillen] |
| September 3rd, 2005 10:49 AM |
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| Zulu Fun Mix |
Geez, no wonder the guitar solos on *A Bigger Bang" lack luster. He may be cognitively or neuro-muscularly incapable of making creative things happen. Check this out:
Alcohol Alert From NIAAA
Brain damage is a common and potentially severe consequence of long-term, heavy alcohol consumption. Even mild-to-moderate drinking can adversely affect cognitive functioning (i.e., mental activities that involve acquiring, storing, retrieving, and using information) (1). Persistent cognitive impairment can contribute to poor job performance in adult alcoholics, and can interfere with learning and academic achievement in adolescents with an established pattern of chronic heavy drinking (2).
A small but significant proportion of the heaviest drinkers may develop devastating, irreversible brain-damage syndromes, such as Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome, a disorder in which the patient is incapable of remembering new information for more than a few seconds (3).
It stands to reason that cognitive impairment also may impede recovery from alcoholism, although evidence has not conclusively shown this to be the case...
Most alcoholics exhibit mild-to-moderate deficiencies in intellectual functioning (6), along with diminished brain size and regional changes in brain-cell activity. The most prevalent alcohol-associated brain impairments affect visuospatial abilities and higher cognitive functioning (7). Visuospatial abilities include perceiving and remembering the relative locations of objects in 2- and 3-dimensional space. Examples include driving a car or assembling a piece of furniture based on instructions contained in a line drawing. Higher cognitive functioning includes the abstract-thinking capabilities needed to organize a plan, set it in motion, and change it as needed (2).
Most alcoholics entering treatment perform as well as nonalcoholics on tests of overall intelligence. However, alcoholics perform poorly on neuropsychological tests that measure specific cognitive abilities (8). For example, an alcoholic who has remained abstinent after treatment may have no apparent difficulty filing office documents correctly, a task that engages multiple brain regions. However, that same person might be unable to devise a completely different filing system, a task closely associated with higher cognitive functioning...
http://alcoholism.about.com/cs/alerts/l/blnaa53.htm |
| September 3rd, 2005 10:54 AM |
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| IanBillen |
[quote]Zulu Fun Mix wrote:
Geez, no wonder the guitar solos on *A Bigger Bang" lack luster. He may be cognitively or neuro-muscularly incapable of making creative things happen. Check this out:
Alcohol Alert From NIAAA
Brain damage is a common and potentially severe consequence of long-term, heavy alcohol consumption. Even mild-to-moderate drinking can adversely affect cognitive functioning (i.e., mental activities that involve acquiring, storing, retrieving, and using information) (1). Persistent cognitive impairment can contribute to poor job performance in adult alcoholics, and can interfere with learning and academic achievement in adolescents with an established pattern of chronic heavy drinking (2).
A small but significant proportion of the heaviest drinkers may develop devastating, irreversible brain-damage syndromes, such as Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome, a disorder in which the patient is incapable of remembering new information for more than a few seconds (3).
It stands to reason that cognitive impairment also may impede recovery from alcoholism, although evidence has not conclusively shown this to be the case...
Most alcoholics exhibit mild-to-moderate deficiencies in intellectual functioning (6), along with diminished brain size and regional changes in brain-cell activity. The most prevalent alcohol-associated brain impairments affect visuospatial abilities and higher cognitive functioning (7). Visuospatial abilities include perceiving and remembering the relative locations of objects in 2- and 3-dimensional space. Examples include driving a car or assembling a piece of furniture based on instructions contained in a line drawing. Higher cognitive functioning includes the abstract-thinking capabilities needed to organize a plan, set it in motion, and change it as needed (2).
Most alcoholics entering treatment perform as well as nonalcoholics on tests of overall intelligence. However, alcoholics perform poorly on neuropsychological tests that measure specific cognitive abilities (8). For example, an alcoholic who has remained abstinent after treatment may have no apparent difficulty filing office documents correctly, a task that engages multiple brain regions. However, that same person might be unable to devise a completely different filing system, a task closely associated with higher cognitive functioning...
http://alcoholism.about.com/cs/alerts/l/blnaa53.htm
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Ah come on now man. Let's not start any of this. Woody can play that geeetar just fine. Yesrterday and today. This is the same thing we all
heard before last tour and when I seen him the guy was on fire. In cleveland during "Can't you hear me knockin" he was nothing short of superb. I can still remember thinking at that show.....Woody....not able to play like he used to?........It was nothing further from the truth. He played better on Licks than he had in 24-25 years. Arguably better than ever.
the bottum line is the guy can still play a nasty guitar.
Ian |
| September 3rd, 2005 11:03 AM |
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| nankerphelge |
And he is playing even better this tour!
"Get stoked up on coffee and play the hell outta that thing Ronnie!" |
| September 3rd, 2005 11:21 AM |
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| exile |
thats a bit sad...Ronnie sounded kinda down |
| September 3rd, 2005 11:50 AM |
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| TheSavageYoungXyzzy |
quote:
exile wrote:
thats a bit sad...Ronnie sounded kinda down
Well, you would be too if you were told "no more drinking or smoking" while on tour with Keith Richards!
All kidding aside, I really feel for poor Ronnie. At Fenway, though, he at least looked like he was really concentrating. He scowled and threw himself into it, even when it was obvious he hadn't rehearsed the song enough beforehand.
I think this kind of honest attitude is better to have than the attitude he had at the start of the Licks tour - that didn't end particularly well. He worked hard at it but really "went it alone" and lost a lot of evenings - especially in Europe when he was smoking up with Keith. Keith can get away with being stoned onstage most of the time, but everything really affects Ronnie a lot more - he just doesn't have the same tolerance Keith had, probably because his coke habit lasted well into the early eighties while Keith had effectively given up regular abuse of coke and smack by that point.
What they discovered recently was that alcoholics actually process drunkenness differently (which is why it's now considered a genetic disorder). "Normal" people go out and get trashed and let it affect them and use that effect recreationally - they get silly and occasionally throw up. It only takes one drink for an alcoholic to feel altered, but they can then slam drinks with impugnity until the body shuts off on them with a minimal loss of function. It effectively makes them feel like they're on top of the world, slightly slurred speech and languid movement aside. They can get by pretending to be normal even if they've had six or seven drinks. But sooner or later that constant damage to the liver catches up to them and they find that the alcohol is actually severely affecting them, like normal people - but they still feel totally in control of themselves. It's pretty obvious that Ronnie and Keith are both alcoholics, but Keith has the tolerance of a nineteen-year-old with alcoholism genes. When the other shoe drops for him, I have no doubt he'll drop dead on the spot, but that won't happen for a decent while - Keith is probably one of those guys that just has a perpensity for long life. Ronnie's acting his age in terms of alcoholism. Which is sad, but at least he has a firm grasp on it, and lots of people willing to help him.
Now we'll see if he manages to quit smoking! |
| September 3rd, 2005 11:58 AM |
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| nankerphelge |
He did seem resigned to the fact that he will never beat it.
That is too bad -- last tour he seemed more optimistic about it.
I can't imagine a habit that so totally overwhelms you and you can't ever beat it -- except for the Stones! |
| September 3rd, 2005 11:59 AM |
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| Zulu Fun Mix |
Ian:
Sorry, dude, but there's something missing on *A Bigger Bang* and it's the lead guitar. Even the weaving isn't as rich and multi-textured as it was on VL--although maybe it'll sound better when I hear the actual CD instead of these compressed mp3 versions. I never thought I'd say it before but what this new album needs is guest musicians to take Ronnie's lame place. He's not up to the job; that's surely why Mick and Keith didn't want him in France goofing off and getting in the way to begin with. If Ronnie's guitar work is going to be so weak, they should have replaced or complemented him on disk with either guest guitarists or guest saxophonists to make the songs richer, more interesting, and longer-lasting. But they didn't, with the result that I don't think *A Bigger Bang* is going to sound as good in 2017 as *Wandering Spirit* still does today.
I like it now, though. A lot. |
| September 3rd, 2005 03:02 PM |
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| pdog |
Ronnie we have lots of seats for you in AA...
You can't be to stupid too get help, but you can be too smart!
Good luck Ronnie! |
| September 3rd, 2005 06:05 PM |
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| gotdablouse |
Sad indeed, now that you mention it they did bring in Waddy Wachtel to liven things up guitar wise on B2B.
Hey Xizzy, remember that "birth of a guitar god" after the first licks concert ? ;-) Good thing you stopped eh ! |
| September 4th, 2005 12:56 AM |
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| wgwalsh |
Mr. Ian:
Once you are in so deep, it is very hard to go back.
If Woodrow really enjoys the juice, he will always be thinking about it.
Relapse can be part of sobriety. On the other hand, absolute sobriety has been known to make some folks absolutely miserable.
I guess when your business partner is the AA poster boy, sobriety may be extremely challenging.
Wish the boys well and accept them for what they are and for what they aren't. We can't all be Mr. Ian. Diversity is what makes the world go round.
Come on, just a taste, man ...
wgw |
| September 4th, 2005 06:08 AM |
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| IanBillen |
[quote]wgwalsh wrote:
Mr. Ian:
Once you are in so deep, it is very hard to go back.
If Woodrow really enjoys the juice, he will always be thinking about it.
Relapse can be part of sobriety. On the other hand, absolute sobriety has been known to make some folks absolutely miserable.
I guess when your business partner is the AA poster boy, sobriety may be extremely challenging.
Wish the boys well and accept them for what they are and for what they aren't. We can't all be Mr. Ian. Diversity is what makes the world go round.
Come on, just a taste, man ...
wgw
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Wise Words by a wise man, ......as a wise man once said..
Ian |
| September 4th, 2005 06:23 AM |
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| IanBillen |
Zulu fun mix wrote:
"Even the weaving isn't as rich and multi-textured as it was on VL".
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Well again I think some of us may be missing the point. Voodoo Lounge was very rich and textured. But, again.....this album is not supposed to sound rich and textured and wasn't going for the weaving effect very much. This album wasn't supposed to be deep. It was designed and recorded to sound "bright" and in your face and indeed it is. Every time you record the style and techniques you choose is a trade off.
Don Was said in an interview on August 26, of this year that it took he and the Stones eight months to record this album to get the album just as they wanted it. It IS just as they want it. The reason the sound, the mix, and the style was recorded this way was because that is very much the exact way they wanted it to be. Choppy, Bright, Direct and hard hitting. Not Textural and Deep with alot of weaving inter-play. I do not think Woody's alchohol problem has anything to do with any of these reasons.
*****************************Geeze my Kneez********************************.
All we had for 10 years were folks complaining there are too many studio musicians and too much over-production on recent Stones albums and everyone wanted to get The Stones back to their basics. You get an album tailored to just be exactly that and poeple start posting they want it the other way around now....Aren't we being waaaay to arguementative about this?
Ian
[Edited by IanBillen]
[Edited by IanBillen] |
| September 4th, 2005 06:51 AM |
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| corgi37 |
You cant beat the booze. Just give in. Succumb to the numbness. The lovely off balance view of life.
Now, excuse me while i pop the top of a Melbourne Bitter and put my cask of cheap red plonk in the fridge. |
| September 4th, 2005 07:39 AM |
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| Poplar |
i've worried about woody for a few years now.
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| September 4th, 2005 07:46 AM |
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| exile |
quote:
TheSavageYoungXyzzy wrote:
Well, you would be too if you were told "no more drinking or smoking" while on tour with Keith Richards!
LOL....very true |
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