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The Rolling Stones in the press: “A Solo Album and Stormy Tour Behind Him, Ron Wood is No Longer the Unsung Rolling Stone” (by Richard Wiseman)
Rumors to the contrary, Rolling Stone Ron Wood’s hot new solo LP, Gimme Some Neck, is not the sound track for Love at First Bite. (In fact, the “neck” of the title refers to the fret board of a guitar.) But after playing in the shadows of Rod Stewart and, more recently, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, Wood is really asking, “Gimme some air.”
The point of the album, says Wood, who wrote eight of the LP’s 10 tracks, “was to get those songs that didn’t quite fit with the Stones off my back.” He did not, however, divorce himself from the group entirely. For some commercial zip and because “he’s the best drummer in rock,” Wood called in the Stones’ Charlie Watts and Jagger himself for one back-up vocal.
Yet Wood’s independent streak is genuine, as demonstrated by his moving from Stones sideman to form a tour band, the New Barbarians. It started late April in Toronto at Richards’ court-mandated concert for the blind and traveled for a month.
Though the band included keyboardist Ian MacLagan, bass great Stanley Clarke, Meters drummer Joe “Ziggy” Modeliste and sax-sessions ace Bobby Keyes, the tour soon drew more attention for those not in the group.
It was largely Wood’s own fault. He had built up the 18-city tour with teasers like “Mick asked if he could do some shows” and “I just heard that Rod the Stewart is going to join us.” Even Ringo, Wood reported, “wanted to come,” not to mention Bob Seger, Neil Young and Ted Nugent.
The hype did not go down well with some: One “shocked” promoter in Milwaukee says he never would have booked the New Barbarians alone. In New York, where scalpers scored up to $100 a ticket, frustrated fans shouted “Jagger, Jagger, Jagger” throughout the set.
Wood says now he didn’t need the stars. “If they had showed up they’d have been like fish out of water, because our show got totally rehearsed. Our output was really great.” Besides, he adds, “I didn’t want it to be like a second-rate Last Waltz.”
The note of truculence is unusual for Wood, an open, jovial musician in a world given to satanic posturing. The son of a British tugboat captain (“all-time boozer, kind of naughty”), Ron launched his musical career at age 9 playing a washboard in a band with older brothers Art and Ted. “They kept their instruments in a back room, and I would sneak in there when I was still wearing short pants.” He also followed them to Ealing Art School and still sketches in ink while on tour. (Neck’s album cover carries several impressive examples of Ron’s art.)
At 19, Wood joined Jeff Beck’s band, and when it broke up he spent the next five years with the Faces and as trusted sideman on Rod Stewart’s four solo albums. In 1975, after Mick Taylor had left the Stones, Wood got a call from Jagger. “I’m desperate.” Ron signed on. As a high-rolling Stone, his personal life changed dramatically. He and his wife of six years, Chrissie, separated in 1977 after Ron met onetime model Jo Howard at a London party. “I spotted her immediately and started the hunt,” Ron admits. Jo at first was underwhelmed. “I lied and said I worked at the broken biscuit counter at Woolworth’s,” she laughs. “I knew he was in a band, but I didn’t even know which one.”
Once Ron tracked her down, it wasn’t long before Jo moved in. At the time she was married to a textile executive.
Now living in L.A., Ron (recently divorced) and Jo (whose divorce is still pending) share an antique-funky Mandeville Canyon home—once owned by Esther Williams—with their 9-month-old daughter, Leah, and Jo’s son, Jamie, 4. (Wood’s son, Jessie, 2, lives in England with ex-wife Chrissie.)
Wood is celebrated among his friends for his “Jack Daniel’s gargle” voice and a social life that would fell an ox. “I’m thinking of opening my place as a nightclub,” Jo jokes. Ron’s home parties, with jams well past sunrise, often attract high-flying guests. Between the picking and the partying, the slender Ron manages to “keep very athletic—you know, sex and jogging.”
“Ronnie wants to have his cake and eat it too,” claims Jo. He won’t argue: “I just can’t renounce the way I live. It’s built in me. I never did grow up.”
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