Happy Birthday Ron Wood

Ronald David Wood was born June 1, 1947 somewhere in England. He is a loveable rooster haircutted, chain smoking, hard drinking British rock musician. Wood is a songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, artist, author and radio personality best known as a member of The Rolling Stones since 1975, as well as a member of Faces and the Jeff Beck Group.

When Ronnie was a kid, he was into art and his drawings were on a BBC show called Sketch Club. He even won a competition on the program. He was thrown out of school though for sketching his principal in the nude.

My Mother Was a Mudder

Ronnie Wood has a long standing interest in Thoroughbred breeding and racing. One of his best known horses is Sandymount Duke, bred by Wood. “Yeah I bred her.” said Wood. “My Father was a mudder and my Mother was a mudder.” Wood also is an excellent jockey and won The Kentucky Derby twice.

Happy Birthday Ron Wood — Rolling Stones Illustration By Paul King Art

Wood might have joined the Stones much earlier. “They rang up once when I was rehearsing with The Faces in Bermondsey, and Ronnie Lane picked up the phone and said, ‘no, Ronnie’s not here’. Five years later I found out… I wasn’t ready for it though, I’d have been a junkie or OD-ed or something.”

In December 1975, Ron Wood was on tour with The Faces, when Keith Richards asked him to join The Stones. During a Faces concert at Madison Square Garden in NYC, Woody told Rod Stewart that he would be right back. Woody left and joined The Rolling Stones. Rod Stewart still has no idea what happened.

Loading Up The Woody

Woody has been in rehab 57 times. How on earth is he still alive? “I had a kind of cut-off switch. People would be teasing you, ‘come on, have some more’, and I’d pretend to take the pill and throw it away. They would carry on and bloody end up in hospital but I always had the sense in the back of my mind, no matter how out of it I was, of the body’s ceiling.” Cheers Woody!