As a former member of The Faces and the Jeff Beck Group, and a key component of The Rolling Stones for the last five decades and counting, Ronnie Wood has seen a thing or two. And in a new post on his social media channels, the 78-year-old guitarist looks back on some of the formative experiences in his career.
"The Yardbirds was one [band] that I used to follow a lot, and I used to go and see them in the Richmond Athletic Grounds in the Crawdaddy Club," Wood recalls at the outset of the clip. "Very important. And people were swinging from the rafters in there, and sweat dripping from the ceiling, and it was so incredible, the atmosphere, with the crescendos they used to do.
"They used to do a Muddy Waters song called I'm A Man. They did a fast version. Everybody would go crazy. Those were the days. It was fantastic."
Wood remembers saying to guitarist Jeff Beck, that if he ever decided to leave The Yardbirds they should get together, and adds, "And sure enough, he did leave and he did ring me up."
The Jeff Beck Group started out with both Beck and Wood playing guitar, Dave Ambrose playing bass, and a succession of drummers, including Mickey Waller, Aynsley Dunbar and Roy Cook. Before long, however, Wood switched to play bass, which he viewed as "a challenge".
"One day, after playing [legendary London venue] the 100 Club," he says, "we went down really well and, Jon Lord - who was living with me... and went off to form Deep Purple. at the time he was in my brother's band the Artwoods - he said, 'It sounded really great with with two guitar players.' And Jeff said, 'Ronnie if you don't mind, would you consider playing bass?' I said, I love a challenge, I don't mind it, so that's when I went on to the bass."
"When we went to America, Jimi Hendrix used to come and jam with us," Wood continues. "He used to say to Jeff, 'Hey Jeff, let the bass player have a solo!' He loved my bass playing, so that was a feather in my cap. And I ended up sharing a flat with him in Holland Park for a couple of weeks when we were early gigging... it was great fun."
Watch the clip below.
A new album from the Faces, their first since 1973's Ooh La La, could be released this year.
The legendary English rock 'n' roll band - featuring Wood, vocalist Rod Stewart, and drummer Kenney Jones - have (briefly) reunited a number of times over the past decades, most recently in 2020, when the trio performed their classic 1971 single Stay With Me at the Brit Awards.
News that the band were working on new music emerged during an interview that Ronnie Wood conducted with The Times newspaper in 2021.
Wood told writer Michael Odell that he and his wife Sally had moved to a new home in Little Venice, west London, and that Stewart and Jones had been working with him in the house’s recording studio.
“I saw Mick [Jagger] here last week and Rod [Stewart] and Kenney [Jones] were here yesterday,” Wood revealed. “Me and Mick have done nine new tracks for the [40th anniversary] re-release of [the Rolling Stones’ 1981 album] Tattoo You. And me, Rod and Kenney have been recording some new Faces music.”
In a 2025 interview in The Telegraph, Kenney Jones said that the trio have recorded "about 11 tracks" at RAK studios in North London, with Jools Holland guesting on one song.
"Not all of them are going to be right [for the album]," Jones says. "But most of them are good."
