Ronnie Wood talks ‘pulling in all directions’ & Mick’s ‘youthful energy’ as Rolling Stones release Foreign Tongues
“HE just has that youthful energy,” says Ronnie Wood of his Rolling Stones bandmate Mick Jagger.
It’s not a term often used to describe someone in their Eighties but, in this case, entirely accurate.
Anyone who’s seen the consummate frontman in recent times will know he still has the voice, the moves — and the swagger.
Nearly four years Mick’s junior and, at 79, the “baby” of the band, Ronnie could still be forgiven for thinking, “I want some of whatever he’s on.”
But, as the Stones release their high-octane LP Foreign Tongues, Ronnie can also claim to have some of that “youthful energy”.
“I’m the same as Mick,” he tells me. “I’m a Gemini, I’m pulling in all directions — and I’m just loving it.”
By that, he means his ongoing endeavours with the Stones, his work as a highly skilled portrait artist and the not-so-small matter of his first solo tour in years, beginning next week in Austria on a bill with Van Morrison.
Not to mention being husband to wife Sally and dad to their ten-year-old twin daughters Gracie Jane and Alice Rose.
Ronnie continues: “I just love to be inspired and putting my ideas into action — whether it’s on a canvas or through my guitar or harmonica or whatever I’m playing.
“And I even try my hand at singing every now and again!”
Right now, says Ronnie, “I’m in my art studio preparing an exhibition and I’m getting rehearsals together with my band.
“I even had a little rehearsal with Mick because we’re keeping our hands in, keeping our chops together. So, it’s all go.”
The main purpose of our chat is, of course, all things Stones but you’ll hear more about his extra-curricular activities later.
I discover that Ronnie has a wonderfully old-school approach to tech — none of that new-fangled Zoom stuff for him — so he calls me on the dog and bone.
Which means that I have to go half way up a steep hill on the Cornish coast, not far from Land’s End, in an attempt to get decent signal.
Thankfully, the guitar legend comes through loud and clear — and full of enthusiasm.
First, he explains why the Stones have another new studio album of original material in the bag so soon after 2023’s Hackney Diamonds.
(If you remember, the previous one, A Bigger Bang, came out in 2005.)
He replies that American producer Andrew Watt “hadn’t finished with us and we hadn’t finished with him”.
“We just sparked the fire that was already cooking with Hackney Diamonds.”
Ronnie is quick to praise the 35-year-old producer with bleach-blond hair who has worked with Paul McCartney, Ozzy Osbourne, Lady Gaga and Post Malone.
“We’re on to a good one there,” he says. “The Stones haven’t had someone with so much input since Jimmy Miller.”
Praise indeed because Miller produced a stellar run of consecutive albums — Beggar’s Banquet, Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers, Exile On Main St and Goat’s Head Soup — between 1968 and 1973.
Ronnie adds: “Andrew’s a big fan of ours and he knows what he’s talking about. He can play different instruments and knows my guitar playing better than I do.”
So what was the catalyst for Foreign Tongues? “We had a few tracks like Covered In You left over,” replies Ronnie.
“But basically we started reworking all these songs that Mick had been kicking around, some with Keith, and some by himself. Mick would come to us, saying, ‘Look, I’ve got this idea — let’s develop it’.
“The Stones are his plaything, so I just let him take the helm and get on with it. It’s great.”
Key to the success of Foreign Tongues, a big beast of an album with 14 tracks spanning 63 minutes, was a gathering in London to bring the project to fruition.
Ronnie explains: “We started working in New York at Electric Lady, then we took it to Henson studio in LA and messed around with it there — but we finished off the whole thing at Metropolis in Chiswick.
“It was a great feeling to be in London, to go down to the studio that was not far [from where I live] with all the boys there.”
Ronnie wallowed in the “great studio atmosphere” and was particularly chuffed to have an old mucker like Steve Winwood on board — “he was so lovely”.
Steve, who plays organ or piano on nine of the Foreign Tongues songs, came to prominence in the early Sixties as a fresh-faced teenager in The Spencer Davis Group.
Stints in Traffic and Blind Faith were followed by his hugely successful solo career with hit Eighties albums including Arc Of A Diver and Back In The High Life.
Ronnie says: “The Americans had Little Stevie Wonder and Britain had Little Stevie Winwood.
“I first met him at The Ship pub on Wardour Street and he’s one of the only musicians from my era who’s younger than me.” (Ronnie was born in 1947 and Steve a year later.)
Back in the day, The Ship was one of Ronnie’s favourite haunts because of its proximity to fabled music venues like The 100 Club and The Marquee.
He says: “I used to meet all the musicians in this packed little pub. Just up the road, I met Rod Stewart for the first time in the Intrepid Fox. He came up to me and went, ‘Hello Face!’ ”
They bonded over their mod-style haircuts, as you do, and soon started playing music together, first in The Jeff Beck Group and then, from 1969, The Faces.
In 1975, Ronnie left The Faces to land the job he’d dreamed of since he was a teenager — to become a member of the most rock and roll band on the planet, the Rolling Stones.
His first album as a full-time member with them was 1978’s Some Girls, a sleazy tour de force featuring some dazzling Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood guitar interplay, most notably on the ballad Beast Of Burden.
Which brings us neatly back to Foreign Tongues because it is drawing comparisons with that classic LP.
Ronnie says: “We like to keep the youthful feel we had in Paris when we were doing Some Girls and Emotional Rescue. There was a lot of energy on Respectable and Summer Romance, all those mad songs . . . and we still have that kind of energy going.
“I call this Foreign Tongues album ‘more solos for me, thanks Mick’ and he loves it.”
So which songs feature Ronnie solos? I venture. “There’s one on Back In Your Life which everyone seems to like,” he answers. “It’s the last one I did and there’s a lot of feeling there.
“I also enjoyed doing solos on Mr Charm, Side Effects, In The Stars and Hit Me On The Head.
“And there are lots of songs I loved to jam on, with me and Keith bouncing off each other.”
Hit Me On The Head is one of the few tracks saved from the Hackney Diamonds sessions, a breathless three-minute blast featuring much-missed drummer Charlie Watts.
Ronnie says: “We’ve got a few Charlie tracks saved and it’s lovely to keep his memory going with these little reminders.”
He adds that Steve Jordan, the powerhouse American drummer who stepped in after Charlie died in 2021 “loved Charlie so much and to pay tribute to him on Hackney Diamonds and Foreign Tongues is so great”.
I ask Ronnie which of the other new tracks he’s fond of.
He says: “I love Rough And Twisted which reminds me of my old Faces days — a modern-day blues.”
And he singles out yearning country song Ringing Hollow, which he and Mick gave a debut live airing to at this week’s album launch party in London.
“That’s a great one,” he says. “It reminds me of the songs inspired by the Stones’ first visits to America like Dead Flowers [also performed at the party], Wild Horses and Sweet Virginia.”
Ronnie’s a big fan of the Let It Bleed track Country Honk, a rustic, fiddle-drenched take on Honky Tonk Women, which he’s promising to play with his solo band at his forthcoming shows.
He says: “I’m a big fan of Merle Haggard and Hank Williams along with Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters — a little mix of country and blues.”
This brings us to the raw and authentic cover of Berry’s Beautiful Delilah, which closes Foreign Tongues, done in the style of Mississippi Fred McDowell.
Just Mick and Keith on 12-string guitars with empathetic drumming from Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Chad Smith. As with so many musicians of Ronnie’s generation, Berry was a massive influence.
“I used to have a dance in my bedroom when I was a kid,” he recalls. “Then I’d learn the solos just by ear.
“I was so inspired by this mystery man from America. In those days, you never saw a picture of Chuck Berry, Howlin’ Wolf or Jimmy Reed.
“When you did, it was like, ‘Wow!’ Like aliens come to life. Then, when I grew up, I got to hang out with them. It was a dream come true.
“Chuck came up to me once when I was on stage with him and said, ‘Where did you get that riff from?’ And I said, ‘From you!’ He nearly fell over.”
Next, we move on to Ronnie’s solo tour, organised because a gap appeared after the Stones ruled out live dates after Keith announced he was stepping back from touring.
He’ll be performing material from his storied life in music that includes The Jeff Beck Group, The Faces, the Stones and solo work — much of it gathered up in his recent retrospective album Fearless.
Ronnie will sing Seven Days, “the song Bob Dylan gave me, one of the special moments in my musical career.”
He will be reuniting with drummer Andy Newmark and bassist Willie Weeks for the first time in 50 years — “they’re playing as great as ever”.
His jaunts will take to Lucca in Italy, London’s Kentish Town Forum, Zurich, Cologne, Paris, Amsterdam, Barcelona and Lisbon. It all starts at an open-air shindig on the Royal Sandringham Estate in Norfolk on August 23, headlined by blues maestro Eric Clapton.
Ronnie adds: “Eric said, ‘Hey Ron, get a band together and come and join me at Sandringham!’
“That’s what spurred me on. I thought, ‘Wow! While I’m at it, I may as well get my favourite girl singers like Imelda May and Chanel Haynes’.”
If Stones and solo work wasn’t enough, Ronnie gives me an update on the mouthwatering prospect of a new Faces album — a further reunion with Rod Stewart after last year’s Glastonbury outing for Stay With Me.
“Rod loves what’s going on with us,” he says. “He has so much respect for the Stones and he’s gone his own Hollywood merry way.
“But we’ve been putting our heads together and rejoining the dots and getting some Faces stuff together again.
“Next year, we’re going to get stuck in and finish these tracks. We’ve got a lot on the hob and we’ll stir them up.”
Lastly, Ronnie reflects on the enduring appeal of both the Rolling Stones and The Beatles more than 60 years after they began their journeys.
Having just released his Andrew Watt-produced solo album The Boys Of Dungeon Lane, Paul McCartney returns on Foreign Tongues song Covered In You, following his bass cameo on Hackney Diamonds track Bite My Head Off.
Ronnie says: “I was just out with Paul recently and he was going, ‘Ron, ain’t it wonderful that we can still give this and keep making people happy. That’s what we do!’
“I said, ‘It’s so great Paul’, and he gave me a hug. He’s such a lovely man.
“We have that spirit going around in the Stones as well. There’s a lot of love there and a lot of respect.”