Журнал Andy Warhol's Interview Россия Interview № 5 | Page 172

Naomi Campbell had the privilege of seeing Ron-
nie Wood for the first time when she was 19 years old.
It was Lisa Robinson, a well-known music critic, who
invited the young model and her colleague Christy
Turlington to a Rolling Stones gig in New York.
“It just blew me away!” reminisces Naomi. Later,
they had a chance to meet in person, when Campbell
was living in Dublin. Their friendship has been grow-
ing stronger ever since.
“Ronnie is an extraordinary person; he is incred-
ibly talented and has a big heart. And, of course, he
is a veritable encyclopedia on all things musical.
Wood has inspired an innumerable number of musi-
cians”. On special assignment for Interview, Naomi
paid a visit to the famous musician at his London
house to talk about childhood heroes, art in his life
and rock-and-roll stars as an endangered species.
NAOMI: Tell me, do people often mistake you for
somebody else?
RONNIE: Well, a week ago, it happened at a rail
station. A woman came up to me and started yelling
“Mike Jagger! I am finally with Mike Jagger!” And
I said “Hello, madam. People often tell me that I re-
semble him, he’s got my lips and the same haircut!”
NAOMI (laughing): “Mike Jagger”, it’s hilarious!
When was the last time you met somebody who was
more famous than you are?
RONNIE: Well, it was quite recently. Remember,
I was hanging out with you and Leonardo DiCaprio.
NAOMI: Oh, my God. Things like that are hard
to forget! So, tell me now, how is your life here? You
have an art studio somewhere here, don’t you?
RONNIE: Yes, on the top floor in this building.
And in the basement, too. And I have a music studio
on every floor. Hold on a second, I have something to
show you. (Brings her a photograph.) Look, this is us
(The Rolling Stones.—Interview) on Jones Beach in
New York in 1969.
NAOMI: Oh, my God, what an amazing picture!
RONNIE: When we first went to New York, it
was freezing cold out there. If you look closer, you
will see our numb faces.
NAOMI: Everyone copied your haircut, don’t you
think? (Both laughing.)
RONNIE: Do you know what topped it all? Al-
ready then our names were printed in large letters on
the bills, and groups like Moby Grape or Grateful
Dead could take notice of us. And what were we?
Just a bunch of young brats re-making their own mu-
sic. So we were selling them back something which
we had taken for free, giving them the blues and
a song. And they stand there with their mouths open
and go like “Wow, these white guys can really do it!”
NAOMI: Before The Rolling Stones, you played
with Jeff Beck and Rod Stewart, didn’t you? I heard
that you are going to be reunited with Rod for the
induction into Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (in Cleve-
land.—Interview).
RONNIE: Yes, I played in The Faces with Stew-
art and now we are going to play in the Hall of Fame.
That would be great. It’s been twenty years since the
last time we got together. And we have known each
other all our lives—thirty-seven years or something.
The Faces have been around since I started playing
bass-guitar with the Stones. And with the Jeff Beck
group it was even before that, 69, 70...Wow, Jesus,
it was 42 years ago! Hard to believe.
The member of the legendary rock-band The
Rolling Stones tells Interview’s Editor-At-Large
about his relations with Damien Hirst and art.
W
by NAOMI CAMPBELL
last night and he told me a funny story. When his
band was offered to do TV for the first time, he said
“Can we start with the eight guys reading a new-
spaper in the workingmen’s club? If we can im-
press them, then take it on TV”. And that’s the right
approach.
NAOMI: How many people did you play for at
your first gig?
RONNIE: Our girlfriends and a dozen other peo-
ple. Then you have friends and friends of friends
starting to come and you build up your own audi-
ence. And every new gig you make your mistakes and
learn from them. And those young kids face a lot of
responsibility today. You cannot fail in front of a mil-
lion people, so a lot of young kids who come away
from such a show surely start having thoughts about
committing suicide.
NAOMI: You have mentioned so many great art-
ists that you have been fortunate enough to play
with. Who was the one that stuck out most?
RONNIE: Again, Bob Dylan is always an experi-
ence, I love playing with him because you never
know what is coming next. He is a fellow Gemini.
NAOMI: Me too!
RONNIE: Well, we love the unpredictability,
don’t we? And we always go in the deep end?
NAOMI: It’s all or nothing.
RONNIE: Yeah.
NAOMI: Back in 1985, you played at Live Aid
with Bob Dylan. Is it true that one of Dylan’s guitar
strings broke and you had to give him your guitar?
RONNIE: Yeah, it was so funny. One time, Dylan
popped into my place and stayed for a couple of
weeks. And I rang up Keith Richards and said: “Hey,
guess, who is at my house? It’s Bob Dylan’s down
there and we are playing!” And Keith said: “If I come
there and he is not there, I’m gonna stab you with
a knife”. And we played more or less every song Bob
had written. Later, when we were going up the steps
to play at Live Aid, Bob says: “Hey, how about sing-
ing Sooner or Later?” I was in a state of shock be-
cause we had rehearsed everything but that particu-
lar song! And then he came up with another song and
we had not rehearsed that one either! It was hilari-
ous. And when Bob broke his string, I was happy to
lend him my guitar because he was playing stuff
I didn’t know anyway. And I look behind the cur-
tains for a guitar, and somebody gave me a guitar
with one string on it!
NAOMI: And did you play it?
RONNIE: Of course, I did. I got out my slide and
I just bent...
NAOMI: As I can see, you love jamming with
other musicians. And you had a club built in Miami
called Woody’s on the Beach, seemingly only so that
you could throw jam sessions.
RONNIE: That’s right. Ray Charles and Bo Did-
dley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Fats Domino, many great
people played there. But the neighborhood was pret-
ty rough, when we moved in there were crack dealers
in the building.
NAOMI: Was it in the 80s?
RONNIE: Yeah, around that time. It was really
dangerous, like in Scarface. Some crooks came to me,
they wanted to use my name to build a casino. You
know, as I look back at my life now, everything I have
done in music, art, business, I realize that we were
ever so eager to plunge headlong into something,
throwing caution to the wind, even though I wasn’t
always surrounded by people I could rely upon.
NAOMI: At least, you have always had the Stones
to rely upon. Sometimes you get yourself involved
into something because of the bad people, because
you don’t see it clearly. And then years later, you ask
yourself “How on Earth could that happen? I don’t
remember a thing!”
RONNIE: Yes, and those guys just come up with
some papers and say “Sign here!” and you say
p. 46
NAOMI: It means that you got inducted into the
Hall of Fame twice. There are very few rock starts
who have had this honor more than once, there is re-
ally nobody I can think of. Who was your musical
hero when you were young?
RONNIE: Well, my first guitar influence was Big
Bill Broonzy, a great guitar player. He and a lot of
other American blues players. My brother turned me
on to Howlin’ Wolf and then it was Jimmy Reed and
Muddy Waters, his first single with a little brown bird
on the sleeve, you know, that was fantastic.
NAOMI: Did you ever play with any of those
people you have just mentioned?
RONNIE: Yeah, well, the ones that did not die
before I met them. When you think of it, I have
played with the whole lot of them. For instance, last
year there was a one-off in Chicago, all the guitar
players got together. I played with Slash there. I just
had a concert with Carlos Santana in Mexico.
NAOMI: Was it the first time you met him?
RONNIE: Of course, not. In the late 70s, we
played Madison Square Garden ten nights straight
and every night we had a new guitar-playing guest
appearance. We had Eric Clapton, Carlos Santana.
NAOMI: I am a big Prince fan and can’t help ask-
ing about your joint appearance in 1986. You got on
stage with Prince and Sting at Wembley Arena when
they did the Stones’ Miss You. How was that?
RONNIE: Well, we went out to play a little club
afterwards. Prince likes doing little clubs. And the
second time I played with him, he was billed with
that incredible singer. So I was listening to her and
then I go: “Hey, that sounds like Mavis Staples?”
And Prince says: “It is!” She was a fantastic singer.
NAOMI: Do you find Prince very shy?
RONNIE: Yeah and he is usually buried among
all the security people, it is hard to get into him and
tell him “Come on, talk to me!”
NAOMI: And when he gets on stage...
RONNIE: That’s where he blossoms. I agree. He
is like this confident person on stage, bossy: “I wanna
see the lights! I wanna hear this speaker!” He knows
exactly what he wants. And the rest of the time he
just prefers to hide in his shell.
NAOMI: Are there any songs that you wish you
had written?
RONNIE: I very much like Bob Dylan’s songs on
the New Morning album. Actually, there are lots of
great songs.
NAOMI: Well, the Stones have their fair share of
those, don’t they?
RONNIE: If art is a solo undertaking, music is
a team sport. I like to be part of the band. I love it
when we get together and the big wheel slowly gets
into motion. It’s all about the interplay between
Charlie, Keith and Mick and me. We give it all to the
audience and ask the audience for the same. And,
you know, the feedback between the audience and
yourself, that exchange of energy as you play, the
feeling of getting high is absolutely unparalleled. You
don’t need to take anything, you get high naturally!
But, you know, the Stones were not always that dis-
ciplined. There were times when we were hours late,
when we were actually about to go on stage and
Keith was still in bed. And nobody would want to
go and wake him up, so I had to do it. I must say
that sleepy Keith Richards was really furious. And
here I was, saying in a sweet tone “Come on, Keith,
we’re on!” (Laughing.)
NAOMI: The Rolling Stones have always played
live music. What do you think of those young artists
who use playbacks?
RONNIE: I tried to understand that, to see
something good in it. But I think those kids end up in
an unenviable position. Just imagine: you are invited
to play on a TV show and your first gig is like in front
of eight million people. It’s not a worthy start. I was
talking to Kelly Jones from Stereophonics about it
RONNIE
WOOD
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