Ronnie Wood, musician

·51 min·3 clips

Ronnie Wood was sitting on a sofa between Mick Jagger and Mick Taylor when Taylor leaned over and said 'I'm leaving the band' — and Jagger immediately turned to Wood and asked if he'd join.

Ronnie Wood first shows up as an artist. Lauren Laverne places him among guitars, songwriting, band diplomacy, and the family fact of being the youngest brother. Art school mattered. At Ealing College of Art, he followed his brothers and remembers his parents being proud of the path their sons had taken. His winning picture is the vivid bit. He describes looking out from a horror-film screen at the crowd, catching their movements and startled reactions. Laverne gets the idea straight away. Her quick praise gives the memory room before the conversation eases back into chronology. Then Richmond in 1964 arrives. Wood remembers a tent rocking like an elephant and finding the Rolling Stones inside. He knew right then. Even with his age half-remembered as fifteen or sixteen, the moment lands. The music seals it. He recalls Bye Bye Johnny, the audience singing along, and the room feeling as if it would not stop moving. Laverne turns to the fourth disc. Wood chooses Muddy Waters and asks listeners to hear it through his Jeff Beck Group years. Blues is the bridge here. He connects that attacking sound with playing bass, Led Zeppelin forming nearby, and a shared musical feel. The excerpt ends away from Wood, with a BBC trail for Mary Greenwell and a Bruce Springsteen series on BBC Radio 4.

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