Anybody who knows me knows I like the Rolling Stones…. and that I absolutely can’t stand the Beatles but that pretty much goes without saying since those two bands really don’t mesh well.  I was excited to see Ron Wood put out an autobiography since I have actually drifted towards him as my favorite guitarist.  Not to slight Keith, but he is pretty much in a downward spiral.  I also really like his artwork and almost broke down and bought one about 6 years ago when I was in Denver the night they were playing – as Ron mentions in his book he used to pair up his gallery showings with the concerts.  I didn’t feel like spending the money at the time ~$1100, but 2 years later that print was worth much much more than that…. someday I will have one.  The book was a pretty quick read and clearly English.  As with the Slash book, it really didn’t dwell much at all on the craft of his guitar skills as opposed to the wild life and numerous debts.  The early years were interesting since I really didn’t know that much about his past before joining the Stones.  It is amazing how many famous people he has met, rocked with, wife swapped and lost money too.  What was really nice is the book is full of his photographs and his artwork – he actually sketched all of his houses.

Here are some highlights that stuck with me:

• Birthdate 6/1/47  …or is that 1/6/47 for the English folk
• Actually had a secondary school (thinking that is high school) report card praising his art work
• Raised Catholic
• Distance runner in school
• Grew up listening to Bix Beiderbeck – Caught me off guard since I run the Bix7 in the Quad Cities every year in his honor
• His brother Art started a band that had Charlie Watts as the drummer and actually had Jagger sing with his as well
• He started out in a band called The Thunderbirds – due to name conflicts they became the Birds
• He was offered the job to play with the New Yardbirds – he turned it down and they hired Jimmy Page instead … yes, they became the Mighty Zep
• He formed a band with Rod Stewart called the Faces
• The Faces were famous for trashing hotel rooms – first band to be banned by Holiday Inn
• Charlie Watts has a fear of engines (yet still buys lots of fancy cars)
• Clapton wrote Layla for Pattie Boyd (George Harrison’s wife at the time)  – and the one Ron had an affair with as well .. and his wife was having an affair with Jimmy Page …. and on and on
• Ron played bass and guitar on Maggie May
• Ron originally named his first kid Boy … nurses wouldn’t let him so he changed it to Jesse James
• He is good friends with Ali
• He was very good friends with John Belushi – who tried to steal Ron’s wife
• Ron is actually in the 9 1/2 weeks movie
• He is good friends with Bob Dylan and has played with him many times
• Keith likes to use “45 Reason to….” which translates to Keith has his 45 pointed at you
• Neil Young named the New Barbarians (Ron’s all star band)
• Apparently had a freebase habit for 5 years (thanks to Bobby Keys)
• Richards had a 10 year heroin addiction … surviving that long because he only did qaulity stuff
• Charlie Watts gave Prince his first big break
• His father in law died right in front of him (after one last laugh)
• Bill Wyman used his Dad’s name (Bill Perk) when he first joined the stones (then changed it)
• Bill Wyman was afraid of flying and swore off flying when he quit the band – later decided to fly to see his brother in 2001 – was suppose to fly back on 9/11 and has never been on a plane since
• Slash’s kid London was conceived in Ron’s house… but already know that if you read this blog
• After Forty Licks Ron was still a million quid in debt
• Salman Rushdie came to his house for a sitting (art)
• Charlie beat cancer (after 40 licks)
• The concert organizer has to provide a snooker table for Keith and Ron (is that what my $300 dollar tickets are going towards)
• Keith put a gun to the head of the woman accused of administering the drug overdose to John Belushi because he didn’t like her (I think that same night is when Belushi died – he had called Ron before the OD, but Ron wasn’t there to get the phone)

All in all a pretty good read – but a little more guitar talk would have been appreciated – I already know about the Stone’s passion for the excessive so those pages were not that surprising…. “but you can’t always get what you want”