The Ronnie Wood interview          
  March 14  2004 - By Ben Todd, Showbusiness Editor

 

Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood is fighting an incurable lung condition which will kill him
if he doesn't stop smoking.

Doctors gave the 30-a-day rock legend the terrifying life-or-death ultimatum after traces of emphysema were found during a routine scan.
And they warned him that if he doesn't quit now he'll have full-blown emphysema within a year.

"It was two weeks ago, the doctors said that if I give up smoking now I can nip it in the bud - I still have powerful lungs.  But they say if I smoke for another year, I could get emphysema and - boom - my lungs could collapse."

Reformed wildman Ronnie, 56, poured out his heart in an astonishingly frank interview with the Sunday Mirror at his country estate in Co Kildare, Ireland. In an amazing insight into his life he told how:
- He is NOT back on the booze, although he prays every day as he fights his personal "monster".
- He should NOT be alive - the drugs and drink should have killed him at the same time as his close friend, The Who drummer Keith Moon, over 25 years ago.
- He was NEVER going to be kicked out of the Stones...Mick Jagger is a great help as he fights his demons.
- And his 19-year marriage to long-suffering wife Jo is NOT in trouble.

Incredibly Ronnie, whose partying is legendendary, was told by doctors that his liver is fine.
"When they did the scan on my lungs they also did my liver and kidneys and said they are in remarkably good shape for someone who has put what I've put through them. In the old days I would start with about eight pints of Guinness then go on to the vodka, a couple of bottles of that. Then go on to Sambuca, a bottle of that. And that was every day. I never blacked out though, I just used to be a steady drinker”.
"It started with The Faces. We used to dish out crates of champagne, Leibfraumilch and Matteus Rose to the audience instead of having a support band. It was a natural thing to be always drinking with The Faces. Then Keith (Richards), he was a great drinking partner of mine and Rod (Stewart) was too. Basically everybody I met was a drinker".

He adds: "I should have died around when Keith Moon did in 1978. Yeah, because me and Keith, we were hitting it really hard. I used to say to Keith, 'You're meant to take one of those tablets, not the whole bottle'. Keith would literally take a whole bottle of Valium. So it didn't surprise me when he died, when he OD'd.
I've been surrounded with people who have OD'd - Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, the trail just goes on and on. People like Peter Cook, Harry Nilsson. All these people I used to hang out with are dropping like flies."

Ronnie is sipping a coffee as he talks to me in the art studio at his home. The guitarist - who has amassed a £25million fortune in his 29 years with the Rolling Stones - has fought a long and hard battle against alcoholism. In 2000 he went into the Priory Clinic in London for treatment. Two years later he was in the Cottonwood Clinic in Arizona. Then this month there were reports Ronnie was back on the booze after he was spotted holding a glass of champagne at Kate Moss's 30th birthday party. He says: "I opened up the paper and it said, 'Ronnie Wood's back on the booze'. I'll tell you what it was - it was a toast to Kate, so I had a glass of champagne in my hand and then it was changed to 'guzzling'.
"That's where it gets blown out of all proportion. It was only one glass and I was carrying it around more than drinking it. I was only there because Kate is my old mate and I know what a lovely nutcase she is. But Kate is actually very good - if she sees me near a drink she'll take it away from me so I'm not tempted."

The "back on the booze" stories clearly hurt Ronnie, who insists he hasn't had a Guinness for two years - only the odd glass of champagne. "I'm only human, it’s progress, not perfection. To say I'm going nuts and falling off the wagon is horrible because it came just before we had a Rolling Stone's meeting last week. And it's not good for the boys to read that Ronnie's fallen off the wagon.
It's awful."

What about stories that Mick Jagger was furious? "Mick is very supportive," says Ronnie.
"He didn't threaten me at all. There were stories that I was going to be kicked out of the Stones. That's all bollocks. He just came as a friend and said, 'Ronnie, you can't just have one (drink) can you? Please. I love you. Help yourself'."

Ronnie is only too aware that every day for him is a struggle against alcoholism. And he still wears a medallion he was given at the Cottonwood Clinic. On the back of it are the words of the Serenity Prayer, which Ronnie knows off by heart and quietly recites to me..."God grant me this serenity to accept the things I cannot change. Courage to change the things I can. And the wisdom to know the difference."

Gathering his composure again, he explains: "It means if you do pick up a drink that's the first mistake because you're going to carry on and then end up drunk.
"I still wear my little medallion. I say my Serenity Prayer every day. But I still find it very hard to walk past an open bar. Every day is a challenge. I just don't like to be surrounded by the booze because it's too tempting."

What about the wing of your mansion that you famously turned into a pub called Yer Father's Yacht?
"I mean people said that I knocked my pub down," says Ronnie. "No I didn't...I just don't have any booze in there anymore."

Ronnie returns to his home in Ireland whenever he feels tempted.
"What I try and do is behave myself and occupy my mind with other things rather than going somewhere which triggers a weakness," he says. "I'm handling it pretty well. It's fighting the monster I call it. Alcoholism runs in my family. It's in my blood. My grandparents, my parents, my brothers, everybody in my family is an alcoholic. So I'm setting a new trend here and it's bloody hard work. Everybody says I would be dead if I'd carried on drinking."

Ronnie's wife Jo has stood by her husband - who has four children, Tyrone, 20, Leah, 25, Jesse, 27 and Jamie, 29 - throughout his drinking. And despite her threat to leave him in the past, Ronnie can never see them splitting up - although he says he wouldn't blame her if she did leave him.
"No, I think we're too tight together, although there have been threats...'If you don't stop I'm going to leave, I'm out of here."
As he pats their Great Dane - ironically called Guinness - I ask Ronnie where Jo is right now, and why he's in Ireland alone. "We are having a little space and it is great," he says. "Jo's gone to a health farm. She's enjoying herself, and I'm enjoying myself, having a word with myself.
It's her birthday on Monday. I am going back to London and I'm going to take her to a nice retreat. I am a romantic underneath so I'm not telling you where because I am not telling her. But it's a nice little country place."

Beside Ronnie, as well as the dog, is a packet of Marlboro Lights. So what about the doctors' orders?
"Health is your main thing," he says. "As long as you've got that you can do anything”.
I'd hate to be in a position where I had to have a transplant, or be told 'one more drink and you're dead'. That would be awful. Poor old George Best. And Eric Clapton - if he has one more drink he's dead. He's lost most of his stomach. That's why he has given up."

Now Ronnie has one more demon to conquer...smoking.
"This is the worst," he says, pointing at the packet of cigarettes. "I'm quitting on the 17th - St Patrick's Day. I've had 40 years of 30 cigarettes a day, so this is going to be the hardest one. I've been really lucky. If I can keep going like I am now and give up the cigs I stand a chance of having a good rest of my life."

 

 RON ON STONES

Keith is happily married but he's a filthy swine. We are still naughty schoolboys.
You'll never take that away from us.
The secret is never to let an old person move into your body.
On tour, I go out to the clubs with Mick and we have a flirt. It's great.
He's one of the best guys to go out with. We are dangerous if we are on our own. That's why we are always looked after by our partners.
We are followed everywhere because if we are let loose on our own it's like "watch out".
None of the other boys have their wives or girlfriends out on tour all the time. Jo's the only one who stays out all the time.
I've been very lucky. I've got a wonderful dedicated wife. But I still have a look, you know. You must never stop looking - and I have a flirt.

RON ON GUITAR

When I was drinking, my guitar playing was good but not concentrated. What I am doing now I am sober is much more focussed...I know what I am playing.
It was shock when I started playing sober - and it still is. But I don't think Keith likes it at all. He's lost his drinking partner.
I only went to his room three times on the last year-and-a-half tour. I used to be in his room every night, or he was in my room. But last time I would just go back and suffer in my room. I'd take my mind off it with Jo by renting a great movie.

RON ON MICK & ROD

It’s just a wind up, Rod does pay half the bill...sometimes. It does him physical injury if he does have to pay out. Rod's just got it built into him - he's careful about money. I think all lead vocalists are - Mick, Rod...  And by the way, lead vocalists have always got girlfriends about 3ft higher than them as well.

RON ON REHAB

Cottonwood is tough. It's a tough regime, You can walk out at any time. You don't want to because you want to get better, but I saw people walking out everyday.
But I thought I am not going to weaken like that because it is too easy to go back into my old ways. And while I have still got my health, why go there.