{"id":6699,"date":"2025-11-14T09:33:49","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T09:33:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/ronnie-wood-interviewed-i-came-in-by-osmosis-152167\/"},"modified":"2025-11-14T09:33:49","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T09:33:49","slug":"ronnie-wood-interviewed-i-came-in-by-osmosis-152167","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/ronnie-wood-interviewed-i-came-in-by-osmosis-152167\/","title":{"rendered":"Ronnie Wood interviewed: \u201cI came in by osmosis\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
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UNCUT: Hi Ronnie! Black And Blue is about to be reissued, so your official Stones debut lives again\u2026
<\/strong>RONNIE WOOD: Yeah, although don’t forget this was not my guitar’s first appearance on a record with the Stones, because of [the acoustic 12-string part on] “It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll”, which Keith forgot to wipe!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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UNCUT: Hi Ronnie! Black And Blue is about to be reissued, so your official Stones debut lives again\u2026
<\/strong>RONNIE WOOD: Yeah, although don\u2019t forget this was not my guitar\u2019s first appearance on a record with the Stones, because of [the acoustic 12-string part on] \u201cIt\u2019s Only Rock \u2018n\u2019 Roll\u201d, which Keith forgot to wipe!<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the overriding feeling when you think back on Black And Blue?
<\/strong>I\u2019ve just realised there\u2019s only eight songs on the album, but they\u2019re eight crackers, aren\u2019t they? One of my favourites was \u201cHey Negrita\u201d, the first song that I wrapped in the studio and said, \u2018Right, we\u2019re going to play this.\u2019 And Charlie said, \u2018We\u2019ve only known him five minutes and he\u2019s bossing us around already.\u2019 That was my classic introduction to the boys in the studio. I think I got an \u2018inspiration by\u2019 [credit] or something. Coming in the back door the hard way, that was. The only thing I didn\u2019t write were the words. But I thought, \u2018Yes, it is possible to get among the writing credits,\u2019 and I\u2019ve had a lot more over the years.<\/p>\n

The backdrop to the album was 1975\u2019s Tour Of The Americas, for which you got the call as touring guitarist.<\/strong>
Yeah. There were so many songs going round in my head, getting ready for the first night \u2013 June 1, my [28th] birthday, in Baton Rouge. And before that, we did \u201cBrown Sugar\u201d on the flatbed truck down Fifth Avenue in New York. That was a great launch. For the rehearsals, we did a huge amount of work on Andy Warhol\u2019s estate [Eothen] in Montauk, on Long Island. Joining the band, I had to take a deep breath and say, \u2018Here we go.\u2019 You\u2019d either got it or you hadn\u2019t. From Beggars Banquet <\/em>onwards, I loved all those albums of theirs. When I actually joined, I thought, \u2018I\u2019m finally home now.\u2019 I think I had about 300 songs that I had to learn rapidly. Keith kept me going. We were playing and playing, we hardly slept, and it was certainly a crash course.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s your memory of how you came to be on the record?
<\/strong>They were halfway through it [from sessions in Rotterdam] when I was called over [to Musicland Studios in Munich]. So they already had Harvey Mandel and Wayne Perkins. Harvey was on \u201cHot Stuff\u201d, and \u201cHand Of Fate\u201d was Wayne. Lovely players. I\u2019ve spent 50 years trying to do a tribute to them when we play the songs live. And that\u2019s always a good learning curve for me, as with Mick Taylor and Brian Jones originally \u2013 just to pay tribute to the input that those guitar players had. And to keep their legend going, while I put my own stamp on it.<\/p>\n

There must have been a huge difference between being in the Stones\u2019 inner circle and actually being in the band\u2026
<\/strong>Yeah, [this was the beginning] of being a part of the outfit, the circus. And I remember Keith\u2019s, \u2018I\u2019ve got a great idea \u2013 let\u2019s not tell anyone you\u2019re in the band.\u2019 Great, thanks, Keith! I came in by osmosis. There was never actually an announcement, so I was still the new boy 20 years later.<\/p>\n

Did it feel during these sessions that you were in competition with the other players for the permanent gig?
<\/strong>I just had the Stones in my sights. Like, \u2018Right, this is where I\u2019m meant to be. This is all going according to plan.\u2019 I didn\u2019t see anybody else. My driving force when I first came into the fold was Billy Preston. He was inspirational, with his poignant piano and electric piano playing, and his singing. We bounced off each other so well, as on \u201cCrazy Mama\u201d, the solo duet we did. That\u2019s one of my favourites.<\/p>\n

How about some of the other tracks?
<\/strong>\u201cFool To Cry\u201d, I was just singing that to my little girls. It was so sweet. And they were dancing to \u201cHey Negrita\u201d and \u201cCherry Oh Baby\u201d. I think the original was Eric Donaldson, he was wonderful. I mean, there was such a goldmine of great artists from Jamaica, like Max Romeo and Jimmy Cliff and all the lovely people, The Heptones\u2026 fantastic.<\/p>\n

Black And Blue does feel like an album that shows the Stones\u2019 versatility, not to mention durability.
<\/strong>Yeah, it was the predecessor of all of that Path\u00e9 Marconi music in Paris, starting with the Some Girls album, fantastic. And Tattoo You and all of those. What else is in there? Emotional Rescue. There\u2019s a whole string of quite quickfire albums, maybe a couple years between each.<\/p>\n

How was the European tour that followed the album?
<\/strong>We had Mont Blanc superimposed in the background on the tour posters. We could have actually gone up it, because we all had the energy. We needed something to make a statement that we were ready to run in and grab \u2019em on that tour. It was still very much a learning curve for me to settle in with these songs I knew in my head, but I\u2019d never actually played them until a couple of years before.<\/p>\n

And of course the photo session for the album, by the Japanese-American fashion photographer Hiro, produced some classic images.<\/strong>
Oh yeah, that was Sanibel Island in Florida. We were all there on the beach, and if you open the cover you see it got to nightfall in the session, and they had these little torches that we made signals and shapes with. The photographer wanted me to paint with light, which was pretty good. We were all shoved around on the beach, and Charlie was in a suit, normal beachware for him! Every request made of him that day, he wasn\u2019t amused. \u201cOh, we\u2019re going on a beach, are we? OK. Dust my shoes!\u201d<\/p>\n

Black And Blue is reissued across multiple formats, including a 5-LP + Blu-ray Super Deluxe Edition, by Universal Music on November 14<\/em><\/p>\n

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