Ronnie Wood Quotes

We’re great, Jo and me. We’re pals, and I guess sex has a lot to do with it. She’s also brilliant at clearing a room. So protective, so devoted. I can’t believe how much she loves me.

I heard this massive thud. I spun around, and there Keith was, on the ground. He’d cut his gums up on impact, he was very bloody, and clutching his head. I think it was a kind of wake-up call for him.

It’s taken folk a while to come around, hasn’t it? Even the boys in the band weren’t too sure about the whole art thing. They just wanted me to concentrate on the music. But they respect it now.

The last show we played, I was straight as a die. It did feel weird not to be hiding behind alcohol or dope, but being focused was… good.

Having loved the Stones all the time I was growing up, I wasn’t about to see them go and split up. It got very close to it in the 80s, when Mick thought that Keith hated him and vice versa.

I’m terrible with money, absolutely awful. I’m always losing it.

I love to get into a landscape and paint my horses.

They say you can smoke 400 cigs a day and drink 20 cups of coffee, but you can’t have a line or a drink again.

I always want to rock.

I love to go to Ireland just to relax.

In my family, they were all big boozers.

When I first saw Jo, I said boom, that was it, because I’m a one-woman man.

When I’m left on my own I’m my own worst enemy.

I have been rich, and I have been broke. Some of it is my fault for choosing bad management and making bad investments. But that is life – we all take risks.

My dad lived till he was 78, my mum was in her 80s, and I’ve got two uncles who are in their 90s now.

We do things on an exchange basis in the music business – it keeps the wheels turning. That’s how I can get people like Slash, Flea and Kris Kristofferson on my album. Collaboration should be done through trades rather than charging each other a fortune.

My real self is probably more creative and more frightening than any sort of drink or drug-induced state.

The blues echoes right through into soul, R&B and hip hop. It’s part of the make-up of modern music. You can’t turn your back on the blues.

It’s an awful world out there. You’ve got to make people happy.

Songs are out there – they’re waiting to be grabbed. I start with a phrase, musical and lyrical, words like ‘I don’t think so’ and a nice riff. It rolls from there.

I like it when journalists are nice to me, and it’s happening more and more.

I had a fiery affair with George Harrison’s wife, Pattie Boyd.

People often get the wrong impression of Mick. The clever businessman is just one side of Mick. The other side is the same as the rest of us, a true rocker!

I go off into Dublin and two days later I’m spotted walking by the Liffey with a whole bunch of new friends.

I think people are ‘just creative,’ and this can be expressed in a number of ways. Bob Dylan and David Bowie create both music and art.

I tried to emulate my favourite guitar players, the old bluesmen like Blind Willie McTell and Big Bill Broonzy. I used to sit by the record player and copy Chuck Berry and the Beatles. You can never copy someone completely, so you end up developing your own style.

Nowadays you can record on your laptop with Pro Tools, which I do quite often.

I find it hard to get old and hard to say, ‘No.’

You don’t make solo albums to have hits.

I still feel 29. Maybe I should act my age more, but I just can’t.

Amazing, the poisons I used to put in my body. I used to love it.

I used to worry, ‘I’ve lost my family.’ They hated me for a while, but they’re very resilient.

When I get intimate with my paintings, it’s a real good spiritual thing to get off my chest. Same as playing the instruments is a great release.