(upbeat rock music)
- [Journalist] It's a matter of seconds now
and they'll be on stage.
And just listen to that audience.
(audience cheering)
- [Announcer] Ladies and gentlemen,
will you please welcome the Rolling Stones!
(audience cheering)
- [Ronnie] I was lured just into the atmosphere
and that was it,
it changed my life.
(audience cheering)
- [Narrator] The Rolling Stones exploded into the '60s,
transforming everything they touched.
♪ I can't get no satisfaction ♪
Including a teenage boy called Ronnie Wood.
- I was so taken back with the movement
and the music which was so infectious.
And the girls were incredible.
- [Narrator] He watched them become
the greatest rock and roll band in the world.
- I was standing before my future.
Yeah, I was standing before what I wanted to do.
(audience cheering)
This looks like a good job.
This is the greatest job you could possibly have.
And I thought one day I'll be in that band.
- [Narrator] This is a story about destiny.
About how one moment set Ronnie Wood on a path
that would change not only his life,
but those of the band that started it all.
- Ronnie has always, or so he tells me,
knew that he was gonna be in the Rolling Stones.
(Keith laughs)
- [Announcer] And on guitar, Ronnie Wood!
(audience cheering)
- Right from the get-go,
right from, "Ladies and gentlemen,
the greatest rock and roll band in the world,
the Rolling Stones!"
(audience cheering)
(ethereal music)
(birds chirping)
- [Narrator] Deep in leafy Richmond,
on a bend in the River Thames,
stands a house that is the center of the London rock scene.
It's called The Wick
and it belongs to Mr Ronnie Wood,
lead guitarist of the Faces.
- [Keith] We were all well aware of Ronnie Wood.
- [Mick J] He lived in a very nice house in Richmond
with a beautiful view.
- A penny went further in those days.
I went in and I saw these beautiful fireplaces
and beautiful oval rooms,
and I went beyond my means to get it of course.
I sort of, I didn't have the money for it at all,
and I just bluffed my way in and suddenly I got The Wick.
- [Rod] You know, he's never been one
to look at the financial side.
Ronnie is Ronnie, he's carefree.
A proper old Bohemian he is.
(audience cheering) (mellow rock music)
- [Glyn] He's a really original guitar player.
Mick and Keith were big fans of the Faces.
In fact, I remember taking Mick to see the Faces play.
It was the Rainbow on the North Circular.
I remember him wanging on in the car on the way back
about how marvelous they were.
- Ronnie and I were very tight in the early '70s.
We did a couple of albums with Ronnie.
Living at his house free of charge.
Very nice. Thanks, Ron.
- [Narrator] Keith had moved in
after his own house, Redlands, burned down,
only confirming The Wick as the place to be.
(dog barking) (mellow rock music)
- And everyone that came round,
would be in the snooker room with me,
that's where the conversation was,
that's where plans were made,
that's where jokes were told,
that's where stories were told.
- [Rod] It was like one big pub
that anybody could go to any time.
It did get a little out of hand sometimes.
There was just too many people staying overnight,
sleeping on the floor.
But some great music was made in that studio.
- [Narrator] One of the first things Ronnie does
when he buys The Wick,
is to turn the basement into a recording studio.
- Sound recording? - Yeah.
(indistinct)
- When I was making my first album,
there were so many musicians coming and going.
Paul had just come down the stairs with Linda,
and suddenly George is there
and Gregg Allman coming out of the shadows.
Ahhh! You name it.
There's Keith Moon and Ringo on the drums,
and there would be Jim Capaldi.
All these different drummers,
all queuing up, all different,
waiting for a chance to play on the next song.
So yeah, it was like all this gathering
of different musicians,
and it was a real buzz in the air.
- [Narrator] Even Mick likes to drop by,
usually finding Ronnie in the studio.
- [Mick J] He was making some sort of solo record.
And I used to go in there and play guitar and do demos.
- He'd always have a song, Mick.
And we started playing around.
♪ If I should stick my pen in my heart. ♪
You know, we were writing the verses and stuff,
but I was writing, "I Can Feel the Fire",
and I said will you sing on this with me, Mick.
You know, I've already got the track.
He was going, "Yeah, come on.".
♪ I can feel the fire, aah, burning, burning ♪
Anyway, so we had that going,
and in between songs,
we'd work on this other song, "It's Only Rock and Roll".
- [Kenney] Once he built the studio I gave him a drum kit,
and it's the worst thing I ever did.
- We'd worn out Andy Newmark, the drummer.
He'd gone to sleep upstairs,
and we wanted to cut the track.
So I said I know, Kenney Jones will do it.
So I rang up Kenney.
- [Kenney] He always called up
when I'd got one foot in the bed.
- [Ronnie] You know, Mick's here, David.
Blah, blah, blah.
And he said, "I'll be right there".
- [Kenney] And of course I've had a drink,
so I had to go really carefully,
avoiding all the police.
- [Ronnie] So, about an hour later he arrives.
- [Kenney] So, we were playing away at this,
by this time it's about three in the morning,
and we were working on this song,
just jamming away.
- [Ronnie] So it was Willie Weeks on bass,
Kenney on drums.
And then David Bowie saying, "It's only rock and roll".
You know, singing the background vocals.
♪ If I could win ♪
♪ If I could sing ♪
♪ A love song so divine ♪
♪ Would it be enough for your cheating heart ♪
♪ If I broke down and cried ♪ - [Narrator] It's just a demo,
but when Mick tries to re-record "It's Only Rock and Roll"
with the Stones,
they can't recreate the magic of The Wick,
so the band decide to keep the original tracks.
- [Ronnie] Mick had taken it over to Island Studios
and was starting to mix it.
And he said I've got Keith's down to put his parts on.
And Keith said, "Yes, I've taken the precaution
of wiping all your guitar parts."
And I said, "Oh, thanks a lot, Keith."
I said, "But you've missed one,
you've left my 12th string on there."
And he went, "Ah!"
♪ I said I know it's only rock 'n' roll but I like it ♪
♪ I know it's only rock 'n' roll but I like it, like it ♪
- [Narrator] It's Ronnie's first appearance
on a Stones recording,
but he quickly realizes,
he isn't about to get a Jagger/Wood writing credit.
- [Ronnie] Mick said, "I tell you what,
you keep 'I Can Feel the Fire'."
Which, you know, it skyrocketed into oblivion
in Keith's words.
"And I'll keep, 'It's Only Rock and Roll'."
You know, and I went, "Okay."
- [Narrator] The single eventually reaches the Top 10
in the UK.
But Ronnie has his eyes on a bigger prize.
- I still had my sights on the Stones,
and stepping stones towards the Stones.
- [Narrator] But in the meantime,
there's plenty of fun to be had
out on the road with the Faces.
(upbeat rock music)
- [Rod] We were a party band 'cause we were all drinking,
so we were always in a bloody good mood all the time.
So, it was sometimes too much of a good mood.
(upbeat rock music)
- [Narrator] The Faces had caught the tail wind
of that first British invasion.
And they were on a world tour
to a rapturous reception.
- [Rod] The crowd had never seen anything like this,
especially me and Woody coming out
in our crushed velvet trousers,
big crosses, bouffant hair, and a little bit of make-up.
What is all this?
- [Bonnie] You know, the hairstyles of the Faces alone
just slayed me,
I couldn't separate the look and the vibe
from how raw and sexy their music was.
They turned me on.
- [Kenney] The whole audience were full of color,
it was like a party.
It's like you're one of the audience
while you're playing to them.
♪ In the morning ♪
♪ Don't say you love me ♪
- [Rod] There's people sitting up on the stage with us
and we never used to think anything of it.
- Well, I fell in the audience on the last American tour.
It seemed to go down alright.
Mind you I always have a few before I go on.
Number one is learn how to laugh at yourself
because if you don't know how to do that,
you are in schtuck, mate.
- [Kenney] It was all about having fun in the Faces
because we were so enjoying each other's company
and each other's playing.
On one of the early tours of the Faces,
we all got given Super 8 cameras.
- [Ronnie] We used to film each other all the time.
- [Kenney] We were like putting on a show really,
for each other.
♪ I guess you're a mean old Jezebel ♪
♪ Lets go up stairs and read my Tarot cards ♪
- Yeah, incredible, baby!
- [Newsreader] The Faces,
Rod Stewart, lead singer in his Marcos.
Ron Wood, lead guitar, with their ladies.
- [Rod] I thought if I save up,
buy myself a sports car,
I'll be able to get a nice girlfriend
and then it will all be over,
'cause it won't last long.
We didn't know where music or rock and roll was gonna go.
(indistinct chatter)
- [Narrator] The Rolling Stones also faced
an uncertain future.
Off the road for well over a year
and strung out on drugs,
a fog hangs over the band.
- [Journalist] What do you see as the future now?
- [Mick J] I don't know really.
I've no idea.
I don't know what to do
until it becomes it.
Really, I just don't...
I can't even think about what I'm doing tomorrow.
And I know I've got to go to London,
but that's the extent
of my being able to look into the future.
(mellow rock music)
♪ Angie ♪
♪ When will those clouds all disappear ♪
- [Narrator] By now,
Ronnie is firmly part of the Stones social scene.
And fate provides him with a ringside seat
for a defining moment in the band's history.
- We're sitting on this sofa.
In the middle,
Mick Jagger was here
and Mick Taylor was here.
♪ But you can't say we're satisfied ♪
- [Narrator] 25-year-old guitar virtuoso, Mick Taylor,
had replaced founding member, Brian Jones, in 1969.
- And I'll never forget it.
We were all having a chat and a drink,
and then at one point Taylor leans over to Jagger and says,
"I'm leaving the band. I'm leaving right now."
- [Narrator] To outsiders it seemed like a strange moment
to quit.
The band had just had one of the greatest runs
in rock history,
releasing "Let It Bleed",
"Sticky Fingers",
and "Exile on Main St".
But behind the scenes,
Mick Taylor is struggling with heroin addiction.
And life as a Rolling Stone is starting to wear thin.
- [Journalist] Personally, do you find
that the Stones give all the musical outlets
you would like to have?
- Oh, no, no.
There's lots of other things I'd like to do
with other people,
and I will do when I get the opportunity.
It is frustrating on an individual level,
but I think it is for everybody
who's a part of a group.
- [Narrator] After years of relentless touring and recording
cracks are starting to appear.
The Stones are now tax exiles.
And on top of that,
they're banned from touring in Japan, Australia,
and North America.
In France there's even a warrant out for Keith's arrest.
(Journalist speaking in French)
(Mick Jagger speaking in French)
♪ Angie ♪
♪ But ain't it time we said goodbye ♪
- We were all still roaming around the world,
trying to find which bit that we liked.
We were strictly really exiles for real now,
you know what I mean.
So, it was very difficult to communicate with each other.
♪ Angie ♪
- (chuckles) My god!
I think we were...
Everyone was taking far too many drugs then.
Like, the band should have gone into fucking rehab
like for a year.
All of 'em, including me.
♪ Angie ♪
♪ They can't say we never tried ♪
But you know,
you take the rough with the smooth.
- [Narrator] Back at the party,
the impact of Mick Taylor quitting hits home.
- And Mick said, "I think he was serious."
And I said, "I think he was too."
And he said, "What am I gonna do?"
I said, "I don't know, Mick, what do you reckon?"
And he said, "Would you join?"
And I went, "I thought you'd never ask."
You know, and it was so funny.
He said, "But you're already in a band, aren't you?"
- It was a big choice for Ronnie
'cause Ronnie was in several bands,
Ronnie's been in quite a few bands.
- I said, "Well, I don't want to split the Faces up."
I said, "But look,
if you get desperate call me up."
(upbeat rock music)
- [Glyn] The day before we started "Black and Blue",
Mick Taylor decided to leave the band.
So we all met at Heathrow to go to Germany
to make the record,
to start the record.
While we was there,
they auditioned all kinds of guitar players.
It actually drove me nuts.
I'd have to...
I'd be sitting there and waiting to get on with it
and they'd be auditioning some bloody guitar player
from Timbuktu.
I don't know.
- [Narrator] The music press lights up with speculation
over who might become the next Rolling Stone.
- [Journalist] Is it a problem for you?
(Mick Jagger speaking in French)
- [Keith] Jeff Beck was checked in there
and Steve Marriott was a contender as well.
- [Andy] They said, "Who could be in the Stones?"
And I know I was...
There was six of us.
Ry Cooder was one,
Mick who played with David Bowie was put up,
me, I was at least recognized as being maybe someone
who could be in that band.
- [Joe] Well, for a while there,
I was hoping that the phone would ring
and it would be the Stones.
I think all of us guitar players did.
Waddy Wachtel did for sure.
- [Narrator] One man down,
the band decide to use the auditions
to fill in the missing parts on the album.
- [Mick J] First of all we tried people out.
Little bit long process.
I want to talk about all these other people that are mad.
We had a proper organized kind of try to find people,
and they appear on the album.
- [Narrator] With a huge American tour on the horizon
and the auditions a bust,
Mick decides to call in a favor.
- I was on my death bed in L.A.
I was really ill.
I couldn't move.
And the phone rings and it's Mick.
And he said, "Ronnie, I'm desperate, I need you."
And I was going, "Alright."
- [Narrator] Ronnie lands in Munich
and heads straight to Musicland Studios.
The foyer is still packed with other guitarists.
- They said, "Okay, you're in the studio at 2 o'clock."
You know, whatever.
So anyway, I just walked in,
and I said, "Hey guys, I've got this song."
(mellow rock music)
And I said, "It goes like this."
(Ronnie vocalizing)
And Charlie said, "He's only been here five minutes
and he's bossing us around."
Everybody started to join in, right.
(mellow rock music)
- [Mick J] I had a very good rapport with Ronnie
when I was just jamming with him.
- [Ronnie] Mick started shouting, "Whoo!", singing,
and he put some words to it.
(Mick singing)
- [Keith] And I'm thinking,
"Man, this is the guy,
and I've already been working with him, yeah,
we're already, you know, simpatico."
(mellow rock music)
- I mean we'd all played together a lot before,
we knew each other,
so that made it quite easy in a way to make that choice.
- [Narrator] After months of trying out different guitarists
Ronnie fits right in.
- I mean there's not a lot of him,
you can just fit him in anywhere.
(Keith laughs)
It is London
and we've kind of all known...
I knew him probably better
because I'd been recording with him,
which made the thing even more obvious.
- [Narrator] Eventually released on "Black and Blue",
the writing credits of "Hey Negrita"
goes to Jagger/Richards as usual,
but this time it also says inspired by Ron Wood.
- Somebody else was gonna be flying in.
And I said, "Well, cancel them. What's the point?"
And they said, "Yeah, there's no point.
It looks like we've found what we're looking for."
- [Narrator] And that is that.
Ronnie's fate is finally sealed.
- [Andy] In a moment of peril,
they didn't really want a preening virtuoso in the band.
- Eric said, "I could have had that job."
I said, "Eric, but you've got to live with them."
- Tune out room session. - Ow.
(all laugh)
- [Crew] Slate 1. Take 3.
- Ow! Always used to do that.
(mellow rock music)
I knew what I had to do, even then.
I knew somebody had to kick them up the arse.
And sure enough.
- [Keith] Yeah, Ron's my great mate.
And he's a funny fucker.
(Keith laughs)
(mellow rock music)
- I've got to go on stage in a minute.
If I don't got it up,
they'll never know it's me then.
- [Dan] I mean Ronnie is one of the greatest,
naturally funny people alive.
And, you know, don't take anyone too seriously,
don't take anything too seriously.
- [Chrissie] Ronnie's kind of a mischief-maker.
You can just tell.
Yeah, you know you're gonna have a good time
when Ronnie walks in the room.
- [Andy] He just had that right kind
of London atmosphere about him.
He was the perfect fit for the Stones, Ronnie Wood.
- He was a very different player to Mick Taylor
who was this rather,
a brilliant sort of meticulous blues player.
And Ronnie was more of a good time English band, rock on.
- [Joe] It's the energy you bring that makes the difference.
Anybody can play it like the record,
but when you go on stage
and you bring it.
And the band goes, "Yeah!" because of what you brought,
that's what Ronnie did.
(upbeat rock music)
- [Narrator] Ronnie is announced as the new guitarist
at a press event in Manhattan,
the launch of the Rolling Stones Tour of the Americas.
But unseen by the gathered journalists,
the band set up their equipment
on the back of the flatbed truck outside.
They're about to take the Stones circus
to the streets of New York City.
- [Reporter] It was hard to believe,
but there they were right smack
in the middle of Lower 5th Avenue.
- [Ronnie] You're suddenly out on the street
and you're playing live music.
It was crazy.
We had all the press gathered in a restaurant
and they thought the Stones were going in,
and so we just drove by playing "Brown Sugar"
and they were all there running out of the restaurant
with their pads.
(upbeat rock music)
- [Mick J] It was more of a fun thing I thought.
Not so dangerous.
The feeling was that you were having a good time.
It was a bit of a lark.
And I think it was very much the Ronnie thing.
Every time you change a member of the band,
it's gonna take on another characteristic,
and Ronnie was certainly a sense of fun.
He was more of a showman
and I think more of a humorist,
and it really helped.
- [Charlie] Well, he came from the Faces
which used to jump about,
and just very funny,
'cause that's what he's like.
- [Keith] And so in '75,
what he brought was a whole new sense of purpose,
and we felt a coherence as a band again.
- [Jon] I think if you had five Mick and Keiths,
it could have been overload,
You needed that Ying and Yang.
And so for me that's the magic of a band,
is the chemistry.
- [Narrator] Finally back in their groove,
the Stones set out on a monster 46 show trek
across the United States.
- [Ronnie] I mean it's crazy.
We'd have Annie Leibovitz following us everywhere
and there'd be journalists and groupies
and madness going on.
All these different cultures.
It's just a gathering of people,
so many different personalities.
(mellow rock music)
- [Narrator] Ronnie had spent years touring the US
with the Faces,
but the sheer scale of a Stones tour
is something to behold.
- It was the first time I'd met a band
with any kind of organization.
We would get newsletters,
we'd know what we were doing,
when we were doing it
and we'd know what we were gonna be playing,
all the keys of the songs.
And all this was foreign to me from the Faces,
'cause I think,
we might have just written down a few songs before,
like, "Let's do this",
just before we went on stage.
"Oh, alright then. We'll have a go at that."
And it was famous with the Faces
who would be going, "What's next, Ron?"
We'd be going, "What are we doing next, Ron?"
(Ronnie laughs)
It was so funny to go from that
to the organization of the Stones.
The whirlwind, the hurricane, the tornado,
all the highs of being there
and the highs of the dope and the drink.
My feet never really touched the ground for many years.
(audience cheering) - God loves you!
It was like, I'm home.
I had that feeling of coming home
when I joined the band.
- [Keith] All I knew when I first met Ronnie,
is he could be my brother.
- [Ronnie] He found his little brother.
(Ronnie chuckles)
Scene one. Act one.
(both laughing)
- [Narrator] Ronnie is well suited to the role
of little brother in the Stones.
Growing up, the youngest of three boys in Yewsley,
a working class suburb of West London.
- Aw, dear family.
They were so broad-minded, really.
Art, my eldest brother,
and Ted, the middle bro,
they were both artists,
both musicians,
both very encouraging,
very proud of little Ronnie.
My headmaster used to call me the artiste,
and mum she used to love that.
- [Kenney] He's a wonderful spirit, Ronnie.
When he sees something
and he wants to capture that moment for him.
And he puts it down very beautifully
and disguises it in his artwork.
- I love painting.
I like combining that with music
and the other way round.
And that's what keeps my cycle going.
It's fabulous.
And never a dull moment in my life.
My family were so supportive.
My dad, when I had long hair,
used to say "You wanna look like that kid, go right ahead."
And I said "Are you sure, Dad?
People don't know if I'm a boy or a girl."
And he said, "You're you."
- [Narrator] Ronnie's family had a strong identity,
all their own.
- My mum was born on the boat called the Orient.
My dad was born on the Antelope.
My parents and all of my family going back to 1700s,
they're all on the water,
they were on the long boats and the barges,
and water gypsies really.
My mum told me granddad Wood,
he had one family up North
and one in Paddington.
She said, "Dirty old sod."
(Ronnie laughs)
I'm a nomad.
We live out of suitcases,
that's what we do.
Dad always used to tell me all of the different routes
that he would take.
If I was out of line,
he'd always say,
"Where do you think you are, on your father's yacht."
There's definitely a flow there
that comes with the nomadic lifestyle
of mooring up somewhere.
And having vague memories as a kid
of sweet milk,
the condensed milk,
down in the cabin with my dad on his boat.
It was the end of a legacy, really.
My brothers and me being the first to be born on dry land.
My parents had this way about them
of connecting and adapting
that I'm sure I've inherited you know.
- [Keith] In this band, it worked on two guitars.
And it's very important who they are.
It's the basis of the band,
how these two guitars work together.
- [Narrator] In Ronnie,
the Stones finally find a guitarist perfectly suited
to life on the road,
and playing with Keith.
- [Joe] And Ronnie had to learn every Stones song,
so we know that,
but how do you fit in,
what part of you has to be exactly
like the record.
- [Ronnie] Keith had run me through a few things
of what he could remember of the arrangements and stuff.
- [Keith] Because Ronnie had been boning up,
he knew it better than I did.
- And I would correct him.
I'd say, "No, that song fades out on the album.
You haven't got an ending,
we're gonna have to find one."
And he'd go, "Oh, yeah, you're right."
He said, "Just because I wrote them,
doesn't necessarily mean I know them."
- [Narrator] Ronnie is dropped in at the deep end.
- It's just navigation.
The ancient mariners used to use the stars.
(Ronnie chuckles)
We use the upcoming break,
or where everyone knows they've got to stop,
or look a fool.
- [Narrator] Navigating a live show,
is all about reading the signs,
and the odd bit of verbal communication.
- "I love you."
(Ronnie laughs)
Or, "What the hell do you think you're doing?"
"What the hell was that."
"What is he doing
or what are you doing?"
Like, "What!"
Oh, it's so funny.
(film rolling)
- [Joe] And Ronnie's other assignment,
was to be Keith's buddy,
a buddy he could play with,
'cause that's where the ideas come from,
with acoustic guitars.
(mellow guitar strumming)
- And there'd be beautiful girls
and Keith and I would forget that they were there,
'cause we'd be playing and playing,
and there'd be these beautiful girls
looking at their watches going and yawning,
"Oh, fuck, I've been here three days,
he ain't even said hello."
Like, "I'll be right there, I've just got to do this."
I think the music was so powerful
that it just overrode everything.
- [Narrator] It's an obsession that started at a young age.
- [Ronnie] When I was in short pants,
the household was always throbbing,
everyone was a performer.
When they played,
they used to include me,
whether it was on the comb and paper or kazoo, or...
My first instrument was the washboard.
♪ I don't care what mamma don't allow ♪
♪ I'm gonna play that music any old how ♪
♪ Mama don't allow no washboard played in here ♪
(Ronnie vocalizing)
And then you take off into a solo.
You'd have to do a 12-bar solo on your own.
And it was like, "Oh, my God."
It was like the camera's on me.
And then I'd try my luck on the comb and paper
and I'd try and play the trumpet.
- [Charlie] He's a good drummer as well actually,
a maniac type.
I mean he's had a go at everything, actually.
Suddenly he turns up with a cornet.
Then he was going to be a saxophone player,
had to put up with him walking about
honking all over the place.
- [Don] Ronnie Wood is one of the most inspired,
brilliant musicians,
I've ever encountered.
You can put any instrument in his hands.
- [Chuck] I love the fact that Ronnie is the catalyst.
He's the guy that can bring it altogether,
and he's the guy that can sit down and figure it out
and make it work.
- My ego has to stand aside.
I'm too busy concentrating.
I'm too busy learning and going like,
"Okay, this needs a pedal steel guitar,
I'll learn how to play it."
- [Don] For Ronnie I think joining an existing band
like the Rolling Stones,
was something of an artistically Faustian bargain
that he made,
which is you get to be a part of the greatest band ever,
and that's exhilarating.
But, you also aren't gonna be allowed
to do all the things that you're capable of
for the sake of fitting into this band.
♪ It's over there ♪
♪ Over there ♪
♪ What's that ♪ - [Keith] We cha-cha and off.
- Keith, rub your face against mine,
I forgot to put make-up on.
Hi, Peter. - Yeah, sure.
- [Jane] I think Keith had a friendship with Ronnie,
more so than he had with Mick or with Brian.
Of course, there was a lot of drugs involved at the time.
- [Mick J] Anyone going to go with Keith,
there's always gonna be a problem there.
- It's true, Ronnie. Look.
(upbeat rock music)
- [Narrator] And back on the American tour,
the Keith and Ronnie double-act is about to put on a show
for the residents of Fordyce, Arkansas.
- [Reporter] Can you tell us what happened?
- If I could I would,
but I just don't believe it.
(indistinct chatter)
- The police observed the car swerving on the road
and the police stopped him as a result.
- We stopped in a roadside café
and Keith and I were in the bathroom,
high and stuff for a couple of hours.
And people had reported this,
"These two guys still haven't come out."
In those little hick towns it can cause a big stir.
When the police came in,
and we were juggling different kinds of dope
and different kinds of smoke,
doing sleight of hand and, "Oh, look over there."
- [Keith] EMG is everything must go.
That's when you're coming up to a border.
Let's smoke a bit
and then open a window
and chuck the rest of the stash out.
It's a rule.
Toss it all.
EMG, everything must go.
- The police have been very good to us here
and they've treated the group with respect
and been very courteous to us.
And they were not placed in a jail cell,
they were just detained in the office
for a short period of time while the vehicle was searched.
- I got rid of all the stuff out the window.
So by the time we got there they said,
"Right, we're looking in there."
I said, "Well, you won't find anything."
'Cause it had all gone.
And then we were in the courtroom, unbelievable.
The whole town came out.
We took over the courtroom.
Keith and I got up on the judge's thing,
and we had the gavel.
We were swapping.
We were doing autographs
and swapping hats with people and stuff.
- [Slash] All the shit that we take for granted
when we're touring.
And all that red carpet shit in hotels
and this, that and the other.
When those guys did it,
the only people that liked them were the fans.
Nobody catered to rock bands on the road back then.
Nobody wanted them around,
they were dirty,
they did drugs.
- Public Enemy No.1 in the United States is drug abuse.
- [Slash] They went totally against the grain
back in those days.
They were the fucking real deal.
- [Narrator] The drug-fueled misadventures of the '75 tour
only sealed the bond between Keith and Ronnie.
(audience cheering)
- [Keith] I started this group with the Rolling Stones
with Brian Jones, a certain kind of guitar player,
and we developed a sort of sound there.
Then came Mick Taylor, a totally different guitar player.
We had to separate the rhythm from the lead.
And then I start to work with Ronnie
and I'm thinking, "Oh, man, this is the guy."
- [Jon] You know, when you think about Ronnie
and his ability to intertwine
with what it is that Keith does,
I think that that's a great gift.
If God himself created the perfect foil for Keith,
it had to have been Ronnie Wood.
- [Narrator] Ronnie's ability
to play both rhythm and lead,
creates endless possibilities for Keith.
And their friendship becomes part of their sound.
- [Chrissie] You know, you still think of Ronnie
as the new guy,
and I'm sure that it's just the way it is with the band.
But when Ronnie came into it,
I think he pushed Keith back out into the front again.
I think he inspired Keith to start playing again.
- [Charlie] They play very well together.
Keith loves Ronnie playing because he could...
It's like interchanging.
I don't know,
I don't listen to either of them.
(Charlie laughs)
(mellow rock music)
- We are the ax men and we cometh.
(audience cheering)
- [Bernard] That relationship is really special.
It's really special
because they are actually feeding off each other.
It's kind of a call and a response.
Keith calls, Ronnie responds.
Ronnie calls, Keith responds.
- [Stewart] When you hear them,
I'm not sure which guitarist I'm hearing at any given time,
it's all chords hitting guitar rhythms, guitar riffs.
And good old Ronnie,
probably played a lot of the stuff
that Keith gets credit for.
- [Bernard] They become one person with four arms.
They are weaving this guitar web.
- The ancient art of weaving,
it is a matter of give and take.
It's the space between what you play,
it's the meaning of what you play
and no over-indulgence.
And when you get two basket cases working with each other,
you have an early form of weaving.
- [Lisa] I love watching Ronnie and Keith weave.
It's so interesting to me the way that they rehearse.
It's not like they're looking at charts,
they're not chart guys,
that is not what they do.
They are feeling, breathing,
living through the fingers' guise,
and so they are free enough
to not care about making what would be considered a mistake
with normal human beings.
(mellow rock music)
- We have a knack of
if one goes this way,
the other one will slide in this way.
It's like if a solo comes up on a certain number,
we don't even look at each other.
If I wanna take the solo,
I'll take it, right.
And if he wants to take it, he'll take it.
- [Journalist] Really, you leave it as late as that?
- Oh, yeah.
- [Journalist] Are there ever any nights
when neither of you take it?
- Yeah. That's when he's knocked me out,
or I've knocked him out.
- [Bernard] The beauty of the Stones is that you never know.
They're always walking a tightrope.
Expect the unexpected.
- [Narrator] But that high-wire act,
isn't just down to natural chemistry.
- When the drugs worked,
you had a line of really good pharmaceutical,
you had a great song coming out of it,
or a great painting.
A lot of it was the ritual,
the rolling of the joint,
the filling of the pipe.
And then that would be set against the ritual
of the way the music was structured.
That gave you the feeling of invincibility,
that you could tackle anything.
- [Narrator] But off-stage some start to refer to Ronnie
as the sorcerer's apprentice.
- I think sorcerer's apprentice is quite a compliment
because I was, in a way,
I was being broken in to a really dangerous ground
where people really were dying
to try and keep up with Keith's drug intake.
We used to party heavy.
There was that whole series of decades
where we were all really high.
Even in our most spaced out days,
there was like a little switch that would go,
"Okay, I'm gonna go on stage now,
like I've got to get it together."
I think that's what saved my life a lot
and all of our lives during the heavy using years,
was the actual focus of having to get it together
to be in front of an audience
and give them what they wanted.
- Obviously the downside, the top of it,
it depends what drugs you're talking about.
It depends how they react on you.
The hard stuff, it ain't called the hard stuff for nothing.
And you'd better be hard enough to deal with it, that's all.
- [Narrator] In 1978,
Keith narrowly escapes a heavy prison sentence in Canada
for heroin possession
and decides to clean up.
But just as he's turning away from hard drugs,
Ronnie sinks further into addiction.
- In the crazy days,
it got out of hand when it was the base pipe.
- [Narrator] Freebasing crack cocaine
became a dangerous obsession in the L.A. music scene
in the late 1970s.
- [Ronnie] I used to quite innocently think
it was the best thing going.
I used to take it to parties and go,
"Everybody, you've got to try this."
- [Narrator] But within a few years,
freebasing becomes an epidemic.
- [Newsreader] Crack cocaine,
it's as innocent-looking as candy,
but it's turning our cities into battle zones.
- Then it got to the point where it wasn't funny anymore.
It's just that getting high with that pipe was frightening,
you'd do anything for it.
When it came to freebasing,
like this is nuts.
It had to stop.
(audience cheering)
- [Narrator] Easier said than done.
By the summer of 1981,
the Stones are preparing for another huge tour
of the United States.
There's only one problem,
finding an insurance company
that will cover an increasingly out of control Ronnie.
Faced with a very real prospect
of his side man being left behind,
Keith makes an offer.
- There was some problems with Ronnie.
"I'll cover it and leave it at that."
Because to me, Ronnie's now a Rolling Stone,
I need that man like I need breathing.
(upbeat rock music)
- [Narrator] The '81 tour starts well,
but 10 days in,
Keith gets news that Ronnie is freebasing crack
in his hotel room.
- Ronnie was on the other side of the hotel
and somebody had come in saying,
"He's doing the stuff up there."
And he'd promised me he wouldn't
because I'd been guaranteeing that he wouldn't.
So, he was sort of letting me down a bit.
- I was just up there getting high
in the way he didn't like it,
he didn't agree with the pipe.
(upbeat rock music)
And he thought I had another woman.
Because he's terribly moral.
- I flew into a rage
and sort of zoomed through the hotel.
- There's a whole posse of people going round the corridors,
searching for me.
- So I get to Ronnie's room and knock on the door.
- I finally came out.
- I smell the stuff coming out.
"You cunt." Bam. (laughs)
- So, I gave him some back.
- We all fall into Ronnie's room.
He tries to land one on me,
the couch goes over.
Ronnie's about to fall out the window,
so I grab him,
and then everything stops,
and then laughter.
And that was that.
Yeah, that was the one bundle.
- We laughed it off.
And I went into the next room
and there's Mick and Charlie on the floor there,
they're playing some game on the floor.
And I went, "Will you look at me, I'm covered in blood."
And they just sort of went like,
"Okay. Right, it's your move."
(upbeat rock music)
- [Bernard] And that's brothers.
They are brothers.
Like it or not, that is your brother.
Keith can talk shit about Ronnie,
but you can't.
"No, I'll do that, that's my place."
Nobody's place but his.
(audience cheering)
- [Narrator] Ronnie eventually manages
to quit smoking crack
but his drug-taking and drinking will go on
for another 30 years.
- The pot calling the kettle black is one thing,
but sometimes I thought he was a little reckless with it.
- [Charlie] Mick and Keith stuck up for Ronnie
through a lot.
When Ronnie was drinking as like we all were,
but Ronnie was more,
as everything's more with Ronnie.
- Mick said, "Do you think you might need a little help?
Do you think you would do that?"
And I said, "Sure, I'll give it a go."
He said, "When do you wanna do it?"
And I said, "Oh, in a couple of weeks."
He said, "What about tomorrow?"
And I said, "Okay, I like a challenge. Let's start."
That was my first rehab.
(guitar strumming)
- [Charlie] He had so many goes
at kicking whatever it was, drinking.
I mean he must have had so many counselors.
Being Ronnie of course, "Come in."
And you'd meet this bloke you'd never met,
and then there'd be another one three months later.
"Come in." And you'd all have to say hello.
- After doing it for so many years,
your body thinks it needs it.
Well, your body is saying give me some,
but I can't handle it anymore.
Which is the beginning of me seeing the light.
- [Mick J] You know, he really wanted to be a sober person,
but it was very difficult to do.
And it is difficult to do
if you've been doing it all your life.
(mellow guitar strumming)
- It's very difficult.
You go through a dry period and you go,
"I've done it. I've cleaned up. So, now I can have just one"
And that's a big mistake 'cause you can't have just one.
- [Narrator] But in 2010 Ronnie finally gets clean, age 63.
- I did it with the help of people,
with the Fellowship, they call it.
It's a wonderful thing.
I did 90 meetings in 90 days.
And I did 90 meetings in 90 days again.
I loved every minute of it.
I've never come down from the serenity
that I got from that since.
I don't think I ever will.
I mean it's a good feeling.
(audience cheering)
- And now Keith Richards is gonna sing for you "Little T&A".
(audience cheering) (upbeat rock music)
♪ She's my little rock 'n' roll, oh ♪
♪ Oh, she's my little rock 'n' roll ♪
- [Narrator] But in the aftermath
of Ronnie's fight with Keith,
it's the other relationship
at the heart of the Rolling Stones
that's in need of rehab.
- [Journalist] Keith, tell me a little bit
about your relationship with Mick.
- Um.
- [Journalist] You're celebrating the 25th anniversary
of the band.
- Yeah, I have known him since he was about four or five
when we first went to school.
- The most recent information,
is the pair of them last night in his room,
that's fantastic, I left them alone.
I thought if you can get on this well,
you've known each other from four and now you're both 80.
I mean that's an amazing... (Keith laughs)
No, they get on great. - Oh, you are a wit.
- [Kenney] Ronnie's a great mediator between the two.
He notices frictions and things,
he likes to heal the wounds.
Ronnie's always been emotionally sensitive.
Ronnie doesn't like confrontation, I don't think,
he don't like aggro.
- There's all kinds of girlfriend/management rumors,
people putting their spoke in saying,
"He said this about you."
You have to let all that ride.
You can't be affected by all that.
- Bill, come in a little bit.
- [Narrator] The band had been together for 60 years.
But there were moments when the Stones came very close
to breaking up.
- Yeah, there had been a couple of spots
where it was quite possible.
There was a possibility, I suppose,
when around the time Ronnie joined,
when Mick Taylor had left.
And there was a possibility in the '80s
when Mick wanted to do solo work.
Thanks brother, I love yer.
(Keith laughs)
- [Narrator] Mick releases his first solo album,
"She's the Boss",
in February 1985.
A few weeks later the Stones go into the studio
to start sessions for the album
that would become "Dirty Work".
- Remember tempo because it's the second only on the album,
it's love.
(guitar strumming)
- Hold it down. Let's take it easy.
We ain't trying to cut a track now.
All we're trying to do,
is keep an idea on tap.
- [Narrator] This time,
even Ronnie isn't able to lighten the mood.
- [Bernard] When I got there it was bad.
It was bad.
- Stop passing the buck, Wood.
Speed it up right away and you fuck my notes up.
- [Journalist] Do you have the desire
to go back on tour for a while?
- I'd love to go on the road but right now, I think,
to be perfectly honest,
after a year in the studio with the Rolling Stones,
I could do with a little time away from them.
- [Journalist] Right.
- I mean, I think it's a little bit...
The relationship's a little bit fragile,
and I think to go on the road that would show on stage.
- Okay.
- [Bernard] I've heard them have arguments.
I could hear them screaming through the door.
- Yeah, there was hatred from Keith that was really severe.
Didn't want his name mentioned,
didn't want to ever see him again.
And blah, blah, blah...
And it was just bad vibes.
And the pair of them were not gonna make up this time.
- [Narrator] The Stones are off the road indefinitely.
Those around the band wonder
if this might finally be the end of it all.
- [Journalist] We've read a great deal
about your relationship with Mick.
Recently, that you want to go on tour
and Mick doesn't want to go on tour,
and that's the cause of tension.
Is that the case?
- Yeah. But I mean it's...
I mean you don't do a gig like this
without having fights occasionally.
This one just happens to pop out into public.
- [Narrator] It's another moment of destiny for Ronnie.
- I've got to keep this institution going.
I've got to act now.
So, I rang up Mick and I had said,
"If I got Keith in 15 minutes, would you talk to him?"
And he said, "Yeah, I would."
And so I prepared the ground,
and I said, "Okay."
- Before I know it,
I'm calling Mick saying,
"Surely we could do something now",
you know what I mean.
And suddenly it all falls back into place again.
And it's almost as if you're...
I hate this,
with saying it all about the authority and everything,
but it's as if some higher authority is,
"Ah-ah, Keith. In. Go on."
- That was a higher power moving there.
(audience cheering)
- [Announcer] Ladies and gentleman,
would you please welcome the Rolling Stones!
(audience cheering)
- After a deep, cold winter, spring will come.
- [Bernard] I think they love him for that.
They probably hated him at times too,
because they want to be mad at each other.
And then Ronnie comes in
and makes them laugh about something.
It's like, "Get outta here, Ronnie!"
- [Ronnie] So, I've got to keep this thing going in motion,
whatever it takes.
- [Narrator] Over 60 years,
Ronnie Wood has never let that spark die.
From first sight of the Stones as a teenager
to still touring with them into his 70s.
- [Kenney] Did Ronnie save the Stones?
Of course he did. (laughs)
- [Joyce] No matter what's going on,
he'll say, "We'll be alright, we'll get through that.
It'll be fine."
And I really would go so far as to say,
"No Ronnie, no Rolling Stones. Not now."
He's amazing. He is the glue that binds them.
♪ 'Cause the wild horses ♪
♪ Couldn't drag me away ♪
♪ 'Cause the Wild, wild horses ♪
♪ Couldn't drag me away ♪
- [Chrissie] Ronnie's the MSG.
He's the sticky stuff that's keeping it altogether.
♪ A dull aching pain ♪
- There was a tough glue
with two horses trying to pull it apart.
That's what it reminds me of.
There's a bond anyway,
there's a bond that can't be broken.
- [Interviewer] Araldite. - Araldite!
(Ronnie laughs)
♪ 'Cause the wild, wild horses ♪
♪ We'll ride them some day ♪
♪ Wild horses ♪
♪ Couldn't drag me away ♪
♪ Wild, wild horses ♪
♪ We'll ride them some day ♪
- Yeah!
(audience cheering)
Thank you.
(upbeat rock music)