Why Eric Clapton was “suspicious” of Ronnie Wood
As an upstart guitar player in the burgeoning British rock scene of the 1960s, Ronnie Wood made quite a few friends before he found a permanent place in The Rolling Stones. Before hooking up with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, Wood managed to play with Jeff Beck, Rod Stewart, Jimi Hendrix, Keith Moon, and many more.
But everyone has to start somewhere, and for Wood, his legend started with The Yardbirds. Although he was never officially a member of the group, Wood was one of the band’s original fans, catching them at local clubs around England before they exploded into the mainstream. During one of those fateful gigs, Wood managed to get onstage to play harmonica, where he was eyeballed by a curious Eric Clapton.
“He’s always very suspicious of me, but he takes me under his wing,” Wood told Classic Rock in 2010. “He’s very pleased that I am clean and serene, but he just doubts that I can keep it up. I used to go every week to The Crawdaddy in Richmond to see Eric with The Yardbirds. The first time I was ever invited up on stage there was when Keith Relf was ill. They said: ‘Are there any harmonica players in the audience?’ and all my friends pushed me up.”
Wood had his own R&B group at the time, the similarly named five-piece outfit The Birds but wasn’t nearly at the stature that Clapton was at. Three years younger than Clapton, Wood didn’t shy away from his enthusiasm, something that endeared him to the rest of The Yardbirds.
“So I did ‘I’m A Man’ and all their raving stuff, and they said: ‘Get that red Indian back… Cleopatra,’ because my hair was always like this. ‘Get him back on stage.’ That was my claim to fame. I’d played with The Yardbirds. I was always the youngster in them days, the newcomer. But it’s great, I’m still the youngest one, even though I’m 63 and they’re all 66. It’s fantastic… but they’re still all kids at heart.”
By the time Wood had experienced regional success with The Birds, Clapton had already left The Yardbirds for John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers and, subsequently, Cream. Wood and Clapton would never form their own group, but they would consistently appear at high-profile concerts together, including The Last Waltz and tributes to both Jeff Beck and Ginger Baker.
Watch Wood and Clapton pay ‘Badge’ at the Ginger Baker Tribute Concert down below.
