One song almost stopped Ronnie Wood from joining The Rolling Stones
When Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood share the stage together for The Rolling Stones, it feels like the fractured past of the band’s line-up is non-existent.
To simply imagine a world where these two musical brothers weren’t in it together the whole time feels inherently contradictory to what you are seeing in live performance. But there is an alternative reality whereby Wood was never in the band at all.
Of course, there were the early days of The Stones, where Brian Jones, who as the initial musical architect, shaped their initial gritty blues sound that shot them to stardom. It was a stardom that, of course, weighed heavily on Jones, spiralling him into a state of drug-induced madness that resulted in his exit from the band and tragic, untimely death.
For five years after that, Mick Taylor joined the band and provided a solid base upon which they could start to develop their ideas. His introduction to the band was imperative to them becoming the album outfit they became in the early 1970s. Records like Exile On Main St and Sticky Fingers propelled the band into a state of artistic seriousness, whereby their own songwriting was beginning to match their unmatched performance reputation.
“Mick Taylor and I worked really well together,” Richards explained. “He had some lovely energy. Sweetly sophisticated playing, way beyond his years. Lovely sense of melody. I never understood why he left the Stones. Nor does he, I think. I had no desire to see him go.”
Jagger elaborated on Richards’ claim, even to a point where he regarded Taylor as perhaps the most accomplished player in the band’s history. He said, “He made it very musical. He was a very fluent, melodic player, which we never had, and we don’t have now.”
Adding, “Neither Keith nor Ronnie Wood plays that kind of style. It was very good for me to work with him. I could sit down with Mick, and he would play very fluid lines against my vocals. Some people think that’s the best version of the band that existed.”
Eventually, he left, with various reasons being cited as to why. Taylor has since attributed it to creative differences, while separate accounts have claimed that Taylor embarked upon a string of maniacal episodes, fuelled by drugs, which made his position within the band somewhat untenable. Regardless, he made a sharp exit from the band in 1974 and left them somewhat at a crossroads.
The band subsequently used their 1976 record Black And Blue as somewhat of a proving ground for prospective members. While they eventually landed on Ronnie Wood as the full-time replacement, for his ability but perhaps more importantly, his spiritual bond with Richards, they came close to hiring American session guitarist Wayne Perkins as a full-time recruit.
His guitar part can be heard on their hit ‘Fool To Cry’, which acted as something of an audition for him. The band were deeply impressed with his performance, and the track went on to become their fifth highest-selling single of all time. Perkins essentially did all he had to earn their respect and confirm his place in the band, but Wood’s compatibility with Richards both on and off stage ultimately won him the nod.
