Ronnie: The Autobiography by Ronnie Wood, Ron Wood, Jeffrey Robinson

From the Publisher

For the first time, a member of the world’s most famous rock ‘n’ roll band tells his—and their—story.  Raw, unsanitized, nasty and fascinating. An incredible journey.
 
The first of his family to be born on dry land, Ronnie Wood came from a family of water gypsies and was raised in a council flat near Heathrow Airport. Growing up only wanting to paint and play music, Wood was always talented. And in the 1960’s, he was often in the right place at precisely the right time—becoming the  guitar player for everyone from the Birds to Jeff Beck to the Faces and then to Rod Stewart . But Wood and his guitar-playing became super-charged when he joined The Rolling Stones. They were rock royalty from their earliest days, and from the first time Wood performed with the band, careening down New York City’s Fifth Avenue on a flatbed truck Wood has been at the center of the court and in the middle of the ferment.  No band has ever combined the Stones’ success--both artistically and materially—with their longevity.  No other band has ever survived the creativity and clashes of such big personalities.
 
But with success came excess—and as mayhem and hysteria followed Ronnie on his adventures through the extremes of rock ‘n roll, the drugs got harder and his relationships—especially with Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and the women in his life—became increasingly complex.
 
A fascinating portrait not just of the Stones, but of the greatest rockers of the 1960’s and beyond—from Eric Clapton to Rod Stewart, Jimmy Page to Keith Moon, Jimi Hendrix to PeteTownshend—RONNIE is a rich, revelatory book. Readers have never had a view of the rock world like this before.
 

The New York Times - Ira Robbins

In the generous and sincere tone of a speechmaker at a retirement party, Wood recounts the earning and spending of several fortunes, copious cocaine and alcohol intake, women he's loved, the great musicians and celebrities he's known and farcical scrapes with the law, drug dealers and other nefarious businessmen—none of which he takes too seriously. But what could have been the saddening diary of a dissolute scoundrel finds its charm in his unabashed enthusiasms for his second wife, Jo; snooker; thoroughbreds; the television show "CSI"; and Ireland. The balance of mischief and decency seesaws comfortably until the coda…Like any good memoirist, Wood is shamelessly honest and devoted to his own irresponsibility.

Product Details

• ISBN: 0312366523
  
• ISBN-13: 9780312366520
• Format: Hardcover, 368pp
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Pub. Date: October 2007
• Sales Rank: 39,789

• Table of Contents

Table of Contents