{"id":166450,"date":"2025-12-03T18:26:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T18:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/166450\/"},"modified":"2025-12-03T18:26:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T18:26:08","slug":"ronnie-wood-celebrated-his-50th-anniversary-as-a-stone-with-new-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/166450\/","title":{"rendered":"Ronnie Wood Celebrated His 50th Anniversary as a Stone With New Art"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe Rolling Stones<\/a> took the past year off from the road to spend time working with producer Andrew Watt on a follow-up to 2023\u2019s Hackney Diamonds<\/a>, and to oversee the extensive reissue of their 1976 LP, Black and Blue.<\/a> The downtime happened to coincide with Ronnie Wood\u2019s 50th anniversary as an official Stone. To commemorate the occasion, Wood created portraits showcasing the members of the band, including the late Charlie Watts<\/a>, that he\u2019s dubbed the Paint It Black series. Limited-edition prints are available on Wood\u2019s website,<\/a> and they can be seen in person at the Redhouse Originals Gallery in Harrogate, England.<\/p>\n

\n\tWood has been creating visual art since early childhood, before he even picked up a guitar. \u201cFor me, my love of music and art go hand in hand and spur on each other,\u201d Wood tells Rolling Stone. \u201cWhen I\u2019m standing onstage playing guitar and I close my eyes, I imagine new paintings. When I\u2019m painting, I paint to music.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe\u2019s created lush visual landscapes over the years in addition to portraits of icons like Fats Domino, Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, and John Lydon. But much of his work has focused on his bandmates in the Stones. He creates color visualizations of all their set lists (available here<\/a>) and has drawn Mick Jagger<\/a>, Keith Richards<\/a>, Charlie Watts<\/a>, and himself in countless ways.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\u201cOut of Control\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u00a9 Ronnie Wood<\/p>\n

\n\tThe new works in the Paint It Black series were created from memory. \u201cI wanted to capture the energy of Mick, Keith, me, our late friend Charlie, and the thousands of live shows we\u2019ve been so lucky to play together,\u201d he says. \u201cI wanted the fans to see what I see when we\u2019re onstage \u2014 music and art as one \u2026 My hope is the Stones fans can feel the music when they look at these paintings.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\u201cTight Section\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u00a9 Ronnie Wood<\/p>\n

\n\tCreating the painting of Watts was emotionally overwhelming, he adds. \u201cI was shell-shocked when we lost Charlie,\u201d Wood says. \u201cHe was the heart of the Stones. He meant so much to all of us, and I couldn\u2019t have paid tribute to the band\u2019s journey together in these portraits without painting him. The last time I saw Charlie, we watched the horse racing on TV, and it was just like it had always been. He was staying in the same London hospital room I\u2019d been in a year earlier. We call it the Stones suite. One thing I\u2019ll never forget is Charlie telling us to carry on touring because he didn\u2019t want to see our crew out of work. He even let us know he wanted Steve Jordan to carry the flag for him. Charlie was the very best, and it was a total joy to play with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\u201cDoctor\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u00a9 Ronnie Wood<\/p>\n

\n\tTheir history goes back to 1975, when Wood beat out heavy competition to become the new guitarist in the Stones after spending time in bands including Faces and the Jeff Beck Group. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to believe I\u2019ve been a Rolling Stone for 50 years,\u201d he says. \u201cWhat a joy. I was already chuffed with the bands I\u2019d played in before \u201975. But joining the Stones \u2014 that felt like coming home. I still get a kick out of being a Stone, and it keeps me out of trouble \u2014 sometimes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n

\n\tThey have yet to outline any official plans for 2026, but they wrote nearly 30 songs for Hackney Diamonds and featured only 12 on the album. They spent time with Watt this year working on a new project. \u201dI\u2019ve said it before, but it\u2019s like working for Batman,\u201d Watt told Rolling Stone<\/a> in September. \u201cWhen the tongue<\/a> is up in the air, you just go \u2026 I can say we did some recording together, but that\u2019s all I can say.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\u201cConnection\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u00a9 Ronnie Wood<\/p>\n

\n\tRumors are swirling about a tour of European stadiums in the summer of 2026. If that happens, Wood will certainly be along for the ride. It\u2019ll be his 51st year as a Stone, so should everyone stop referring to him as the \u201cnew guy\u201d? \u201cYou\u2019d have to ask Mick and Keith,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s been part of my life for so long now, it\u2019s hard to imagine doing anything else. So yeah, I feel like a Stone.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Rolling Stones took the past year off from the road to spend time working with producer Andrew…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":166451,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[48225,156,22323,22324,157,111,139,69,22616,91429],"class_list":{"0":"post-166450","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-charlie-watts","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-keith-richards","11":"tag-mick-jagger","12":"tag-music","13":"tag-new-zealand","14":"tag-newzealand","15":"tag-nz","16":"tag-rolling-stones","17":"tag-ron-wood"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}