{"id":458843,"date":"2026-06-03T13:00:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T13:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/458843\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T13:00:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T13:00:10","slug":"theres-only-me-and-mick-and-david-bowie-and-willie-weeks-and-kenney-jones-on-it-the-basic-track-ronnie-wood-on-the-first-stones-song-he-helped-to-create","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/458843\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThere\u2019s only me and Mick and David Bowie and Willie Weeks and Kenney Jones on it \u2013 the basic track\u201d: Ronnie Wood on the first Stones song he helped to create \u2013 before he was in the band"},"content":{"rendered":"

The way Ronnie Wood describes it, his home in London in the early \u201970s was an open house for musicians \u2013 the famous and the not-so-famous. And it was in this house, in 1974, that the guitarist played his part in creating a classic song for the band he was about to join \u2013 The Rolling Stones<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Speaking on the BBC Radio 2\u2019s programme Tracks Of My Years<\/a>, alongside singer Mick Jagger, Wood recalls the years he spent living in The Wick, a four-storey Georgian mansion overlooking the River Thames in Richmond.<\/p>\n

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Wood bought The Wick in 1971 when he was a member of the Faces, and had a home studio installed.<\/p>\n

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He recalls: \u201cMy house, The Wick, in Richmond, back in the day, was the hub of musical activity. They were all queuing up down the stairs, you know \u2013 everyone from Gregg Allman to Paul McCartney<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wood lists other notable musicians who were regular visitors to his place, including his Faces bandmate Rod Stewart, session drummer and ex-Sly And The Family Stone member Andy Newmark, and two acclaimed bassists \u2013 Ric Grech (of Blind Faith and Traffic fame) and Willie Weeks (who performed and recorded with George Harrison<\/a>, Stevie Wonder, David Bowie, Randy Newman and many more).<\/p>\n

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\u201cThere were so many people and so much fun over the years,\u201d Wood says.<\/p>\n

Talking to Tracks Of My Years, Wood recalls The Wick as \u201ca hub of vibes\u201d where he once gave an impromptu guitar lesson to not one but two legendary drummers.<\/p>\n

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As he relates the story: \u201cKeith Moon was playing there. Ringo [Starr] was playing there at the same time, and they were going, \u2018We\u2019re fed up with this, Ron, where\u2019s the rest of the band?\u2019 And I was like, \u2018Well, I don\u2019t know where they are, and they said, \u2018Well, let\u2019s do guitar lessons.\u2019 So it was me teaching Ringo and Keith Moon the chord of E for a few hours\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

In 1974, when Wood was still with the Faces, he recorded his debut solo album at The Wick. He gave it the tongue-in-cheek title I\u2019ve Got My Own Album To Do.<\/p>\n

This was a star-studded project that featured guest appearances from George Harrison, Keith Richards and Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Rod Stewart and another member of the Faces, Ian McLagan.<\/p>\n

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Harrison sang and played slide guitar on Far East Man, a song he wrote with Wood.<\/p>\n

On the album\u2019s opening track I Can Feel The Fire, Wood was joined by Willie Weeks, Andy Newmark, Jagger and Richards and Bowie. And at the same time this session was recorded, Wood also became involved in the creation of the Stones\u2019 song It\u2019s Only Rock \u2019n Roll (But I Like It).<\/p>\n

In a previous interview excerpted on the StonesData fan site<\/a>, Wood recalled: \u201cMick and I worked out I Can Feel The Fire and after we\u2019d done that he said, \u2018Help me with this song, It\u2019s Only Rock \u2019n Roll, \u2019cause I wanna see how it turns out.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, say on a Tuesday evening: two guitars \u2013 Mick and I \u2013 and Mick singing lead vocal and David Bowie and myself on backup vocals.<\/p>\n

It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll – Ronnie Woods original home recording with David Bowie – YouTube
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\u201cThen I overdubbed the rest of the instruments last and it sounded like a good demo. So the next night, we wanted to put it in a more presentable shape, so we got hold of Kenney Jones who plays the drums on the actual record. I ended up with just my acoustic guitar that I laid originally. Keith replaced \u2013 rightly so \u2013 the guitars that I\u2019d done electrically.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wood says on Tracks Of My Years: \u201cThere\u2019s only me and Mick and David Bowie and Willie Weeks, Kenney Jones on it, the basic track.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reportedly, this basic rhythm track recorded at The Wick was used as the basis for the final version of the \u2013 the title track of the Stones\u2019 12th studio album. That album was released on 18 October 1974.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s Only Rock \u2019n Roll, the song, was credited to Jagger and Richards only.<\/p>\n

In December 1974, the Stones\u2019 lead guitarist Mick Taylor quit the band, and while other guitarists were considered and auditioned, Wood was always the leading candidate for the job.<\/p>\n

As Wood says now: \u201cOh, it was easy for me to slide in there. Yeah, because I\u2019d known them on and off for years.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 1975, while still with Faces, he recorded and toured with the Stones, and in 1976 \u2013 after the Faces disbanded \u2013 Wood was made an official member of the Stones.<\/p>\n

He eventually moved out of The Wick, but what started there is a journey he is still on today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The way Ronnie Wood describes it, his home in London in the early \u201970s was an open house…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":458844,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[156,157,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-458843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458843","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=458843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/458844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}