Ronnie Wood talks about his drug addiction
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Looking back on his career, Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood spoke of the moment he realised his addiction was “out of hand” and how his bandmates, particularly Keith Richards, stepped in to help him. Speaking candidly in My Life As A Rolling Stone, Ronnie confessed it got to a point where he would “do anything” to get his hands on a crack pipe.
Ronnie commented: “When the drugs worked, you had a really good line of pharmaceutical, you had a great song coming out, you know. Or a great painting.
“A lot of it was the ritual. The rolling and the joint, the filling of the pipe and then that would be set against the way the music was structured, that gave you the feeling of invincibility, you could tackle anything.”
Referencing his new nickname, he continued: “I think Sorcerer’s Apprentice is quite the compliment because I was in a way being broken into a really dangerous ground, people really were dying to try and keep up with Keith’s drug intake.
“We used to party heavy, there was a whole series of decades where we were all really high, even in our most spaced out days there was a little switch where we’d go, ‘Okay, I’ve got to go on stage now, I’ve got to get it together.’
“I think that’s what saved my life a lot, and all our lives during the heavy using years was the actual focus of having to get it together to be in front of an audience and give them what they wanted.”
Keith added: “Obviously the downside of it, t depends what drugs you’re talking about, it depends how they react on your. The hard stuff, it ain’t called the hard stuff for nothing and you better be hard enough to deal with it.”
Keith went on to turn away from hard drugs in 1978 and chose to get clean however Ronnie continued with his drug use.
“In the crazy days, it got out of hand when it was the base pipe,” Ronnie recalled. “I used to, quite innocently, think it was the best thing going.”
The musician admitted to taking it to parties and telling fellow revellers to try it.
Ronnie remarked: “It got to the point where it wasn’t funny anymore, you know. Just getting high with that pipe was frightening, I’d do anything for it.
“When it came to freebasing, this is nuts you know. It had to stop.”
When the band came to tour the US again in 1981, they struggled to get insurance for Ronnie so Keith offered to cover any costs.
“I was just up there getting high and he didn’t like it, he didn’t agree with the pipe,” Ronnie said, as he recalled letting down his bandmate after promising not to touch drugs on the tour.
Ronnie went on to do a stint in rehab and spent years trying to kick his addiction until 2010 when he finally got clean at age 63.
Also in the documentary, Rod Stewart spoke about being in a “party band” with Ronnie as they toured with Faces.
“We were a party band because we were all drinking. We were always in a bloody good mood. Sometimes too much of a good mood,” he recalled.
Rod added the crowd in America had “never seen anything like this” when the band took to the stage.
My Life As A Rolling Stone is available to watch on BBC iPlayer now.
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