He might not be as familiar to some as his Rolling Stones bandmates, but Ronnie Wood is famous in his own right. He played with the Jeff Beck Group, was recruited to join The Faces, and recorded solo albums before he joined the Stones. The guitarist has a high opinion of his bandmate Keith Richards, but Wood’s first manager put him to work doing the same side job as famed blues musician Muddy Waters.
Ronnie Wood displayed a broad range of artistic talents as a child
Wood showed a range of artistic skills long before The Rolling Stones were even a band. He grew up in a household filled with music (his dad and brothers were talented musicians), and Wood followed suit. He started playing in bands as a teenager, gigging around his London neighborhood before branching out.
Still, Wood’s artistic talents weren’t limited to six strings. He faithfully watched a BBC art show geared toward children. Wood won an art prize as a child with a picture he submitted to the show that incredibly predicted his future as a famous musician.
Galleries displayed his artwork years later, but a younger Wood saw talents with a guitar and a brush collide in a way that had him do the same side job as blues guitarist Muddy Waters.
Wood landed the same side job as Muddy Waters thanks to an early manager
Wood’s artistic eye and talent with a paintbrush didn’t escape Leo de Klerk. He managed The Birds, Wood’s first band, as well as several venues near the guitarist’s west London neighborhood where the band first played.
De Klerk roped in Wood into painting one of his clubs, which the guitarist hadn’t anticipated when the manager asked him to swing by. As Wood writes in his autobiography Ronnie, he later found out he had the same side job as blues legend Muddy Waters:
“One day, he asked me if I would come over to help him decorate the Zambeezee Club, and I thought he was just looking for some artistic advice. Instead, he handed me a brush, and I spent the day painting the insides of the place black. I thought doing that for Leo for free was what musicians did to keep their manager happy. Keith [Richards] told me once that he walked into the famous Chess Studios in Chicago, noticed a black guy on a ladder painting the walls, did a double take, and realized it was Muddy Waters. So I’m in good company.”
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Ronnie Wood
For at least one day, Wood was Michaelangelo and de Klerk’s club the Sistine Chapel. It wasn’t a bad idea for Wood to go with the flow in that situation.
Doing a favor for his manager would have reflected well on the band, perhaps leading to more bookings in de Klerk’s venues and more exposure for the band. And The Birds did release a handful of singles before Wood departed for bigger and better things.
The guitarist eventually landed with The Rolling Stones, as he knew he would
Wood begins his autobiography by recalling an early Rolling Stones gig he attended. The music grabbed him, and he knew he was destined to join the band one day.
The guitarist crossed paths with Stones members Mick Jagger and Keith Richards in the vibrant London music scene of the late 1960s. He helped write one of the band’s hits before they asked him to join. Wood was in the middle of the conversation between Jagger and Mick Taylor when the latter Mick told the singer he was leaving the band. Jagger extended an invitation on the spot, but it took a year before the Stones asked Wood to join the fray.
Before any of that happened, though, Ronnie Wood worked a one-off side job that Muddy Waters also performed.
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