Ronnie Wood discusses The Rolling Stones' longevity: "We don't over-familiarise"

19 May 2025, 14:46

The Rolling Stones' Ronnie Wood, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. Picture: J.BOUQUET

By Jenny Mensah

The Rolling Stones guitarist has discussed the band's long career and recalls playing the role of the "diplomatic welding torch" between Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.

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Ronnie Wood has talked about The Rolling Stones' longevity and credited the band with not always being over familiar with each other when they're not on tour.

“We’re not on the phone to each other every five minutes," he told Daily Telegraph. When we’re not touring we keep in touch, just to keep the feelers in each other’s camp, but we don’t over-familiarise – we run on faith and truth.

"We have faith in our music, and we always have hope that people will keep turning up, and sure enough they do.”

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The Stones might have an easy going relationship nowadays, but Wood recalled times where acted as an intermediary, between frontman Mick Jagger and guitarist Keith Richards.

Wood, who joined the band in 1975 as a replacement for Mick Taylor, talked about the founding members not being on speaking terms before the recording of their 1984 album Dirty Work, because Richards was unhappy about Jagger recording his first album.

However, the Paint It Black rocker was able to get the pair to talk by pretending one was reaching out to the other.

Recalling the moment, he revealed: "It was, ‘OK, you’re going to speak to one another on the phone.’

'He doesn’t want to speak to me.’ ‘Oh yes he does! I’ve rigged it up – in 15 minutes he’s expecting your call.’

“So I got Mick to ring Keith, and the other way round. Patching it up, talking, letting nature take its course. But the thing is, if I hadn’t done that, they’d have grown further and further apart."

Wood went on to say Mick and Keef were like brothers and the "foundation of the band," which is why he felt he had to "protect the institution".

He added: “They’ve been friends since the sandpit. They’re like brothers — they may argue between them, but in the end it’s family. That was the glue, the foundation of the band. I had to protect the institution, didn’t I? It’s the Rolling Stones! No way was this going to collapse.”