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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Entertainment
Lauren Del Fabbro

Guitarist Ronnie Wood says Faces are working on songs and would ‘love’ a reunion

Rock star Ronnie Wood has said he would “love” to have a Faces reunion and that they have a “good body of songs” that they are working on.

Prior to joining The Rolling Stones, the 78-year old guitarist was part of the rock band behind the hit song Stay With Me, alongside Sir Rod Stewart.

Wood recently joined Sir Rod during his Glastonbury set and told Lauren Laverne on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs that “absolutely nothing has changed” since the pair performed together in the 70s except for the fact that Sir Rod does not allow amps on stage anymore.

Rod Stewart (left) with guest Ronnie Wood performing on the Pyramid Stage during the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm in Somerset (Yui Mok/PA) (PA Wire)

Speaking about a Faces reunion, he said: “We would love to do that.

“We’ve got these songs that we’re working on from back in the day, but it’s hard to make our times tally.

“When we do get a chance to get in the studio again, we will finish off these songs.

“We’ve got a good body of songs going.”

While in the band, Wood recalled the chaos him and Sir Rod would cause on tour which led them to being “banned from the whole chain” of Holiday Inn hotels.

“We weren’t allowed in any hotels.

“We used to have to check in as Fleetwood Mac,” He said.

“It came to a head in Detroit.

“Ramona, her name was behind the desk, reported us to the police and everything just because we made the hotel room out in the corridor, we just quietly arranged all the furniture out in the corridor.

Rod Stewart (left) with Ronnie Wood performing on the Pyramid Stage (Yui Mok/PA) (PA Wire)

“And then the manager came up and the elevator door opened, and there was this room there with all the pictures on the walls, settees and slippers.

“And he said, ‘It’s very nice but it better not be here when I come back’ and he got back in the elevator.”

The group released four studio albums and toured regularly until their split in 1975 with Wood joining the Rolling Stones soon after.

Currently made up of Wood, lead singer Mick Jagger and guitarist Keith Richards, it was announced earlier this year that they would be releasing a new album.

He said: “We’re always raising the bar, and miraculously, the bar keeps going up and up.

“We just finished a new album, which is very exciting and we’re at the mixing stage, which brings us back to that.

(left to right) Ronnie Wood, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards at the Rolling Stones Hackney Diamonds launch event at the Hackney Empire in London (Ian West/PA) (PA Archive)

“More than halfway there, so I’d say by the end of the year, early next year.”

The rock star, who has been very vocal about his addiction to drugs and alcohol, also opened up about what helped him finally get clean in 2010.

He said: “I think a lot of the pressure was from other people, and they were pushing me and it was only when I did it for myself, when the penny dropped.

“If you don’t love yourself, you can’t love anyone else.

“I am not the leader of this whole thing. I’m not in charge and my willpower will lead me up the garden path.

“So my willpower is no good, I’ve just got to hand it over.

“There’s a period of white knuckling where I needed encouragement and I didn’t know which way to turn and it takes a while to be able to see yourself in the light of getting better, for one of a better phrase, of staying on the path, it’s quite difficult.

“And encouragement and a hand on the shoulder just before going on stage, like from Mick or something, saying you’ll be okay, and to let it go. And okay, let’s go for it.”

The full episode can be heard on BBC Sounds.

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