The wait is over!!! Somebody Up There Likes Me, the new Ron Wood documentary, is available across North America as a virtual release starting today (September 18th) at www.ronniewoodmovie.com, and will run through October.
The career-spanning film directed by Mike Figgis, covers Wood's life and career from making his bones in the mod-based mid-'60s London combo the Birds, through the Jeff Beck Group, the Faces, the Rolling Stones, and beyond. Among the participants in the doc are Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, and Rod Stewart.
Somebody Up There Likes Me will be released on DVD, Blu-ray, and as a deluxe hardback book release on October 9th. Pre-orders are available now. Those who purchase a ticket ($11) will also be treated to a Q&A with Wood and Figgis.
Over 45 years since first hitting the road with the Rolling Stones, Ron Wood says that he and Keith Richards still possess a sixth sense about how to intertwine their guitar work onstage: “That was something that Keith and I have always luckily had from the start. We never planned, as such, what we are gonna do individually. We have a knack of if one goes this way, the other one will slide in this way. On a certain number, we don't even look at each other. If I wanna take the solo, I'll take it, right? And if he wants to take it, he'll take it.”
Back in 2015, Ron Wood published Ronnie Wood: How Can It Be? A Rock & Roll Diary. The tome features a cast of characters that went on to figure heavily into his life and career. We asked Wood what, if anything, surprised him while retracing his life all those years ago: “Just how many times I ran into people, like Eric Clapton on the road and Pete Townshend in Jim Marshall’s amp shop, and, y’know, having Keith Moon come over and stay at my mum’s house while they were hot in the charts, and Mitch Mitchell would come over when he was playing with Jimi (Hendrix), and they would all accept me under their wing, y’know, as if my group had had a hit record, too — just like them but. . . (laughs). They used to say, 'Don’t worry, Ronnie, keep it up, you’re doing the right thing.'”
AUDIO: RON WOOD ON FAMOUS FRIENDS IN LONDON
AUDIO: RON WOOD ON PLAYING GUITAR WITH KEITH RICHARDS