The Rolling Stones’ worst period is easy to see, according to veteran guitarist Ronnie Wood.
Wood, who has been with the band since 1976, believes the group hit their lowest point in the mid-1980s. Between Mick Jagger chasing a pop-friendly sound and personal problems with long-term guitarist Keith Richards, the band were far from their best. Wood, who is set to perform at The O2 Forum in Kentish Town later this year, told all about the band’s struggle in 1985 and 1986. Speaking as part of an interview compilation book, According to The Rolling Stones, Wood suggested that the number of songs he had on the album is an indication of just how badly the relationship between Jagger and Richards had broken down.
Wood said: “Dirty Work was the most troubled period of our entire voyage. You can tell that because I’ve got four songs on the record – which is a clear sign that Keith and Mick’s song-writing engine was not functioning properly. Things were getting increasingly worse between them, especially around the recording sessions for the album.
“It reached a head at that point – and it wasn’t until the Jagger/Richards set-up started operating properly again that I could rest assured that the ship was going to sail correctly once more. In the meantime, I was always ready to step in and help out if it was needed. I’ve got loads of songs round the back, as they say.”
Despite the turmoil which led to the making of Dirty Work, Wood says his and Richards’ relationship was never better. He added: “Although this period was a bad one for the band, it turned out to be great for Keith and myself. It was a time when I got married to Jo, and Keith was one of my two best men – Charlie [Watts] was the other one.
“I was renting a house in Chiswick, where I had a piano and guitars, and Keith and I spent a lot of time hanging out there, working on songs for Dirty Work, designing and planning and zeroing in on the riffs for the album.”
Jagger has differing thoughts on what the band’s weakest period is, though. Despite Dirty Work being received poorly at the time and hardly a fan favourite now, the frontman suggested that the period between Goat’s Head Soup and Black and Blue is a particularly “weak period”.
Speaking to Rolling Stone Magazine founder Jann Wenner, Jagger said: “Yeah, I think so. I find it so hard to remember, though, I don’t want to commit myself to saying something. I mean, everyone was using drugs, Keith particularly. So I think it suffered a bit from all that. General malaise. I think we got a bit carried away with our own popularity and so on. It was a bit of a holiday period.
“I mean, we cared, but we didn’t care as much as we had. Not really concentrating on the creative process, and we had such money problems. We had been so messed around by Allen Klein and the British Revenue. We were really in a very bad way. So we had to move. And it sort of destabilised us a bit. We flew off all edges.”
