The Rolling Stones’ guitarist Keith Richards had major doubts about working with a veteran record producer, Ronnie Wood has claimed.
Richards aired his concerns at the time with his bandmates and put the pressure on the producer, who had been selected by Mick Jagger to work on the band’s 1986 album, Dirty Work. While tensions were high between the band at the time, Wood says that The Rolling Stones did right to select a producer who had worked with the likes of U2, Talking Heads, and Peter Gabriel. Speaking during an interview for According to The Rolling Stones, Wood detailed the tense interview process for Steve Lillywhite, who would produce just one album for The Rolling Stones.
Wood said: “Steve Lillywhite, who had been working with Peter Gabriel, U2, and Simple Minds, came in on that album as the co-producer. That was essentially the result of some of Mick’s investigations; he is always on the lookout for a new producer and a new angle to develop the band’s sound for whichever decade we happen to be in.
“Using Steve was a Mick move and, as it happened, it turned out to be a good one. Keith turned up at the studio saying, ‘All right, who’s Mick picked this time? He’d better be good,’ which initially made it quite a hard interview – for want of a better word – for Steve; he was made to overcome a number of hurdles during which Keith was effectively asking, ‘Will this guy pass the test?’ Steve did pass, and he and his wife, Kirsty MacColl, who was a lovely person, ended up becoming very close to us, much in the same way as Don Was has.
“I think that Keith eventually took his hat off to Mick for bringing Steve into the frame, because he’s still a good friend – although it’s funny that we never actually worked with him again.”
Wood would also recount the in-studio tensions at the time, with Dirty Work pushing the band to their very limit. 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.”
