Ronnie Wood and Kenney Jones: The Faces in the Hall of Fame
The Small Faces formed in 1965 and its most famous lineup – Steve Marriott, Ian McLagan, Ronnie Lane, and Kenney Jones was formed in 1966. Influenced by American R&B, The Small Faces became an immediate hit with the Mod crowd. When lead singer Steve Marriott left the group in 1968, Ian, Ronnie and Kenny joined up with Ronnie Wood and Rod Stewart to become simply The Faces. They released five albums that blended hard rock, blues, and folk, and their live performances were raucous affairs that have now become legendary. This week, both bands are being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Bass player Ronnie Wood, and drummer Kenney Jones came by the SiriusXM studios earlier this week to talk with Ron Bennington about the Faces. Excerpts of that interview appear below.
Ron Bennington: Faces and as well as the Small Faces going into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this week. Ronnie Wood and Kenney Jones are here.
Ronnie Wood: Hi Ron!
Ron Bennington: It was always such a great great party band. The Faces were one of those bands when they came into town it’s all anybody could talk about. And it really did not feel at the time like you were just going to see rock stars, it almost was like this was the local band.
Ronnie Wood: Family. Family cousin. Your drunken relatives have come to town.
Ron Bennington: It was. And there was such just always a great feeling of the crowd spilling on the stage and the band spilling into the crowd.
Kenney Jones: That’s because we gave all the booze to the crowd. So they would get as drunk as we were.
Ronnie Wood: And the crowd would come back to the hotel with us. Especially in the mid-west and all over the country.
Kenney Jones: Yeah.
Ron Bennington: But everywhere I guess except for Holiday Inns. Holiday Inn actually banned you guys, right?
Ronnie Wood: Yeah we used to have to check in as Fleetwood Mac. (laughs)
Kenney Jones: We did really, didn’t we?
Ron Bennington: A nice peaceful band. Oh we’re just Fleetwood Mac.
Kenney Jones: They don’t talk to us anymore. (laughs)
Ron Bennington: Now you’re actually, Ronnie you’ve got a solo show coming up soon.
Ronnie Wood: Yeah, in Atlantic City. It’s going to be a new kind of version of the New Barbarians. I’ve got Willie Weeks and I’ve got Steve Jordan. I’ve got Bernard Fowler. And Chuck Leavell and Andy Wallace. And it’s going to be a good little Horchestra as we call it.
Ron Bennington: Are you always playing? Is there never a time in your life that you’ve got some project going on?
Ronnie Wood: Yeah, well I just did some music for the season finale of CSI: Miami. That went over really well. I did it with Kelly Jones and Mick Taylor came in and we dueted. We love to duet together, me and Mick. He’s such a beautiful, lyrical, poetic player.
Ron Bennington: He’s such a phenomenal phenomenal player. And that whole era of the guys that you all came up with, it just seems to have been the peak in terms of…
Kenney Jones: Yeah. We certainly lived through the greatest times I think in rock history. You had to be there. People ask me what was it like? You had to be there.
Ron Bennington: And even before you had joined The Faces, Ronnie, you knew these guys and was that always, all those bands would just jam together in London?
Ronnie Wood: Yeah. There was so much respect knockin’ around. Especially, we would come together at the Christmas parties of the record companies. You’d go in and be rubbing shoulders. There’d be the Beatles over there. The Hollies there. The Pretty Things. The Small Faces. The Jeff Beck Group would go in with the, who knows? There was just so much. It was all like a big brotherhood. So much respect and everybody, it was like one big band like Kenney said earlier on.
Ron Bennington: When The Faces were out on the road, at the same time that you guys were doing that, Rod had his solo records and you guys were playing on those records as well, right?
Ronnie Wood: Yeah.
Ron Bennington: Was that ever a jealousy thing or was it just part of it?
Kenney Jones: No, it was just one of those things that just worked out that way because when The Faces formed we didn’t know that Rod had signed a solo deal. We found out afterwards basically. So he was doing his own solo stuff while The Faces were together and it just so happened that Mo Ostin who was the head of Warner Bros. in those days knew the boss of Mercury Records and they worked out something where we could work together.
Ron Bennington: And yet if you really look at it and if that all was put under The Faces banner, you know what I mean? Because the music kind of sounds so similar as you go back and forth before that. That The Faces might have had another half dozen or so hits.
Ronnie Wood: It was a disappointing thing rather than a jealousy thing. It was kind of a disappointment the way that Rod became more and more segregated through his solo success. Which we all didn’t blame him for, I mean we loved it. It was good on you Rod, but then we used to get to venues it said “Tonight Rod Stewart” and we’re going “What are we? A piece of fish or something?”
Kenney Jones: (laughing) Piece of fish.
Ron Bennington: And Ronnie, even when you started playing with the Stones, you were still touring with The Faces.
Ronnie Wood: Yeah. I think in ’75, I did two Faces tours and one Stones tour. I was hardly off the road. I was fried! I loved it. Musically fried. (laughs)
Ron Bennington: When you guys go over to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, you guys are going to be playing live?
Ronnie Wood: That’s what we hope.
Kenney Jones: Yeah.
Ronnie Wood: We got Flea there. We got Slash. We got great people that we all love to jam with anyway so we’ll see what happens.
Kenney Jones: There’s no excuse. There’s too many musicians there.
Ron Bennington: The book that you have out The Faces, these pictures sound better than a lot of bands. You could look at these pictures…
Ronnie Wood: They’re alive, aren’t they?
Ron Bennington: Yeah they are. They’re alive and you can see it. But the other interesting thing is just to see the way that the band is kind of touching and rolling off each other and even if you look at Rod in these pictures, he’s very rarely front and center. You see him spilling off to one side or another and the band is just exploding on stage. And it’s almost the lack of kind of a professional PR firm in those days. A lack of saying here’s what we want to the band to look like and sound like kept that organic thing going.
Ronnie Wood: It was a shared experience. And it was on the edge. It could collapse at anytime. And it could explode into magnificent things anytime and usually that happened on stage. And no matter how drunk we were, we would sober up for the audience and for ourselves to get the musical message across and play the best possible music.
Ron Bennington: Right. And to particularly hit those high points, you know what I mean? That you have to risk some kind of failure of the whole thing falling apart.
Ronnie Wood: Oh there was a big risk. That’s what we lived on. We loved that. The fact that it could fall apart and it did many times. It was fantastic.
Ron Bennington: And the crew was always a really big part of this. You guys used the same crew.
Kenney Jones: Yeah. We were great buddies.
Ronnie Wood: And they were great. They had a great network between all the bands. You still meet them today. I just met Bob Pridden, The Who’s…
Kenney Jones: Oh Bobby, yeah.
Ronnie Wood: And he was there from year dot. And he’s still doing the same things for Townshend. That he would do for me or Keith or Kenney or what. All the roadies, unfortunately I lost my long time man Chuch. Chuch Magee. You know his spirit lives on. He was a fantastic Detroit boy. And now I have Dave Rouze and Pierre de Beauport. You know there’s a great family of backstage boys like Pete Backlund, used to be with The Faces. Rod Stewart has Boiler who did his apprenticeship with The Faces. Now he’s Rod’s right hand man. Anything he does musically, Boiler is there. It’s great.
Ron Bennington: And this is decades and decades and decades of these guys have stayed dedicated to the music. And maybe not known by the audience, but completely integral for everything that’s happened over the years.
Ronnie Wood: That’s right. They’re the stars of the show really. But they’re just so ugly they weren’t allowed to be on stage. (laughs)
Ron Bennington: And you guys have been doing some Faces shows again. What is that like to pick that up after so many years?
Kenney Jones: Well it was great. We obviously wanted to do it with Rod, but Rod’s sort of calendar was full and that sort of thing. But we felt like well we can’t wait forever. Rod can join us at any moment.
Ronnie Wood: Mick Hucknall did a very noble job, didn’t he?
Kenney Jones: Yeah, he was great. And that happened by accident because we were given an award by the Performing Right Society. And we said well Rod can’t be here. And I said well who’s on the bill as well? And they said Mick Hucknall.
Ronnie Wood: Who’s the other singer? “How long has this been goin’ on?”
Kenney Jones: Oh yeah, that’s right.
Ronnie Wood: Paul Carrack.
Ron Bennington: Oh yeah. Great singer.
Ronnie Wood: He came on and sang Cindy and Mick Hucknall said “Can I please sing Stay With Me?” And we said “Yeah, come on”. And he sang it royally. And he reached those ball breakingly high notes.
Ron Bennington: Right. But all that music just comes back to you. It’s like it’s still there.
Ronnie Wood: Oh yeah. It all comes flooding back. Yeah.
Ron Bennington: But that is interesting that not even your other experiences that you’ve had since then play into it. That somehow there’s some kind of muscle memory or whatever that spirit is that takes you right back to that same time.
Ronnie Wood: I think it’s the chemistry of the guys. Of the people. And you add one element, you add 3 elements, 4 elements, 5 and it’s boom. Explosion. The same with the Stones whenever, we’re okay individually, but as soon as 2 of us, 3 of us get together, 4 of us, you know it’s like boom. Magic. Something happens.
Ron Bennington: So what happens when somebody leaves that? Like when Ronnie left the group.
Ronnie Wood: There it goes.
Kenney Jones: There’s a big hole there.
Ron Bennington: And you can’t even find somebody that even as they’re professional or even a better player doesn’t matter because it’s more about chemistry.
Ronnie Wood: There’s a hole that’s not going to be filled. And a Japanese bass player is not going to fill it.
Kenney Jones: That was an awfully short trip around, yeah.
Ronnie Wood: Hey Tetsu, you meant to take that quaalude after you come off, not before you go on. (laughs)
Kenney Jones: Rod had moved to the states permanently. So there was a great big Transatlantic void.
Ron Bennington: Yeah. Because I’ve seen Rod say “Well when the Stones stole Ronnie” or whatever. But the fact of the matter is…
Ronnie Wood: It was all crumbled. The jigsaw just don’t fit in. And the same day I was called out and besides I had already put it up for a year. Mick said “Can I call you if I get desperate? Because I don’t want to split Faces up”. I said sure. And Rod had announced on the front page that he’d quit the band and I had just landed to be with the Stones.
Ron Bennington: Not exactly a bad move to make. And Kenney at the same time right after that, you moved over with The Who who’s such a gigantic band. But there you are filling in for a legendary player, how did that feel to suddenly find yourself in that?
Kenney Jones: One thing I did know, I mean Moonie was a great friend of mine and also the rest of The Who, because like we said earlier it’s like one giant band. And The Small Faces and The Who used to tour quite a lot together. And I did Tommy, the soundtrack as well, so there was a connection. And one thing I did know was I was never going to copy or even attempt to copy Keith because he was unique drummer and still is. I would have given anything not to have been in that position, but nevertheless it happened. So I just did me in The Who. And my frame went up, my muscles. I had to play for 3 1/2 hours instead of like 2 hours.
Ronnie Wood: It must have been an incredible test for Kenney to not keep the beat because Keith never did. (laughs)
Ron Bennington: But that’s strange that both of you kind of went into legendary bands filling these legendary shoes and then for both of you, you were pretty immediately accepted by that audience.
Ronnie Wood: I always knew I was going to be in the Stones though.
Ron Bennington: Did you really?
Ronnie Wood: That was my final part of the stepping stone.
Ron Bennington: Yeah. So in the back of your mind you’re saying sooner or later.
Ronnie Wood: Yeah, The Birds, The Creation, The Jeff Beck Group, The Faces, with Rod, you know, the Stones, you know that was my way of crossing the river.
Ron Bennington: Right. So you’d set up that plan as a very young person and you looked into the future and off you went.
Ronnie Wood: When Brian Jones first died I was going around the outskirts of Hyde Park just walking on my own. The place was a sea of people and Brian had just died. Mick Taylor had just joined. And out of a car in front of me comes Jagger and Charlie Watts. He jumped out of the car and he came over “Hey, how you doing?” “Fine” I said “Look at all these people”. He said “Will we see you soon?” I said “Yeah. Sooner than you think”. And he did a double take and he walked across, but I knew it was gonna happen.
Ron Bennington: And you guys also at that same time we’re talking about the English bands, but Hendrix was there throughout that time. And you guys had chances to jam with him as well.
Ronnie Wood: I shared a flat with him.
Kenney Jones: Funny enough, we did one of the last appearances that Hendrix did. At a European festival, I can’t remember which one it was.
Ron Bennington: And just the fact that Ronnie Wood can sit here and say I shared a flat with Jimi Hendrix which just sounds almost insane to say, doesn’t it?
Ronnie Wood: For a couple of weeks in Holland Park. Yeah. It was insane at the time. Because I knew this guy who played left and right handed equally well, I thought it blew me away. It’s like we have this snooker player in England called Ronnie O’Sullivan who plays left and right handed pool, you know, snooker. But he’s a magician. And so was Jimi. He was very quiet. And he didn’t give much away. And he didn’t like the sound of his own voice.
Ron Bennington: He didn’t like his singing voice.
Ronnie Wood: “I can’t sing you know. I’m no good”. I said I think your guitar playing slightly makes up for it. I’d say “Come on. Don’t worry about your voice. Just play”.
Ron Bennington: Wow. That’s extraordinary. It was one of the things about you guys is that you’re always surrounded by other great players. You’ll go and play on great projects. And great people come in to your projects.
Ronnie Wood: It’s 38 years since I’ve been on stage with Willie Weeks for instance. He’s such a marvelous bass player. He’s playing with Eric Clapton all the time now. He’s just a wonderful guy.
Ron Bennington: And the music has got the same kick for you guys as it did when you were kids coming in?
Ronnie Wood: No, it’s still a challenge.
Kenney Jones: It’s better and better.
Ron Bennington: What a blessing that is to live that life though, right? What a blessing it is to fall in love with something when you’re so young.
Ronnie Wood: It keeps you young to be able to get up and do something you just love. We’re blessed and very lucky to do that. And I’m even more blessed because I can get up and either strum or kick the bass drum or paint.
Ron Bennington: You could do it all. Well we’ve been blessed just to have you guys and I appreciate you guys stopping by. Congratulations on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Kenney Jones: Thanks very much.
Ronnie Wood: Cheers Ron. That’s fantastic.
Ron Bennington: You’re fantastic my friend. And take care Kenney, I appreciate it. I’ll see you guys next time coming through.
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Stay up to date on the band at their website the-faces.com and you can follow Ronnie and Kenny on twitter @realronniewood and @kennyjones
