Ronnie Wood Recalls the 1974 Session That Birthed the Stones’ ‘It’s Only Rock ’n Roll’

Ronnie Wood has shared new details about the casual 1974 recording that produced the core of a Rolling Stones anthem, well before he joined the band. Appearing alongside Mick Jagger on BBC Radio 2’s Tracks Of My Years, Wood described the session at his Georgian mansion, The Wick, which he’d turned into a relentless creative hub after buying it in 1971.

At the time, Wood was still a member of the Faces and deep into recording his solo debut I’ve Got My Own Album To Do. The house was open to a revolving cast. Wood recalled evenings with Gregg Allman, Paul McCartney, and an impromptu guitar lesson where he taught Ringo Starr and Keith Moon the chord of E for hours.

After finishing work on the album track “I Can Feel The Fire” with Jagger, the session pivoted. “Mick said, ‘Help me with this song, It’s Only Rock ’n Roll, ’cause I wanna see how it turns out,’” Wood remembered. The basic group that night stripped the song to its foundation. “There’s only me and Mick and David Bowie and Willie Weeks and Kenney Jones on it – the basic track,” Wood said. Bowie sang backup vocals. Weeks handled bass, Jones the drums.

That raw recording became the architecture for a single that would later define the Stones’ mid-70s output, complete with a video featuring the band in sailor suits miming along to the demo. For Wood, it was the first real collaborative thread with the group he’d officially join a year later. The memory resurfaced as a footnote from a house where musical decisions rarely waited for formal invitations.