THE ROLLING STONES are working on new material which is their best music in years, according to Ronnie Wood.
In an exclusive interview on GB News, Ronnie said: “We’re working now to finish up the studio album that we’ve been working on for years. So we’re bringing that ahead. And things are going really well. We just came back from New York. We’re finishing up in LA in a couple of weeks’ time and hopefully, we’ll have a new package to bring out, the best one in the last 15 years I reckon. You will be seeing us live again next year.”
During his chat with Alastair Stewart, Ronnie also opened about his move into art, which has recently seen his work exhibited.
He said: “It’s been going really smoothly, it’s not caused an enormous stir because the gallery is only open from 10 to 5. I hoped that people would be able to go there after work but that’s the rules and regulations. The people that are there are really enjoying it.
Asked if he’d have been an artist if he hadn’t made it in music he added:”The pair went hand in hand when I was a schoolboy. I thought I could make more, and support my mother more easily with Rock and Roll, because there are immediate returns on that. You can do a show and get fiver and split the money with mum or I can struggle to try to get a gig as a scenic artist or commercial artist and it was quite a struggle in those days. But I’ve always been an artist.”
Ronnie, who studied art back in the 60s before hitting it big with the Rolling Stones, proudly showed off his latest work with an exhibition at Kenwood House in London on Thursday.
The rocker, 75, was supported by a whole host of pals at the event including former Spice Girl Geri Horner, 50, and her husband Christian, 48
Ronnie recreated Rembrandt’s masterpiece The Storm on the Sea of Galilee on a grand scale for the exhibition.
The 1633 oil-on-canvas was stolen from a museum in Boston, US, in 1990 by two thieves posing as policemen in what remains one of the biggest thefts in art history.
Unveiling his homage to the Dutch master, Wood joked that he’d like to perform the heist in reverse – by sneaking his version into the empty frame at the museum the original was stolen from.
Like Rembrandt in the original, Wood has painted himself into the scene.
The painting, which depicts the biblical story of Jesus calming the storm, was stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and has never been found, despite several leads.
