Ron Wood Doc Set For Virtual Cinema Release Next Month

Somebody Up There Likes Me, the new Ron Wood documentary will be available in North America as a Virtual Cinema release next month. The career-spanning film directed by Mike Figgis, covers Wood's life and career from making his bones in the mod-based mid-'60s London combo the Birds, through the Jeff Beck Group, the Faces, the Rolling Stones, and beyond. Among the participants in the doc are Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, and Rod Stewart.

The film will be available starting on September 18th at www.ronniewoodmovie.com, and will run through October. Somebody Up There Likes Me will be released on DVD, Blu-ray, and as a deluxe hardback book release on October 9th. Pre-orders are available now. Those who purchase a ticket ($11) will also be treated to a Q&A with Wood and Figgis.

Ron Wood, who first recorded with the Stones in 1974, first toured with them in '75, and became an official member the next year — holds the distinction of being the last “new” Rolling Stone. He recalled first meeting the band back in the 1960's: “I remember hanging out with the Stones in Olympic (Studios), uh, when I first met them with the Faces — the Small Faces — y'know, when I used to hang out with them. But many good memories of parties, because Olympic used to have three different studios. You'd have, like, the Faces in one, the Stones in another, David Bowie in another, it was just like, everyone would meet in the canteen — like, 'How's it goin'?' 'Alright.'”

Keith Richards says that he and Wood share an unprecedented musical kinship: “Ronnie, Ronnie's my brother, really. Y'know, I live at his house; he lives at mine — if he can find it. And he's the most sympathetic guitar player I've ever played with.”

Over the past dozen or so years, Rod Stewart and Ron Wood have teamed up in the studio for a supposed joint album, which at one point was said to be tentatively titled, You Strum – I'll Sing. A while back we asked Rod if there's any chance we'll see him and Ron Wood teaming up for new sessions: “There may be, there may be. Y'know, it all depends on Ronnie. . . Ronnie's got another group that he's in, y'see (laughs). He wants to know what they're going to do before — y'know, I can't put my career on hold waiting for Ronnie, who's waiting on them. So that's the way it goes on and on. Y'know, maybe one day when they pack it in, we'll have a bit more time together.”