Jo Wood - Stoned: Photographs and treasures from life with the Rolling Stones

This book is dedicated to my friends, Joanna Francis and Joanna Codrai, two of the most resilient (and brilliant) people I know.

This is dedicated to all those Ive toured the world with and love, and to my children for accepting and loving me unconditionally, and to all my grandchildren. I love and adore you all.

Contents

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Jo was always going through her old boxes of photographs. This book is a great way of letting them see the light of day.

Ronnie Wood

I met Jo in 1980 and we had the best of times. She showed me all the ropes when I first went on tour. We were like sisters and Keith always thought of Ronnie as a little brother. We have crazy wonderful memories of being on tour with the Stones, travelling the world and raising children. We are still one big family today.

Feels like yesterday. Well done Jo!

Patti Hansen

Introduction

Ive always loved taking photos. Wherever we went, I always liked to carry a camera, and Ive always been a bit of a hoarder as well, constantly putting stuff that I thought was interesting to one side. When I was taking photos, I didnt ever think theyd be published one day. I was just taking pictures of friends and family, but as time went by I used to think, Maybe one day Ill do something with all this. I never quite got around to it but I never threw anything away either. We moved from LA to New York to London and my increasing stash of photos and mementoes travelled around the world with us.

A few years ago, I took a lot of things out of storage and there in the boxes were all these photo albums. I was a bit scared of delving into them at first. There was album after album. I couldnt tell you how many photos I have it must be thousands but I started to look through them. It made me realize what an incredible life Ive had, how there were lots of people in the photos who were no longer here and I started to think, Maybe now is the time for a scrapbook that collects all this stuff.

To be honest, I also thought, If I dont do this now, then one day, when Im not here, whats going to happen to it? I didnt want my kids to throw it out because they thought it was old junk!

Ronnie and I are friends, so I spoke to him about the book. I told him that I saw it as a celebration, a love letter to that time in my life. He was very supportive. The nice thing about putting together this book is it feels like its an appreciation of the life Ive had and closes off a chapter in my past. I hope it also gives people an insight into life on the road, what it was really like to be on tour with the Stones. We didnt have Instagram then, but to me its like Instagram for the 70s, 80s and 90s!

Its funny to think how different life was back then. A lot of the time I was the only person in the room with a camera. Now everyone carries a phone in their pocket, which isnt always a good thing. Then there were no such things as mobile phones, social media or selfies. I think you can tell that from the pictures because everyone is off duty, and the pictures are really natural and not posed. They just show what our life was like. These days people know someone can post a photo on Twitter or something like that, so theyre probably a bit more guarded.

In fact, back then everyone was quite pleased when I pulled out a camera because it meant I could capture the moment most of the people I was taking pictures of would certainly never take their own photos. I felt a bit for Mick. I think he had his photo taken so often he could live without it, but the rest of the Stones never minded.

In the early days I used a Polaroid, the instant cameras that would print the photo there and then. They were great because you used to watch the film develop into a picture in front of you they were as close as we got to an iPhone. The only problem was that you didnt get a negative, which meant if you lost the picture, it was gone forever. I shudder to think what Ive lost in transit.

Not long after we started going out, Ronnie ended up buying me a proper camera. I took it everywhere with me, and I was taking so many pictures that Ronnie started to call me the Shutterbug. He even used that name as a credit on one of his solo records.

I didnt develop the rolls of film when we were on the road in case I lost them or gave them away, so I used to stick them in a big bag as we went. It was easier for me to just gather them up and keep them safe. The only problem was I was taking a lot of pictures I have diaries from when wed just got back from being on tour with notes saying, Take 105 rolls of film to be developed. I used to have plastic carrier bags full of film canisters and Id drag them to the processors whod look at me like I was completely insane. It was probably quite mad for the developers printing these pictures, expecting them to be somebodys holiday snaps but suddenly realizing theyre looking at the Rolling Stones and their mates. I made sure I used photographic shops that I trusted because, obviously, there was all sorts of stuff going on in the pics.

I dont really know where the passion for taking photos came from. I think I needed to do something on the road, and I liked being the Shutterbug. They werent the best pictures but they were a snapshot of a time. I just wanted to capture everything we were seeing.

Id been in front of the camera as a model, so it was fun to have a camera myself and be the one taking the photos. I didnt realize at the time that what I was capturing was unique or that it was such an important part of my life. It was just fun. Keiths wife Patti used to take pictures as well there were so many amazing moments to photograph.

Now, with the passing of time, I can see what an incredible world I was a part of. Interesting people were drawn to the Stones, and there was always a blur of stars around them. It was just normal for our kids that Brad Pitt was backstage they didnt know any different. The thing with the Stones was there were always a lot of parties, and in every city we went to there was something happening. Everyone came to the shows, and the big cities like LA and New York were always crazy.

The Stones have had so many books published about them, lots they probably didnt like, but this one has been put together with such love on my part. (Saying that, I had so much stuff that I couldnt include everything. One thing I didnt squeeze in was an empty wrap I found in my diary from 1981 that said, One gram of Merry Xmas. I wont say who wrote that. See if you can guess)