Rock legend Ronnie Wood says his old band The Faces are set for a comeback after recording new songs with Rod Stewart.
The Rolling Stones lead guitarist tells BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs that the pair have been working in the studio and are planning a reunion.
‘Yes, we’d love to do that,’ the 78-year-old says. ‘We’ve got these songs that we’ve been working on from back in the day, but it’s hard to make our times tally.
‘When we do get a chance of getting in the studio again, we’ll finish off these songs. We’ve got a good body of songs going.’
The chances of the former hell-raisers reuniting were boosted earlier this year when Wood joined Sir Rod, 80, on stage at Glastonbury – and found their spark was still there after half a century.
‘Absolutely nothing had changed,’ Wood said.
‘It came over really well and he knows what he’s doing.’
The Faces, formed in 1969 and famous for hits such as Stay With Me in 1971 and Ooh La La in 1973, were notorious for their antics involving alcohol, groupies and wrecked hotel rooms.
Rock legend Ronnie Wood says his old band The Faces are set for a comeback after recording new songs with Rod Stewart (L-R Ronnie Wood, Rod Stewart and Kenney Jones)
Ronnie Wood (pictured left with Rod Stewart in 2020) told BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs today that the pair have been working in the studio and are planning a reunion
Their reputation was so poor among hoteliers that they had to impersonate other bands to find a room for the night.
‘We weren’t allowed in any hotels,’ Wood tells host Lauren Laverne.
‘We used to have to check in as Fleetwood Mac.
‘It was all just one big party, the song Had Me A Real Good Time summed it all up really,’ he recalls.
‘The party would continue on stage and off. And back at the hotel as well.’
The band, which also featured Kenney Jones on drums, Ian McLagan on keyboards and Ronnie Lane on bass, split in 1975 after Wood left to join the Stones.
He had wanted to join the Stones since he first saw them as a teenager in 1964 but had to wait a decade before an invitation came from Mick Jagger.
‘I said to him, “I thought you’d never ask”.’
Wood remembers the daunting task of having only weeks to learn the band’s back catalogue of 300 songs from Keith Richards before starting a tour of the US in 1975.
‘Keith and I didn’t go to bed,’ he recalls.
‘I think we slept one or two nights during the three weeks.
‘And it often turned out that I knew more about the arrangements of the songs than he did.
‘Keith says to me: “Well, just because I wrote them, it doesn’t mean I know them”.’
As the Stones complete their 32nd studio album, with a release expected early next year, Wood still has to lay down the law to the others.
‘I just don’t stand for any messing around to keep this institution going,’ he reveals.
‘It would be catastrophic for the band to fall apart and I wouldn’t allow that to happen.’
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Ronnie Wood announces The Faces reunion as rock legend reveals he has been back in the recording studio with Sir Rod Stewart