With only days to go before the Rolling Stones kick off a 60th anniversary tour of Europe, Ronnie Wood has hinted it could be the end.
“We are facing the last tour,” the guitarist, who celebrates his 75th birthday on the first day of the tour, told the Spanish edition of Esquire.
Asked if it’s really the band’s final tour, he replied: “Well, all the tours are the last one. You never know what will happen next. All tours are a mystery. But there is no doubt that this one is especially so.”
Wood said he is working with members of his former band Faces, “digging through the repertoire and rescuing recordings from the ‘60s and ‘70s that didn’t see the light of day.”
He teased: “Maybe we’ll do something with them. Who knows, maybe we’ll see Rod Stewart and Ron Wood together again.”
Wood reflected on 60 years of the Stones and said he’s not sure the band could have been born in the 21st century.
“We must admit that at the time we broke molds, eh? I don't know if today would be that easy with all those rules and regulations and so much political correctness,” he said. “We had it easier than it is now for the new bands. We lived in a world full of musical references, of young people wanting to provoke and break the established.
“There was a healthy competition between thousands of bands. We had live music programs on the radio and on TV. Now a new group has it complicated. Either you get millions of followers on a platform or you don't have a place where someone sees you.”
The Rolling Stones will spend June and July on the road throughout Europe. Wood insisted age is “just a number” and insisted he feels “like I’m 29 years old.”
Asked if he worries about leaving a legacy, Wood replied: “Honestly, I don't think much about it. But to be honest, I think I've made my mark on the world, haven't I?”