Ronnie Wood wanted to pay tribute to the blues masters who inspired the Rolling Stones.
The 71-year-old star and his bandmates – Sir Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Charlie Watts – have put together a complication album featuring what they consider the most important recordings in the genre’s history.
Speaking to Paul Sexton at the ‘Confessin’ The Blues’ launch event on Tuesday (30.10.18), he said: "It’s part of our education and part of our history."
The band’s choices on the collection range from the likes of BB King to Jimmy Reed, and Ronnie is delighted with the list they have curated.
He added: "It’s a mind-boggling collection of blues artists. What Mick, Keith and Charlie know between them is all you need to know."
Ronnie also recalled the UK’s blues boom in the 1960s, which saw the Stones put their own twist on it for a new generation of fans – but it was hard to come across the original recordings at the time.
He explained: "It was all record collectors and enthusiasts [seeking out the music]. They were a rare breed. The records were like gold dust. You could never get hold of them.
"I didn’t see a picture of Chuck Berry for years, and Howlin’ Wolf – you had no idea what he looked like. Putting a face to the name took many, many years."
Meanwhile, the rocker recently opened up about his lung cancer diagnosis, and admitted he "knew it was going to be there" but he was lucky to be "strong enough not to let it be anywhere else in his body".
Ronnie – who was diagnosed last year – was relieved when the cancer had not spread and he was able to undergo an operation to remove the cancer.
He explained: "I made up my mind that if it had spread, I wasn’t going to go through chemo, I wasn’t going to use that bayonet in my body. It’s more I wasn’t going to lose my hair.
"This hair wasn’t going anywhere. A week later they came back with the news that it hadn’t spread and I said, ‘Let’s get it out now.’"
Ronnie Wood opens up on Confessin’ The Blues
