An upcoming documentary about Ronnie Wood will present a “brutally honest” depiction of the Rolling Stones icon, producers said.

Somebody Up There Likes Me will premiere at the London Film Festival in England on Oct. 12, including new interviews with Wood and his bandmates. The “intimate portrait” would see him “disclosing his three-year battle to beat freebase addiction,” while also detailing his battle with lung cancer and his interest in painting. He said it had been “such an incredible feeling to look back on my life and discuss key moments along the way that I remember vividly as if they were yesterday.”

“The combination of his eclectic musical range and his love of painting seemed like a promising start to a documentary,” director Mike Figgis said. “I decided to jump in and we began talking, the first of a really interesting series of conversations. We covered so much ground in these talks and that led to interesting encounters with the likes of [artist] Damien Hirst and then a lovely music session in a studio. The remaining Stones chimed in with interesting stories and the result is the film. Ronnie Wood is a very interesting guy, so many personas.”

Meanwhile, it was reported that fellow Rolling Stone Keith Richards had bought a smokeless ashtray in order to avoid upsetting frontman Mick Jagger. The Telegraph said that the device draws in stray smoke, thus keeping it from others. Although the guitarist has no plans to stop smoking, his recent abandonment of alcohol had proved to be a positive move – Wood described Richards as “much more mellow,” adding: “He’s open to more ideas, whereas before I’d kind of grit my teeth and go, ‘He’s gonna give me some shit for saying this.’ Now he’ll say, ‘That’s cool, man.’”

 

Ronnie Wood Year by Year

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