My parents, and all my family going back to the 1700s, were water gypsies. They lived on longboats and barges. My mum was born on a boat called the Orient, and my dad on the Antelope. I suppose that makes me a nomad.”

Fearless: The Anthology is Ronnie Wood’s chronicle of his lifelong musical journey – from his late forties London childhood to fame, rock stardom, and a rare double induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of fame.

Number eight Whitehorn Avenue

Wood’s tale opens with the family’s water-gypsy legacy going back to the 1700s, and the revelation that Ronnie and his two older brothers were the first in the family to be born on dry land. The youngest of three grew up in a council house filled with live music, exploration and art. Wood recalls a house throbbing with energy, a close family and a tight-knit community that was also “a hard-drinking, hard-smoking world.”

His “always in the pub” dad would “bring home this incredible mix of people from all walks of life – rag-and-bone men, bin men, characters you’d never normally meet.” It was a house filled with music – number eight Whitehorn Avenue became the party house – “everyone brought something, a barrel, a keg, whatever they could manage. Soon there’d be 40 people crammed into the back room, rocking along while Dad played his harmonica, telling stories and cracking jokes.”

Little Ronnie remembers being encouraged, guided and inspired by older brothers Art and Ted, ten and eight years his senior respectively. It was his brothers who brought home records by Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, Fats Domino and Jimmy Reed, sparking Ronnie’s deep, life long love for music.

Both brothers played in bands, with Ted being a jazz man while Art was into blues and R&B. It was also on his brothers’ (and brothers friends’) many instruments that he taught himself to play. He explored........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)