One of this year’s Glastonbury Festival headliners, Sir Rod Stewart, has revealed what really led to his former band, The Faces, parting ways. Formed in 1969 in London, the rock band consisted of Rod, Ronnie Lane, Ian McLagan, Ronnie Wood and Kenney Jones.
The band was made up of those who had left other groups. Ronnie L, Ian and Kenney were a part of the UK band Small Faces, who split after its lead singer, Steve Marriott, left to form Humble Pie.
At a similar time, Sir Rod and Ronnie were looking to leave the Jeff Beck Group, and soon joined forces with the other three.
Crossing paths during these musical changes, the new line-up was given the name, The Faces, before their official split in 1975.
For many years, it has been widely reported that Rod was the reason behind the band’s split, due to his solo career.
Setting the record straight in a conversation with Zoe Ball on BBC Radio 2 this month, he said he would’ve loved to have stayed.
Discussing his friendship with Ronnie W and Kenney all these years later, he said: “We don’t talk about the old times very much, I mean there’s only three of us left, obviously that’s without Mac and Ronnie.
“But they were wonderful those days. That was a band I would’ve stayed in for the rest of my life.
“People think I left but I didn’t, you know, Ronnie joined the [Rolling] Stones and so the whole thing floundered.
“Ronnie Lane had already left because he wasn’t happy, so once we lost Ronnie Lane, we lost the soul of the band really.”
The 80-year-old has remained close with his fellow remaining members Ronnie W and Kenney.
The trio are currently in the process of making an album and a documentary together, and there are also whispers of a reunion at Glastonbury this weekend.
Sharing an update on their projects, Rod continued: “Yeah we’ve been filming it [the documentary] for some time, we’re trying to finish off an album and it’s all down to me again, because I’ve got to get the lyrics finished.
“I’ve been working so bl***y hard, I’ve got two albums on the go, two documentaries.
“I’m supposed to be doing a book about my modern railway, which I’ve just dropped because I ain’t got the time, but yeah, there is a documentary.
“We’ve got a considerable amount of film and some really old stuff. Apparently Kodak gave all of The Faces cameras way back [then and said] ‘Shoot what you want’ and Kenny has still got it all.
“So, it’s going to go way back. I don’t know when it’s going to be finished, the album is down to me, I need to finish the lyrics off.”
Rod is set to headline the Glastonbury Legends slot on Sunday, and last month, he confirmed that Ronnie will be joining him on stage. Despite rumours of Kenney also joining the pair, there is currently no official confirmation.
Festival organiser Emily Eavis said in a post on Instagram: 鈥淏ringing Sir Rod Stewart back for the Sunday afternoon slot on the Pyramid stage is everything we could wish for. What a way to bow out with the final legends slot before we take a fallow year. We cannot wait!”.