Ronnie Wood confirms the Rolling Stones are in talks to play Olympic Games opening ceremony

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A spokesman for the band has denied it, but Ronnie Wood hasn’t: Speaking to The Sun, he said the Rolling Stones are in talks to perform at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in London. In fact, he said “everybody wants to do it.”

London is set to become the first city to host the modern Olympic Games three times, having also done so in 1908 and 1948. There have been a series of rumors about the possibilities of major stars appearing at the gala opening event. The Rolling Stones’ most recent major concerts took place over a sweeping two-year global jaunt that ended in 2007.

“We’ve got more meetings,” Wood told The Sun. “Everyone wants to do it.”

Wood is to be inducted with the rest of the Small Faces/Faces into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this April. He was also a member of the Jeff Beck group before joining the Rolling Stones in 1975. In the meantime, the busy sideman has launched the Ronnie Wood Show on American radio, as well. It aired for the first time January 29 on Q104.3/WAXQ-FM in New York.

“I’ve been asked to do the opening ceremony with the Stones and close the games with The Faces,” Wood joked. “I’ve got to be the first bi-athlete musician.”

Here are some of our previous thoughts on Ronnie Wood and the Rolling Stones. Click through the links for complete reviews …

ROLLING STONES – SOME GIRLS: LIVE IN TEXAS ’78 (2011): The full-on, balls-out Some Girls was perfectly uncluttered — no horn section, no guest stars like Billy Preston. That gives this subsequent live set from the summer of 1978 a chance to build off the record’s latent energy, rather than fruitlessly try to match it. Instead, this is a stripped-down wonder: no digital movie screens, no huge scaffolding for Mick Jagger to prance on, no big light show. Just a band playing.

RON WOOD AND THE FIRST BARBARIANS – LIVE FROM KILBURN (2007): Ron Wood was still a member of The Faces when he put out I’ve Got My Own Album To Do. This live recording (and DVD) is from that tour, featuring Wood on guitar, Faces buddy Ian McLagan, and even an appearance by Rod Stewart. Future Rolling Stones cohort Keith Richards is there, too. I’ve always been more of a fan of Wood’s Gimme Some Neck, but that doesn’t stop me from turning this record up way too loud.

ROLLING STONES – A BIGGER BANG (2005): I listened to ‘A Bigger Bang’ expecting a lot of the generic glossy pop of their more recent output. Instead, the classic mid-period Stones sound is back. That sound is updated, for sure, and Mick’s voice is deeper. But Jagger’s swagger is back. Keith Richards (who actually sings with some effort on a few tracks) and Ronnie Wood are playing together as well as ever. And Charlie Watts can still lay down some mean rhythms. The results sound like the same band who put out Let It Bleed and Sticky Fingers, even if it’s not up to par with those classics. And at this point, that’s plenty good enough for me.

GIMME FIVE: ROLLING STONES IN THE 1990s: There was no reason to believe that the Rolling Stones, 30 years into their dangerously debauched rock career, would make anything worth a damn out of the 1990s. A band that made its name on skirt chasing and drug taking was softening into middle age. No one would have been surprised if the Stones simply ground to a halt. Only, they reformed in the wake of Richards’ successes with Talk Is Cheap, and by the middle part of the next decade, the Rolling Stones were in the midst of a small very-late career resurgence. Here are five arguments for continuing your Rolling Stones collection into the 1990s.

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