Small Faces: An Interview with Ronnie Lane [Side B]

[Interview Transcript from the book "Psychedelic Psounds". First part of interview is available at http://av.cah.utexas.edu/index.php/Vorda:Da_00130]

AV: You mean the city outside London that was bombed very badly during World War II? The band actually sent you there by yourself? RL: No, not actually. It's an expression in England. If you're "sent to Coventry," it means nobody talks to you.I don't know why the band did this, but no one would talk to me. So I said, "Fuck this! I'm leaving this group." They didn't take me seriously because we were earning quite a lot of money, but I did. AV: So the band pretty much kicked you out even though you were a founding member of the Small Faces and the heart and soul of the Faces? RL: I suppose I was. Yes, I was. You can say that, but I can't.

AV: You then started a new group called Ronnie Lane's Slim Chance which included a troup of jugglers and fire eaters called the the Passing Show. RL: I was trying to make Kate's dream come true. She was part of that group, but I lost all the money I had made with the Faces. Mick Jagger once called me an incurable romantic and I think he was right. Kate and I aren't together anymore. She's in Wales with my two sons.

AV: How did you become afflicted with multiple sclerosis? RL: I left home when I was sixteen to get away from my mother who had had M.S. all my life. She took it very negatively. My dad had encouraged me to play guitar before I had even thought about it. He said, "If you know how to play the guitar, you'll always have a friend." I did learn to play a little on an acoustic guitar and he was so tickled with it that he went out and bought me a cheap little Broadway electric guitar. He brought it home and was bursting to give it to me. My mom said,"Why did you buy him that? He's never going to do anything with it!" She was so negative. It made me determined to do something with it and I bought her a new house five years later with money I made from playing the guitar. I was always told all my life that I wouldn't get M.S. like my mom because the doctor said it wasn't hereditary.Then my father died. I was still under the illusion men don't cry so I didn't cry. Nine months later I got M.S. My mom also got M.S. when her mom died. I decided I was going to go to America to get to understand this bloody disease. My mother said, "You'll never walk again." So I thought, "Yeah, it's going to be just like the guitar." I can't walk yet, but I think I'll get there. I've found out a lot about M.S. It's aided and abetted by the mercury in the amalgam fillings in your teeth! The fuckin' doctors in this world! It's unbelievable! When I had all my fillings changed to plastic the effects have been remarkable. I'm left now with the weakness of someone who has had M.S., but I don't have it anymore. I'm not slurring my speech and I'm not as easily fatigued. It's all pretty much gone because my fillings were changed and I stopped eating foods I was allergic to.

AV: What was the Faces reunion like at Wembley Stadium? RL: That was Rod Stewart's idea. He paid for my ticket and also paid me well even though I didn't really do anything. We had Rod Stewart, Ian McLagan, Ronnie Wood, and myself.

AV: How did you manage to live in Austin? RL: I came over to Houston to give this lady the million dollars to start up the ARMS Foundation. I used to talk on the phone in the office and get on the line to the poor people and try to rally their spirits and to hang in there. Which was all very hard because I was finding it very hard to hang in there myself. I had such an unfortunate experience in Houston because of this ARMS problem. I remember a black guy on the ARMS board who yelled at me during one of the hearings: "Who are you? King Lane! King Lane is it! King Lane are you!" What an asshole! I thought I just want to get out of here. I ended up in Austin because of Chesley Millikan. I knew him when I was in the Small Faces and he was real bad and we was real bad together. He was the manager of Stevie Ray Vaughan in Austin, but he used to come see me and say, "Keep the faith, Ronnie!" It was great and I needed that.

AV: What are the former Small Faces and Faces doing? RL: Ian McLagan has a band in L.A. Kenny Jones is out of the Who and flying his helicopter. Obviously, he's got a lot of money servicing and gassing his helicopter. Steve Marriott has a band called Packet of Three with Jimmy Leverton and Jerry Shirley which is very subtle. A packet of three is how they sell condoms in England.

AV: Steve Marriott and Humble Pie came to Houston about five years ago and had to cancel because of Marriott's"health" problems. He just recently appeared here in Houston at Cardi's about six months ago as Humble Pie with Jimmy Leverton and Jerry Shirley. He looked pretty good and really sang his guts out. RL: Steve was his own worst enemy. I've always told him that. I hope he has got it together this time around. He always could sing.

AV: What about Ronnie Lane and the Tremors and any future recording plans? RL: I will probably play with the Tremors as well as with other bands. There are a lot of musicians in the Austin area that are really good. Something called a kettle of fish. This whole trip is a learning experience. It's all too beautiful!