Reader responses to Ronnie Wood's Smile
written directly to the author, Wendy Ellison Mullen
(small edits so as not to give anything away!)

Just thought I'd let you know I thought the book was pretty cool -  a truly different perspective on the whole thing. --Leigh

Hey,  I just finished reading your book.  I really enjoyed it and just about died when I was reading the last part ...Your book was the kind that when I finished it I was sad that it didn't go on.  I liked reading about your efforts to get closer to the stage--believe me I can relate totally.  Thanks.  Love ya Live, -- Nancy

Hey Wendy, I am in the middle of your book and I have to say it is great. . .I have always expounded and had many written debates on the importance of Ron Wood to the world of rock music. . .Anyway, great book, great insight and great guitarist……You Rock sister…….hope all is well in your life and world. Peace Jim

I am reading your book Ronnie Woods Smile right now and it is a treasure. Thank you. . .[Ronnie Wood] is a Stone in a manner that Brian Jones never was, nor Mick Taylor, because the Stones Music is not meant to be cerebral, it is a music that  reaches back to our tribal past and simply makes your feet vibrate. Your head find new meanings, your heart expand.  Thanks again and thanks for a really charming book--Brixton

Hi, I  just wanted to say I got your book for a Christmas present and read it on one sitting.  Great stuff!  I started lurking on Stones sites, starting with Undercover, 'round the same time you did, listening intently to Ron, as opposed to Keith, around the same time as you, so there was more than a little resonance there. Anyway, great site, great book.  --Tom

Hi Wendy,

I just started reading your book today, and wanted to let you know how much I enjoy it. . . . Reading your book takes me right back to all those great concert memories. It's great to read a book about Ronnie and The Stones that's not just another gossip book.  --Rick

Hi Wendy, Bought your book, Ronnie Wood's Smile, and read it in one sitting.  Very well done.  Enjoyed it very much.  --Dave

 P.S. Don't worry, you're not turning into a Mandy. Your enthusiasm and talent both serve as an enhancement to fans' enjoyment of a public figure's work rather than detracting from it.

Thank you for writing this superb and smart book. I sometimes have felt like a lone idiot at IORR's fan board 'defending' RW when he's being dismissed, or other posters others are waxing nostalgic for Mick Taylor.

I beg your indulgence! I felt I should write you in appreciation for your book "Ronnie Wood's Smile", which I just bought

from amazon this past week; thus I've been reading it with great enjoyment, but not sequentially and

not yet in its entirety. I've always thought Ron Wood - for a star of his magnitude, a Rolling Stone, a member of several

important British bands over 40 years - is underrated as both musician and songwriter.. . .The scene in your book describing . . .<delete>  is really powerful! Thank you for writing this superb and smart book. I sometimes have felt like a lone idiot at IORR's fan board 'defending' RW when he's being dismissed, or other posters others are waxing nostalgic for Mick Taylor. Thanks again.  --John R

I'm almost half way through your book and love it so far!  I'm at the part where you meet Ronnie, Jo, and Leah backstage, and Ronnie gravels, "Thank you dahhhhling."  I squirmed with excitement when I read that part as I've always wondered what it would be like to speak to Ronnie, and for a brief moment I felt as if I was doing so vicariously through you!  --Andre P

Just got back from Carcasonne but had some good reading time. I'm enjoying the book, about half way through now. I was a journalist at the start of my working career and so speak with some experience when I say that I think it is well 'put together'. I particularly like your own self analysis without which one would really begin to wonder why one was reading a story based on..........well what exactly. Interestingly, one gets carried away with the  WEM 'mission'. --Phil B

A great book: Ronnie Wood's Smile and where it led. I'm a Clinical Psychologist in Berkeley, Ca.. Saw the Stones first in 1969 at Madison Square Garden and rediscovered them when I brought my son to see the Bridges to Babylon. I've now dragged my wife to Las Vegas, first the Joint, New York and back many times, Amsterdam, Utrecht, now to Paris and London.  It is a strange tribe but wonderful. You have captured every detail exactly as is. I was in that Fairmont Lobby in San Jose, that SBC show was just like you said, etc.. Most of all you capture the experience of being a Rolling Stones fan in the 21st Century. Thanks for a work of love. I have always been a Keith man, I have just ordered every Ronnie CD.  Thanks  

Ken

Wendy, I just wanted to pass along how much I enjoyed your book about Ron Wood. Once I started reading it, I could not put it down. Great job and I hope you write another one soon. Thanks , Jack N

Hi Wendy, I am currently reading your book and having a wonderful time.  Thanks, and much continued success with it.  . . .  I really just wanted to thank you for a great book that I am enjoying reading so much!  --Bob

I sat down last eve and started reading your book again and find it just as engrossing----even though I knew almost nothing of the Stones or their music. I look forward to listening to your CD , with the adorable photos on the cover.  I can't help but think that there is an intense sublimated Eros within your mad obsession with Ronnie. As a spoiled romantic I can understand that. And I think I can also understand why Ronnie smiled at you at that 1st Seattle concert. You have the kind of magnetic Presence which could reach out across the footlights and capture the Star's attention. There are many more mysterious and magic forces between men and women than are dreampt of in my philosophies.  As I enter into the last phases of my life I find I am becoming more attuned to the wondrous and various kinds of elements which fall under that overy-used and inadequate word "love". --James

I bought your book on amazon, read it straight through and really enjoyed it.--John

Hi Wendy,

I just read your book and I gotta tell you, sistuh: you done died and gone to Stones Heaven with the conclusion of that book! H-o-l-y-!

Initially reading the book, I admit that I viewed you with a sort of jaded slant as I considered you rather a "newbie" in your growing awareness and driving love of the boys (of course Ronnie in particular) having awakened your passion for them for a mere decade ago...

...when the Stones have solidly been in the pit of my heart securely pinned as m'boys and #1 band and major source of inner tuggings at the old heartstrings since I was 13 (& I'm soon to be 53 in a few months time)

None the less, I was mildly amused by your writing and didn't even mind (too much) when towards the latter part of Ronnie Wood's Smile..., you started calling me/us your "dear reader" as I was honestly only after the "fix" of what you could offer as you got deeper into some sort of core/close-touch w/the boys/Ronnie.  So I sort of "put up" with you-as-the-fan as you read me closer to your experiences/encounters with the band...but as the story progressed, I found myself pumped and cheering for you w/each additional encounter in your exploits to the inner circle >>having gotten to meet Chuch, getting to hang out for sound checks, having <delete>!...and still ALWAYS being respectful and not the crazed stalking fan as can so easily occur when one is caught up in the moment...and I gotta tell ya', I felt totally rewarded (& you totally vindicated in my little mind) at your "climax" ...

--Cathy

Just wanted to say thanks for the book recommendation on Ronnnie Wood's Smile.  I'm only about 100 pages in, but I'm really enjoying it so far.  I haven't kept a journal of my Rolling Stones experiences, I wish I had though because it's so hard for me to explain to anyone.  But I think now anytime anyone asks me what I've been doing for the last 12 years of my life, I am just going to hand them this book. --Sumon

My plans for this afternoon were to tan while waiting for a guy from the local door and window company to drop by and tell me if my french door units and a window were under warranty. Water from rain and snow is leaking between the window glass and frame and rotting the wood on the inside of the doors. The weather didn't cooperate - it rained and the door/window guy was over two hours late.

There wasn't much to find on the internet that was keeping my interest and Hurricane Rita wasn't doing anything interesting to keep me watching CNN, so I looked around for something to keep me entertained on a rainy afternoon while waiting for a window inspector. I came across a book that Lady Jane (thank you Micky!) had sent me a few weeks ago, Wendy's "Ronnie Wood's Smile and Where It Led."

Five pages into the book, I realized Wendy is writing about me. It's Wendy and her experiences, but they're mine too. The irrational attachment to the Stones that no one understands, the calls begging friends to attend a Stones concert, that one moment when you see them live for the first time, you connect somehow, everything changes and you know you'll never be able to skip a Stones concert. And there's all the people who don't understand and think you're a cd short of a jewel case. Then you stumble onto Undercover (or Shidoobee) and find this whole world of people just like you, but it's an alien place at first while you learn about SHRA, cheese, the Brady Bunch, catsup packages, burning boats, etc... And before you know it, you've formed some of the closest friendships you've ever had with people you have never met in person or only see every few years when the Stones tour.

I'm finding it very difficult to put Wendy's book down. I've joined Wendy's fans who can feel the smile she had while writing the book. Next time you're at Amazon, add it to your cart or add it to your Santa lists. Whether you're a Ronnie fan or not or read Shidoobee instead of Undercover, you'll see yourself in Wendy as Ronnie (and the Stones) become her favorite hobby instead of just music she listens to and her adventures will have you smiling and nodding from page to page as you realize you're not the only one who did that, thought that or felt that.--Debbie

Reading your book was fun.  It's all about the Stones, so how could it be less than fun?  But it's also about the swirl of devotion/obsession/love of the music, and how a 'fan' deals with those related emotions along side the need to feel reasonable and sane....some of the time at least!  Great insight here.  I loved taking a peak inside a Rolling Stones internet community, Undercover, and how over the years of its existence, friendships  have developed, and personalities have clashed, and lives have changed.  --Mickey

I heard about this book on Undercover and couldn't resist.  I ordered it through Amazon.  It finally arrive 3 weeks later on Thursday.   I went right to the chapter about the Aragon.  I mean, I was there.  I skipped through it and I  WAS THERE!  I got such a huge kick out of seeing my name in print!  Huge Grin!  Thanks Wendy. Thanks for taking me back to a wonderful experience.  My best concert experience. I finished the book last night.  I really enjoyed the whole book.  Great perspective on our affliction. I highly recommend it.  Thank you Wendy and congratulations! --Margrit

Bought me a copy on Amazon a couple of weeks ago. Started reading day before yesterday and didn't go to sleep until I finished it. Good read!!!--Chris from Belgium

Ror anyone who hasn't read wem's book "Ronnie Wood's Smile and where it led", it's fun and interesting and from the heart. --Dave

I wanted you to know how enjoyable it was - it was great to see the chapters proceed getting better and beter all the time.  --Martin