‘Drugs were normal in my family’: Ronnie Wood’s son Jamie opens up about how growing up with a Rolling Stone led to addiction

'No one would let their children come to my house after school,' said Jamie

Ronnie and Jamie Wood (Rex)

Ronnie Wood’s eldest son Jamie has described how growing up around drugs led to his struggles with addiction.

The 45-year-old – who was adopted by the Rolling Stones guitarist as a toddler when the musician met his mother Jo Wood – said he started smoking cannabis at the age of nine.

“Mum and Dad used to party a lot and you could always smell cannabis in the house,” he told MailOnline. “It would waft up the stairs and when I was nine or ten, I’d run downstairs and find ashtrays full of joints and help myself, then stash them behind the microphones.

“It was part and parcel of my upbringing. Drugs were normal in my family but outside they were demonised – no one would let their children come to my house after school.”

Talking about his disruptive childhood, Jamie said he went to "17 different schools in three or four different countries", adding: "Whenever I had friends, they suddenly got taken away.”

He said he was a teenager when he fell in with the wrong crowd. “I took heroin and cocaine,” he said. “I was bad. I was partying hard.”

Revealing a discussion he had with his father about drugs, Jamie said: “I remember being 16 years old when we went on this holiday to Antigua. At this point I was doing drugs every day. I was sitting in my room and I get this knock on my door and it’s Dad, who’s come to chat to me about drugs.

“He said: ‘Do what you gotta do and have fun doing what you do but don’t let the drugs control your life. You control the drugs!’"

Jamie added that Keith Richards once pulled him aside and said: “Jamie, there is a difference between itching your a*** and tearing it to pieces.”

In October 2017, Jamie had a heart attack. On how drug addiction led to his poor health, he said he had "a few accidental slight overdoses as a kid" but believes it was smoking that caused plaque to build up in his artery and bring on a heart attack.

“I certainly damaged myself," he said. "What do you expect? I grew up in that environment. I thought it was natural for me to take drugs.”

If you have been affected by this article, you can contact the following organisations for support: actiononaddiction.org.uk, mind.org.uk, nhs.uk/livewell/mentalhealth, mentalhealth.org.uk.