The musician and artist discussed his life, his art and love of Africa. The sell-out audience was entertained with anecdotes from his career and his genuine love of Africa, its wildlife and how it had influenced him to produce a series of paintings of endangered species to support the work of Tusk.
Ronnie remarked, “It makes me so sad to think that in another 15 years or so elephants, rhino and even lions could have disappeared from the wild denying our children the experience of knowing and loving them. We just cannot allow that to happen.”
An exciting auction followed the conversation and raised £60,000 for the Charity. Signed rock memorabilia such as a L-5S Gibson guitar and a copy of the musician’s journal from 1965 ‘How Can It Be?’ were kindly donated by Ronnie. However, the star lot was a striking contemporary double-sided relief bronze of a rhino called ‘Spike.’ Ronnie explained, “Spike is a rhino I met and sketched while on a visit to see the charity’s work in Kenya and given the desperate plight of rhinos today, I really wanted to turn Spike into a sculpture to support Tusk’s work to protect this species.”
Tusk is extremely grateful to Ronnie Wood for his incredible support and for entertaining us and would also like to thank Martin Bayfield for conducting the auction and the event’s sponsors Lyceum Capital and Justerini & Brooks.