Rolling Stones Wealth Myth Exposed by Ronnie Woods Son

He's rock aristocracy: the legendary guitarist, a member of the for nearly fifty years, living a life of global fame and wealth.

It's an image has helped cement in a band that has generated billions.

Which is why a recent courtroom revelation from his son, Jesse Wood, sent such a jarring ripple through that glossy façade.

Last month, the 49-year-old guitarist and former model stood before magistrates in EWest London. 

Unemployed and pleading guilty to a minor driving offence, he outlined a financial reality utterly at odds with his father's iconic status. 

Jesse told the court he was living on just £1,000 a month, with an annual income of around £14,000 and said he was surviving on his savings.

Despite being the son of a Rolling Stone, a man with an estimated net worth of £150 million, Jesse is scraping by on a modest income and pleading for leniency over a £957 court bill. 

Yet this is because there is a fundamental misunderstanding of the Rolling Stones' fortune, a lifetime of turbulent personal finances, and a family philosophy where the Wood children have always been expected to stand on their own two feet.

A music industry source with knowledge of the band's finances told The Daily Mail: 'People see the stadiums and assume it's one big pot of money for everyone. It never has been.

'Mick [Jagger] and Keith [Richards] operate in a different financial  stratosphere. Ronnie's world has always been more complicated, and that has trickled down.'

The core of this disparity is publishing. When Ronnie Wood joined the Stones in 1975, he entered a band that had already written its most iconic, royalty-generating hits. 

The multi-million-pound annual revenue from classics like Satisfaction and Jumpin' Jack Flash flows primarily to songwriters Mick and Keith.  

Meanwhile, Ronnie's wealth, while substantial, is built on touring shares, performance fees, and later work - a lucrative but less perpetual income stream.

'He gets paid handsomely to be a Rolling Stone, but he doesn't own the jukebox,' the source explains. 

'That's the difference between being wealthy and being generationally, unfathomably rich.'

This chasm is starkly visible in the lives of their children. 

Mick Jagger commands a fortune of £440 million and Keith Richards one of £430 million, wealth that places them at #6 and #7 respectively on lists of the world's richest rock stars, alongside peers like Sir Elton John and billionaire Beatle's legend Sir Paul McCartney. 

However Ronnie's name is conspicuously absent from such rankings.

His bandmate's offspring navigate their careers from a position of immense financial security and social capital. 

Jagger's eight children have built wealth in their own right; his eldest, Karis, is a producer reportedly worth $12 million, while supermodel daughter Georgia May Jagger has an estimated $20 million fortune. 

Meanwhile Keith has already structured future security, as revealed by a £1.8 million trust fund established for his grandchildren alone.

Indeed, Mick himself mused recently that his children 'don't need $500 million to live well,' suggesting his wealth might benefit charity. 

Yet the contrast in starting points could not be clearer. There is no public record of a child of Mick or Keith ever outlining a precarious £1,000-a-month existence in a courtroom.

This reality has been underscored by Ronnie's own, often fraught, relationship with money. 

He has been candid about the chaotic years where cash flowed out as fast as it came in. 'I was terrible with money,' he once admitted. 'I didn't understand it.'

During the height of his struggles with addiction, his finances became so strained that he was forced to borrow a reported £250,000 from his bandmates.

His first wife, Jo Wood, provided a stark glimpse behind the curtain following their divorce, revealing times where the rock 'n' roll fantasy collided with domestic reality.

Jesse built a career in modelling and music - most notably with the band Woods - and has been raising his two children with ex-wife, presenter Fearne Cotton (pictured in 2016)