Alanis Nadine Morissette was born in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. She has won 16 Juno Awards and seven Grammy Awards, was nominated for two Golden Globe Awards and has been considered for an Academy Award nomination.
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When she was a teenager, Morissette recorded two dance-pop albums for MCA Records Canada. In 1991 they released Morissette's debut album, Alanis, in Canada only. Morissette co-wrote every track on the album. When it was released, she was credited simply as Alanis. The dance-pop album went platinum, and its first single, "Too Hot,” reached the top twenty on the RPM singles chart.
Subsequent singles "Walk Away" and "Feel Your Love" reached the top forty. Morissette's popularity, style of music and appearance, particularly that of her hair, led her to become known as the Debbie Gibson of Canada. The album garnered three 1992 Juno Awards nominations; Single of the Year and Best Dance Recording - both for "Too Hot" – and Most Promising Female Vocalist of the Year which she won.
In 1992, she released her second album, Now Is the Time, a simpler, ballad-driven record. As with Alanis, Now Is the Time was released only in Canada and produced three top forty singles—"An Emotion Away,” the minor adult contemporary hit "No Apologies" and "(Change Is) Never a Waste of Time.” It only sold about half as many copies as her first album. Morissette was left without a major label contract and was little known outside of Canada.
After graduating from high school, Morissette moved from Ottawa to Toronto to help her develop as a song writer and performer. After she met producer and songwriter Glen Ballard, he let her use his studio. The two wrote and recorded Morissette's first internationally released album, Jagged Little Pill, and by the spring of 1995, she had signed a deal with Maverick Records - the only recording company that expressed interest in her.
Maverick released Jagged Little Pill internationally in 1995. When a DJ from KROQ, an influential Los Angeles modern rock radio station, began playing "You Oughta Know,” the album's first single, The song's scathing, explicit lyrics generated immediate attention. A music video of the song went into heavy rotation on MTV and MuchMusic.
After the success of "You Oughta Know,” the album's other hit singles helped send Jagged Little Pill to the top of the charts. "All I Really Want" and "Hand In My Pocket" followed, but the fourth U.S. single, "Ironic,” became Morissette's biggest hit.
"You Learn" and "Head over Feet,” the fifth and sixth singles, respectively, kept Jagged Little Pill in the top twenty on the Billboard 200 albums chart for more than a year.
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According to the RIAA, Jagged Little Pill is the best-selling international debut album by a female artist, with more than 16 million copies sold in the U.S.; 33 million worldwide. It became the third biggest selling album by a female artist, and the biggest selling debut album old internationally.
Morissette and the album won six Juno Awards in 1996: Album of the Year, Single of the Year ("You Oughta Know"), Female Vocalist of the Year, Songwriter of the Year and Best Rock Album. At the 1996 Grammy Awards, she won Best Female Rock Vocal Performance, Best Rock Song (both for "You Oughta Know"), Best Rock Album and Album of the Year.
Morissette recorded the song "Uninvited" for the soundtrack to the 1998 film City of Angels. Although the track was never officially released as a single, it received widespread radio airplay in the U.S. At the 1999 Grammy Awards, it won in the categories of Best Rock Song and Best Female Rock Vocal Performance, and was nominated for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media.
Later in 1998, Morissette released her fourth album, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie. Since then, she has released three more albums, Under Rug Swept in 2002, So-Called Chaos in 2004, and Flavors of Entanglement in 2008.
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In 1986, Morissette had her first acting gig; twenty episodes of the children's television show You Can't Do That on Television. Since then she has appeared on numerous TV shows including Curb Your Enthusiasm, Sex and the City and Weeds. In 1999, she appeared as God in the Kevin Smith comedy Dogma and contributing the song "Still" to its soundtrack.
It has been announced on Morissette's website that she will be starring in a film adaptation of Philip K. Dick's novel Radio Free Albemuth.
Ronald David "Ronnie" Wood - AKA "Woody" - was born in Hillingdon, London, into a family of English "water gypsies"; river/canal barge operators, sometimes also called "bargees."
Wood began his career as a professional musician in 1964 as a guitarist with The Birds (NOT to be confused with the Byrds), an R&B band based in Yiewsley, West London. A popular live act, The Birds released several singles in the mid-60s; Wood wrote or co-wrote nearly half the songs the group recorded.
He then joined the mod group The Creation, but only remained with the group for a short time, and appeared on a small number of singles. Wood joined The Jeff Beck Group in 1968 as a bass player.
Along with vocalist Rod Stewart, Wood did several tours with Beck, and recorded two albums: Truth in 1968 and Beck-Ola in 1969. In between Jeff Beck Group projects Wood also worked with The Creation.
In 1969, after Steve Marriott left the Small Faces, Wood began playing guitar with the remaining members of that group.They, plus Rod Stewart and ex-Bird Kim Gardner, teamed up with Wood's brother Art Wood in a formation called Quiet Melon, making a handful of recordings in May 1969.
After the Jeff Beck Group's fifth US tour in July, Wood and Stewart joined the former Small Faces full-time, and the band's name was changed to Faces.
In the early 1970s, Faces released four studio albums and were among the top-grossing live acts of the period. Besides his guitar work, Wood contributed harmonica, vocals and bass to the band's recordings, and co-wrote many of their songs, including "Stay With Me" and "Ooh La La."
He also played on Stewart's first few solo albums, and is co-writer of the Rod Stewart songs "Gasoline Alley" and "Every Picture Tells a Story," as well as several songs on Never a Dull Moment.
In 1972, Wood and Faces bassist Ronnie Lane composed the soundtrack to the film Mahoney's Last Stand. The soundtrack was released as an LP in 1976. Wood also performed with Pete Townshend, Grech, Steve Winwood, Jim Capaldi and Eric Clapton at Clapton's Rainbow Concert in 1973.
In December 1973, Wood collaborated with Mick Jagger on the song "It's Only Rock'n Roll (But I Like It)." Then, Jagger and Keith Richards contributed to Wood's first solo album, I've Got My Own Album to Do, released in 1974.
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Following Mick Taylor's departure from the Rolling Stones in December 1974, Wood participated in the band's March 1975 recording sessions for their forthcoming album Black and Blue. Although still a member of the Faces, he toured North America with the Rolling Stones in 1975; the Faces announced their break-up in December of that year, and Wood was officially declared a member of the Rolling Stones in February 1976.
With the Rolling Stones, Wood plays the slide guitar, lap steel and pedal steel guitar. In addition, he exchanges roles on the guitar with Richards, often blurring the boundaries between rhythm and lead, even within a particular song.
He also occasionally plays bass guitar, as seen during 1975 concert performances of "Fingerprint File," when Mick Jagger played rhythm guitar and bassist Bill Wyman moved to synthesizer. The Rolling Stones single "Emotional Rescue" also features Wood on bass.
He has been credited as a co-writer for a dozen songs, including "Dance," "Black Limousine," "One Hit (to the Body)" and "Had It With You."
In 1975, Wood released his second solo album, Now Look; his third, Gimme Some Neck, came out in 1979. To promote it, Wood formed and toured with The New Barbarians, playing 20 concerts in Canada and the US in April/May and the Knebworth Festival in the UK in August.
Throughout the 1980s, Wood painted, played with The Rolling Stones, and continued his solo career, releasing the album 1234 in 1981and collaborated with a number of other artists, including Prince, Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Eric Clapton, Bo Diddley, Ringo Starr and Aretha Franklin.
In 1990 Wood was made a fully-fledged partner in the Rolling Stones' financial organization. During the '90s the Rolling Stones released two studio albums and three concert albums, as well as touring in 1990, 1994–95 and 1997–99.
In addition, Wood released his seventh solo album, Slide On This, in 1992; he toured to promote this album in North America and Japan. His appearance in 1993 with Rod Stewart on MTV Unplugged resulted in a hit album entitled Unplugged...and Seated; the concert album that Wood released in 1993 from his own tour was called Slide On Live: Plugged In and Standing.
Wood also contributed to Bo Diddley's 1996 album A Man Amongst Men, playing slide guitar. Since 2000 Wood has continued to combine solo work with his Rolling Stones schedule. Following the 2001 release of his album Not For Beginners, Wood toured England and Ireland in 2001 and 2002 with his own group, The Ronnie Wood Band.
Wood is a renowned artist. When he was a child his drawings were featured on the BBC television programme Sketch Club. He went on to train at the Ealing Art College, as both his brothers had.
Wood's paintings, drawings and prints frequently feature icons of popular culture and have been exhibited all over the world.
Wood has three books to his credit: a short collection of autobiographical anecdotes entitled The Works, illustrated with Wood's artwork, co-authored by Bill German and published in 1988; a limited-edition art book entitled Wood on Canvas: Every Picture Tells a Story, published in 1998; and his 2007 autobiography Ronnie, written in collaboration with his son-in-law Jack MacDonald and Jeffrey Robinson.
