<\/p>\n
Nine-time Grammy-winning musician, songwriter, DJ and producer Mark Ronson knows he is going to have his work cut out for him when his daughter reaches her teenage years. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Ronson, who won Grammys for producing Amy Winehouse\u2019s Back To Black, his 2014 hit single Uptown Funk with Bruno Mars, co-writing Shallow with Lady Gaga and the Barbie soundtrack, is also the father of two daughters with his wife of four years, Gracie Gummer. <\/p>\n
The oldest, Ruthie, is two and features at the very end of Ronson\u2019s new memoir Night People, which recounts his early days as a trailblazing DJ in the clubs of New York City in the 1990s golden era. <\/p>\n
Ronson, now 50, was still childless when he started writing the book three years ago but as he delved into his own wild teenage adventures with music and drugs \u2013 and started his family \u2013 he began to ponder just how confessional and raw he would be, knowing they might read it one day. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy daughter wasn\u2019t even born when I started the book, but by the time I was finishing it, she\u2019s two and I\u2019m thinking, \u2018God, I\u2019m going to have no leverage when she\u2019s 14 and comes home late\u2019,\u201d Ronson says over Zoom call from his New York home.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019ll be like, \u2018Dad, you are doing heroin when you were 18\u2019 or whatever it is. But I had this talk with (actor) Dax Shepard on his podcast and he just said something that really resonated with me.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was like, \u2018I don\u2019t want to have any secrets from my kids by the time they\u2019re that age\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd maybe that\u2019s foolish, but it definitely resonated with me. But yes, I\u2019m going to have some explaining to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ronson doesn\u2019t pull too many punches in the new book, which focuses on the years before the hits and collaborations that made him a global star. Inspired by the countless people \u2013 particularly from Gen Z \u2013 who had approached him asking what it was like to be in the middle of the thriving Big Apple club scene before the era of social media, widespread VIP and bottle service and celebrity DJs, when regular punters could potentially rub shoulders with the likes of Jay-Z, Biggie Smalls, Prince or Mariah Carey. <\/p>\n
\u201cI started to think I\u2019ve done enough damage to my brain that if I don\u2019t start to write these things down they will be gone forever,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know if anybody wrote the story of the gigging DJ. What it\u2019s like only on the way up and not when you\u2019re on the festival stage playing to 50,000 people, but when you\u2019re just night in night out doing the thing because you love it even if you\u2019re getting paid 50 bucks and two drink tickets and playing on some nights for seven people.\u201d <\/p>\n
Ronson interviewed hundreds of friends and former colleagues for the book to create as vivid a picture as he could from more than 30 years ago. Not only was his own memory a little hazy, but often he was stuck in a tiny DJ booth when the real action was unfolding on the hip and heaving dancefloors. Along the way, he was reminded of embarrassing encounters with celebrities, learned that a club owner once called his mother to make sure he had permission to be there because he looked so young and reconnected with people he hadn\u2019t seen or spoken to for years. And while he said he didn\u2019t \u201cset out to write a super personal book about drugs and addiction and compulsion\u201d, he soon realised that to accurately portray the sometimes hedonistic scene then \u201cI had to talk about my own demons as well\u201d. <\/p>\n
While Ronson emerged more or less intact from his hard-partying DJ days and went on to much bigger success, he was sensitive to the fact that many others didn\u2019t and had to work hard to win their trust for them to share their stories, particularly the ones who had fallen on harder times. <\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to tell everybody\u2019s story in a really positive light,\u201d he says. \u201cObviously I was lucky all those times I was doing drugs. There\u2019s this sense that I was definitely really driven and my eyes were on the prize of music so that I wasn\u2019t going to fully throw everything away but you don\u2019t know. You can have one bad night that it\u2019s beyond your control, take the wrong thing. So, I consider myself lucky, and I\u2019m very grateful to have made it out of there.\u201d<\/p>\n
With an extraordinary and privileged background like his \u2013 London-born Ronson\u2019s stepfather is Foreigner guitarist Mick Jones and he recounts stories of Robin Williams tucking him into bed and Michael Jackson being at a sleepover at his childhood friend Sean Lennon\u2019s house \u2013 a certain amount of name-dropping was inevitable for a memoir. Ronson says he tried to be judicious about it and reveals that he was actually \u201chyper aware of his background\u201d when he was first starting out.<\/p>\n
\u201cI tried so hard to play it down that I was from this fancy family up-town, with my stepdad a rock star and all of this stuff,\u201d he says. \u201cI thought it wouldn\u2019t make people just not want to f— with me or think that I was not legit. But nobody really cared. That was all in my head. All people cared about in that scene was if you rolled up and you rocked the party.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ronson has been a regular visitor to Australia over the years \u2013 he caught up with his friend and sometime collaborator soul singer Daniel Merriweather in Melbourne earlier this year \u2013 and music and artists from these parts have helped shape his career. INXS was a formative early influence \u2013 he recalls teaching Lennon how to play the guitar riff to Devil Inside \u2013 and helped him find the funk and R&B that would become an integral part of his sound as a DJ and producer.<\/p>\n
Similarly, AC\/DC provided him with a crucial moment when he shockingly dropped the legendary Back In Black riff in the middle of a Biggie Smalls track in a hard-core hip-hop club, knowing he was flirting with career suicide \u2013 and flying bottles \u2013 by doing so. Thankfully, the crowd went nuts.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat set me apart as a DJ because I became known as the guy who plays hip-hop and Biggie and Rufus and Chaka Khan \u2013 but also AC\/DC and Joan Jett,\u201d he recalls. \u201cThis was before the mashup era so that AC\/DC Back In Black drop was so instrumental in me carving out my path.\u201d<\/p>\n
That audacious choice also led to his first proper gig as a record producer for Nikki Costa, an American soul singer who based in Melbourne at the time, on her 2001 album Everybody Got Their Something. Many of the basic skills he would take to studio sessions to produce artists from Adele and Winehouse to Lily Allen and Miley Cyrus, he learned from Costa\u2019s Aussie husband and former member of Noiseworks, Justin Stanley. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat gig was everything,\u201d Ronson says. \u201cI learned from watching Justin how to mic drum kits. I learned how to collaborate and make proper records from sitting with Nikka and Justin in a room for 18 months as we figured out what that sound was.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I learned how to use Pro Tools by staring at the back of Justin\u2019s head. I mean everything I learned in those early days was really in that room with them.\u201d <\/p>\n
The art of being a DJ has changed out of sight in the three decades since Ronson first started out on the decks. Advances in technology have made some of the hard-learned physical skills of cuing, scratching and beat-matching a whole lot easier and the advent of streaming services has done away with the need to lug around crates of rare vinyl records. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s also given rise to the \u201ccelebrity DJ\u201d, a name initially given to Ronson once he started spinning at high-profile fashion events and star-studded crowds, but has now seemingly spread to any model, influencer or sports person with a love of a crowd and a passing interest in music. While Ronson says has mixed feelings about the term and while he embraces the technology, he also is grateful for the skills he learned in how to work a room doing it the old-school way. <\/p>\n
\u201cI was doing all the fashion gigs \u2026 so it\u2019s hard to complain about it,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow every Real Housewife, every Jersey Shore member, everybody\u2019s a DJ. Certainly, it\u2019s easier starting out now.<\/p>\n
\u201cAre there incredible DJs that are just as good as the DJs for my generation? Of course, but it does make it easier.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the first (celebrity) DJs that really came along that didn\u2019t have to have talent but it was because they were famous from TV. I remember going to a party and \u2013 obviously she put in the hours to become a talented technical DJ afterwards \u2013 but I saw Paris Hilton with two iPods or something at a club and I was like \u2018okay this is where we\u2019re going.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Mark Ronson\u2019s Night People is out now. <\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.news.com.au \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Nine-time Grammy-winning musician, songwriter, DJ and producer Mark Ronson knows he is going to have his work cut out for him when his daughter reaches her teenage years. Ronson, who won Grammys for producing Amy Winehouse\u2019s Back To Black, his 2014 hit single Uptown Funk with Bruno Mars, co-writing Shallow with Lady Gaga and the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2064991,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[350016,363478,371598,21823,382836,368446,385775,364670,385763,385748,385767,385773,385771,314108,385750,385769,26961,385762,382833,369253,385774,385772,385760,385777,385753,353232,344870,370593,385759,40863,25741,312296,385761,24845,385749,304696,370208,23089,385778,21825,382813,382806,382828,348057,385752,385747,385765,385768,385764,385758,385770,385776,312150,385757,344806,385751,385754,338952,385755,27727,358540,385756,385766],"class_list":["post-2064990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-america","tag-american-soul-singer","tag-amy-winehouse","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-bottle-service","tag-career-suicide","tag-chaka-khan","tag-christopher-wallace","tag-club-owner","tag-club-scene","tag-collaborator-soul-singer","tag-daniel-merriweather","tag-dax-shepard","tag-dj-mark-ronson","tag-drink-tickets","tag-europe","tag-fancy-family-up-town","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-grace-gummer","tag-gracie-gummer","tag-guitar-riff","tag-hard-core-hip-hop-club","tag-high-profile-fashion-events","tag-hit-single","tag-integral-part","tag-jay-z","tag-joan-jett","tag-justin-stanley","tag-lily-allen","tag-london","tag-mariah-carey","tag-mashup-era","tag-melbourne","tag-mic-drum-kits","tag-michael-jackson","tag-mick-jones","tag-new-york","tag-nikka-costa","tag-north-america","tag-northern-america","tag-northern-europe","tag-oceania","tag-paris-hilton","tag-passing-interest","tag-positive-light","tag-rare-vinyl-records","tag-real-action","tag-regular-punters","tag-regular-visitor","tag-releases-memoir","tag-rich-kid","tag-robin-williams","tag-room-doing","tag-sean-lennon","tag-soul-singer","tag-stefani-joanne-angelina-germanotta","tag-studio-sessions","tag-teenage-adventures","tag-united-kingdom","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-victoria","tag-wealthmusic-producer"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Mark-Ronson-DJ-releases-memoir-Night-People-discussing-Amy-Winehouse.avif","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2064990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2064990"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2064990\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2064992,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2064990\/revisions\/2064992"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2064991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2064990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2064990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2064990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}