Ronnie Wood is now the third longest-standing member of The Rolling Stones after founding members Keith Richards and Mick Jagger, but the band is only part of his story. Before taking his dream role with the quintessential rockers in 1976, Wood cut his teeth as a guitarist in the Jeff Beck Group before forming Faces, the offshoot of Steve Marriott’s Small Faces, with Rod Stewart front and centre.
Wood idolised the Stones through his teen years before paving his own road in the London rock scene. “I was going to be in that band one way or another, and I would broadcast the fact,” Wood once proudly reflected in an interview with NME. “I thought it looked like a good job – and it turns out that it is. It goes to show you can set your sights on something and get it if you think big and put in the work.”
In the early ’70s, Wood became well-acquainted with the Stones, having been a good friend of guitarist Mick Taylor’s since the early 1960s. In 1971, Wood bought The Wick, a Grade I listed Georgian house in Richmond, where he hosted grand parties for the rock elite of the time. When Keith Richards moved to live at the property’s coach house for several months between 1973 and ’74, Wood’s dream job seemed within touching distance.
Following Taylor’s departure amid personal issues in December 1974, Wood was brought in to work on Black and Blue but had commitments to uphold with Faces. He toured North America with the Stones in 1975 before the Faces’ disbandment in December and was finally announced as an official Rolling Stone on April 23rd 1976.
For nearly half a century, Wood has performed and recorded with The Rolling Stones as a secondary guitarist, tesselating with Richards’ rhythm and lead blend and frequently performing slide guitar on lap steel and pedal steel guitars. Although Wood is an accomplished bassist, his talents on the four-string were seldom required, with Bill Wyman taking these duties until 1993 and Darryl Jones taking over thereafter.
However, the disco-inspired title track and lead single from the Stones’ 1980 album Emotional Rescue marks a rare occasion where we hear Wood’s bass skills. Wood is also credited with performing bass on several other tracks on the album, relieving the duties of Wyman, who was preoccupied with a cutting-edge string synthesiser.
Listen below to The Rolling Stones’ 1980 synth-laden hit, ‘Emotional Rescue’.
