Ronald David Wood (born 1 June 1947) is an English rock musician, best known as a member of the Rolling Stones since 1975, and a member of Faces and the Jeff Beck Group.
Wood began his career in 1964, playing lead guitar with several British rhythm and blues bands in short succession, including the Birds and the Creation. He joined the Jeff Beck Group in 1967 as a guitarist and bassist, playing on the albums Truth and Beck-Ola. The group split in 1969, and Wood departed along with lead vocalist Rod Stewart to join former Small Faces members Ronnie Lane, Ian McLagan and Kenney Jones in a new group named Faces, with Wood now primarily on lead guitar. The group found great success in the UK and mainland Europe from the early days on, but only reached major fame in the US during their last year of existence, 1975, with a major tour of the US. Wood sang and co-wrote the title track from their final LP, Ooh La La, released in 1973. He also worked extensively on Stewart's first few solo albums.
As Faces began to split, he started several solo projects, eventually recording his first solo LP, I've Got My Own Album to Do, in 1974. The album featured bandmate McLagan as well as former Beatle George Harrison and Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones, a longtime friend of Wood. Soon after Mick Taylor left the Rolling Stones, Richards invited Wood to join them; he did so in 1975, initially temporarily, but became an official member in 1976.
Besides I've Got My Own Album to Do, Wood has recorded several other solo efforts. Now Look was released in 1975 and peaked at No. 118 on Billboard; he also collaborated with Ronnie Lane for the soundtrack album Mahoney's Last Stand. Wood also released Gimme Some Neck in 1979, which hit No. 45 in the US; 1234 was released in 1981, peaking at No. 164. He released Slide on This in 1992, Not for Beginners in 2002, and I Feel Like Playing in 2010. As a member of the Rolling Stones, Wood was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989 and was inducted a second time, as a member of Faces, in 2012.
Wood was born in the London Borough of Hillingdon, into a family of English "bargees" (river or canal barge operators, sometimes called "water gypsies"). He has said that his generation was the first in the family to be born on land. He grew up at 8 Whitehorn Avenue, Yiewsley, and attended St Stephen's Infant School, St Matthew's Church of England Primary School and St Martin's C of E Secondary Modern School West Drayton where one of his drawings was chosen for BBC Sketch Club.
Wood's elder brothers, Art and Ted, were graphic artists as well as musicians; all three brothers studied at Ealing College of Art. Ted Wood died in 2004 and Art Wood in 2006.
Wood began his career as a professional musician in 1964 as a lead guitarist with the Birds, a R&B band based in Yiewsley, Middlesex. A popular live act with a considerable fan base, the Birds released several singles in the mid-1960s; Wood wrote or co-wrote nearly half the songs the group recorded.
By 1967, the Birds had disbanded, and Wood briefly took part in a project called Santa Barbara Machine Head which included later Deep Purple co-founder Jon Lord, before joining the Jeff Beck Group initially as a rhythm guitarist, switching roles to bassist later that year following the departures of both original bassist Jet Harris and his replacement Jeff Ambrose. Along with vocalist Rod Stewart, Wood embarked on 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 Wood's radio show on 14 November 2011, both Wood and Alice Cooper claimed that Wood performed the bass on the Crazy World of Arthur Brown's number one hit "Fire"; Polly Marshall's biography of Arthur Brown states that "according to the-faces.com, Ronnie claims he played on the Track Records studio sessions recording Fire, but he must have confused it with the BBC session [of 8 April 1968]." There is no bass guitar on the recording, only bass pedals.
In 1969, after Steve Marriott left the Small Faces, Wood began working with the remaining members of that group, returning to his instrument of choice, the guitar. This line-up, plus Rod Stewart and former 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. During the summer of 1969, Stewart and Wood also set the template for what would become Faces on An Old Raincoat Won't Ever Let You Down, Stewart's first solo album (known as The Rod Stewart Album in the US). The backing band on the album also included Ian McLagan, Keith Emerson, Micky Waller, and guitarists Martin Pugh (of Steamhammer and later Armageddon and 7th Order) and Martin Quittenton (also from Steamhammer).
In the first half of the 1970s, Faces released four studio albums and were among the top-grossing live acts of the period. Besides his distinctive 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 bandmate 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, which was released as an LP in 1976, also features Faces bandmates Ian McLagan and Kenney Jones, along with contributions from Pete Townshend and Ric Grech. Wood also performed with Townshend, Grech, Steve Winwood, Jim Capaldi and Eric Clapton at Clapton's Rainbow Concert in 1973.
In 1973, Wood asked his old friend Mick Taylor, whom he had known since the early 1960s, to help with his first solo album. In December 1973, Wood collaborated with Mick Jagger on the song "It's Only Rock'n Roll (But I Like It)". Eventually, Jagger and Keith Richards also contributed to Wood's solo LP. I've Got My Own Album to Do was released in 1974, having been recorded at Wood's private studio in the basement of The Wick, his home near London.
Following 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 Faces, he toured North America with the Rolling Stones in 1975; Faces announced their break-up in December of that year, and Wood was officially declared a member of the Rolling Stones on 23 April 1976.
In the Rolling Stones, Wood plays the slide guitar as Taylor and Brian Jones had done before him, and added lap steel and pedal steel guitar to the band. Wood's guitar interplay with Richards often blurs the boundaries between lead and rhythm roles, a practice borrowed from Chicago Blues which Richards dubbed "the ancient art of weaving." Wood 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 synthesiser. The Rolling Stones' single "Emotional Rescue" also features Wood on bass. He has been given credit as a co-writer for over 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 played as an official member of the Rolling Stones; continued his solo career, releasing the album 1234 in 1981; painted; and collaborated with a number of other artists, including Prince, Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Eric Clapton, Bo Diddley, Ringo Starr and Aretha Franklin.