Ronnie Wood Getty Images Francois Durand

[lastfm link_type="artist_info"]Ronnie Wood[/lastfm] (born 1 June 1947) is an English rock guitarist and bassist best known as a member of[lastfm link_type="artist_info"] The Rolling Stones[/lastfm] and former member of [lastfm link_type="artist_info"]The Jeff Beck Group[/lastfm], [lastfm link_type="artist_info"]Faces[/lastfm].

[photogallerylink id=42055 align=left] Playing standard guitar as well as lap and pedal steel guitar, Ron Wood has been a member of several “classic” British rock outfits. With the Stones  since 1976 Ronnie has been a contributing member as well as a talent worthy on the Rolling Stones.

Starting his career as a professional musician in 1964 as a guitarist with The Birds where Wood wrote or co-wrote nearly half the songs the group recorded.

When the Birds had disbanded, and Wood briefly took part in a project called Santa Barbara Machine Head before joining the Jeff Beck Group as a bassist with vocalist Rod Stewart. Wood did several tours with Beck, and recorded two albums: Truth in 1968 and Beck-Ola in 1969. Wood and Stewart opted to stick together, as they joined the Small Faces the same year (with Wood returning to the six-string).  Releasing one album under the Small Faces’ name, 1970′s First Step, the group then shortened its name simply to the Faces and soon after became one of rock’s most notoriously party-hearty outfits of the era.

With the exit of Mick Taylor in 1974, the Stones began auditioning replacement guitarists, but all along, founding Stones guitarist Keith Richards knew that Wood (a longtime friend) was the man for the job. Wood contributed to half of the Stones’ 1976 album, Black and Blue, before becoming a full-time member and appearing on 1977′s Love You Live and 1978′s Some Girls. Although the Stones didn’t issue any albums during 1979, the year was a busy one for Wood, as he issued his fourth solo release, Gimme Some Neck, and toured alongside Richards in a one-off side band, the New Barbarians.

During this time, Wood issued such further solo albums as 1981′s 1234 and 1988′s Live at the Ritz (the latter a collaboration with Bo Diddley), and became an avid painter. Jagger and Richards eventually buried the hatchet by the late ’80s, and the Stones sporadically issued new studio albums and toured from 1989 onward (1989′s Steel Wheels, 1994′s Voodoo Lounge, 1997′s Bridges to Babylon, etc.). Wood has continued to issue solo recordings throughout the ’90s and beyond (1992′s Slide on This, 1994′s Slide on Live: Plugged in and Standing, plus a pair in 2002, Not for Beginners and Live & Eclectic). Additionally, Wood has guested on countless recordings by other artists over the years, including albums by the Band, David Bowie, Eric Clapton, Donovan, Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, B.B. King, and his old pal Rod Stewart, with whom he taped a popular edition of MTV’s Unplugged in 1993, resulting in the hit album Unplugged…and Seated. Wood’s seventh solo album, I Feel Like Playing, appeared in 2010 from Eagle Records and featured guest spots from Slash, Flea, Billy Gibbons, Bobby Womack, Jim Keltner, and ex-Faces bandmate Ian McLagan, among others.

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