Right before his passing in December 2025, Stax guitar legend Steve Cropper was working on a new record featuring an all-star cast including Eric Clapton, Brian May, Billy Gibbons, and Ronnie Wood.

Now, Cropper’s final project, Watching the Tide – a reference to his performance on Otis Redding’s (Sittin’ on) the Dock of the Bay – has been confirmed for release on August 28, with the first song, Ticket First, alongside Eric Clapton, giving us a taste of what to expect from the posthumous release.

Speaking about the single and the subsequent album, acclaimed songwriter-producer Jon Tiven – and Cropper’s close collaborator – says, “Making music was Steve's greatest joy. Steve was so encouraged by Friendlytown [his 2024, Grammy-nominated release]. He was adamant he wanted to do another record.

“I sent out some emails to guitar players I knew who had a great affinity for Steve, and two days later, I got an email back from Eric Clapton's manager, saying he’d be in Nashville for a concert and could we do it then,” Tiven recalls.

“He did, I believe, 11 takes on guitar. At the end, Steve and I looked at each other and said, ‘Man, you just turned the song inside out. I think we're gonna have to give you a writer's credit.’ Eric looked pretty stunned by that. And he said: ‘Well, anything to get my name next to Steve Cropper’s…’”

The A-list cameos continue with Brian May and Billy Gibbons, who lend their chops to the ballad My Angels Are Calling, Ronnie Wood on Until Now, and Tiven himself, who takes on lead guitar duties on Blood From A Stone and Here & Gone.

Yet, the process was far from easy, as those around Cropper knew he was running out of time. “I finished the mixes about a week and a half before Steve passed, and we brought a CD to him at the medical facility,” Tiven says.

“He called me the night before he passed to tell me how much he loved it. He was playing it for everyone who came to visit him, telling them it was the best record he’d ever made.”

“I know this record provided great joy to Steve in the last year of his life, and I’m so glad he was able to have this great creative burst that was so strong…” he concludes.

Watching the Tide is available to preorder via Provogue/Artone Label Group.

On Tuesday (May 5), the Rolling Stones announced a new album, Foreign Tongues.

Their 25th long player in total, it – like its predecessor, 2023's impressively vital Hackney Diamonds – was produced by Andrew Watt, and (also like its predecessor) features a laundry list of special guests: Steve Winwood, the Cure frontman Robert Smith, Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, and some up-and-comer named Paul McCartney.

The Stones officially launched the album that same day with a splashy listening party and Q&A led by Conan O'Brien, held at the cavernous Weylin event space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Of course, those aforementioned guest spots were high on the list of discussion priorities, but less tabloid-friendly (and arguably more interesting) were the more nuts-and-bolts insights into how the Stones have musically kept on, well, rolling, for well over 60 years.

O'Brien at one point asked Wood – sat in between the ever-ageless Mick Jagger and the ever-wry Keith Richards – about how his own fondness for open E tuning clicks with his six-string comrade's love of Open G.

“In my Faces days I always played open E, and Keith always played in open G,” Wood explained. “Somewhere in the middle, there's this sort of mesh that we call ‘the ancient form of weaving’. Sometimes we cross accidentally!”

Indeed, if you've ever heard Richards discuss in other interviews the way his playing interacts with Wood's – or Mick Taylor's and Brian Jones' before him – you've likely also heard him use that exact term.

It's the bedrock of the Stones' sound – rhythm and lead blending into one; no showing off; blues, country, and rockabilly all blending together seamlessly. The overlapping riffs that have been played by millions of guitarists the world over.

Richards, for his part, highlighted to O'Brien that there's no need for discussing the fine matters of arranging with his guitar partner of half a century.

“[There's no] ‘Oh, this chord goes like this; this chord goes like this,’” he said. “We know [where and when to play] without thinking about it or talking about it.”

If you want a lasting career as a guitar tech, you’ll have to know all the ins and outs of the rigs you’ll be working on. If you want to work for the biggest bands in the world, like The Rolling Stones, well, you pretty much have to be the best in the business.

Ryan Bullington started out as a guitar player and eventually got a job working for a sound and lighting company, through which he secured his first-ever role as a guitar tech in 1997. He worked his way up the ladder and eventually found himself taking care of Ronnie Wood’s guitars and amps.

“The band that we were providing sound and lighting for heard me play and asked if I wanted to be their tech,” he tells Guitar World, on a break from his duties looking after Brian Ray’s rig on the road with Paul McCartney.

“I said, ‘What’s that?’ and they told me I’d have to tune guitars for them. I said, ‘You want to pay me to tune your guitars?’ I didn’t know that was a thing.”

It was a life-changing moment that led to months on tour buses and hundreds of shows a year. He went from “making terrible money to good money” by building a solid reputation and moving from artist to artist. It’s a small industry, he explains, where everybody seems to know everybody.

Asked how he got The Rolling Stones gig, he says it came down to a network of likeminded friends.

“Four people put in a good word for me, including an amp repair guy in New York and a buddy who works for AC/DC. I got a call at home in Nashville at 4pm; they asked if I could be in LA the next morning. By 10am I was walking into rehearsal. It happened so fast. Now I do all the stringed instruments for Mick and Ronnie.”

What’s it like working for one of the most important rock bands of all time?

The most unique thing about the Stones gig is that all the guitars on the road are the same ones used on the albums.

We bring out a ton of guitars they used on those legendary songs. It’s great – I pick one up, strum a G chord and it sounds like Wild Horses, and that’s because it’s the actual guitar they used for Wild Horses.

What kind of pedals would we find on Ronnie’s ’board?

It’s the least I’ve ever seen on stage! There’s a Klon Centaur that’s always on, with the exception of two songs where we use an OCD for more gain. There’s a TC Electronic delay that’s used for a couple of new songs. Honestly though, it’s just a dry Fender Vibro King with that Klon Centaur. That’s it.

Well, they’ve always had a direct approach to tone without much extra color or modulation.

What I’ve learned is that, because it’s all stadiums, you get all the verb and delay you could ever ask for from the room. You don’t need a pedal. It’s wet enough. They’re playing old bluesy rock, but with quality guitars. All of them like low action and a straight neck. They want the guitar to have minimal fight.

What are the most useful tools in your trade?

The Orange Valve Tester is really useful. We’ve been using that a lot recently for all the spare amps which don’t quite get the love they deserve. With Brian Ray in the McCartney band, we have three spare Vox AC30s. It’s been great for getting everything to the same level of gain.

“We’re trying to make these amps sound the best they can, and the Valve Tester helps. I’m looking to get the same ratings across all the output tubes. I did the same with Ronnie’s Vibro Kings, getting them dialed in better. We wanted to soften up the front end and bring the gain down a bit.

How often should someone who plays two hours a day think about changing their tubes?

In my world the amps are on for six hours a day. I usually go about three months before I change them, unless we’re talking about EL84s, which run a lot hotter and need to be changed more often. But if you’re playing your amp for a couple of hours a day, it’s probably good to change your output tubes once a year.

With preamp tubes, you never change them unless there’s a problem: it might be a microphonic tube or you just might not be happy with the tone. There’s a lot you can do by swapping tubes instead of turning knobs.

What else makes your job a lot easier?

I used to joke that somebody needs to invent a string stretcher because my hands would hurt so bad. Eventually somebody made one and it became one of my favorite things – my hands no longer hurt!

My measuring tools are also important. Some people do it by eye, but I’ve worked for musicians who like things exact. Peter Frampton, for example, is very meticulous. You need to give him numbers, you can’t say ‘It’s close or about this.’ He speaks in a very clear language. Working for people like that has upped my game. Measuring takes all the guesswork and opinions out of it. You’re working with facts.

What are the most challenging onstage scenarios you’ve found yourself in?

There have been several times where the rig has gone down in the middle of a song in front of 60,000 people. You can’t panic, even if everyone else is – people might be looking at you or screaming at you. You’ve got to get in the zone while blocking everyone else out. It’s about thinking clearly.

This job can be nerve-racking, especially if you know there’s a dodgy piece of gear limping along. You’ll want to know all your weak points in the signal path – they’re the first places to start looking. Sometimes I lie in bed thinking about the signal path – if something failed, how would I fix it?

My goal is to know about the problem before the player tells me there’s one. To do that, I listen to everything on a note-by-note basis, comparing it to the last show. Context is how you know something’s off.

Have you ever had any strange setup requests?

Keith Urban once told me his amp sounded too blue. I remember thinking, “There’s no blue knob here, bro!” But usually it’s straightforward. Guitar players and guitar techs all love hearing great tones. I guess the difference is that pro players earn enough money to use gear we all wish we could own!

One of the best parts of your job must be playing rare guitars steeped in history. Which have been your favorites?

There’s a black Zemaitis that Ronnie used with The Faces – it’s the Stay With Me guitar. We have it on the road with the Stones for tracks like Monkey Man. Us backline techs will jam for an hour to let the sound crew get their stuff together, and that’s the guitar I choose. It’s in open E tuning – it always has been – so I play slide while walking the runways, checking all the monitors.

I also love Ronnie’s 1956 Les Paul Special in TV Yellow. It was given to him by Jesse Ed Davis when he was playing bass for that short while. I don’t know what Jesse used it on, but when we made the last record we had over 100 amazing guitars – all of Keith’s, Ronnie’s and Mick’s – and it’s the one I fell in love with.

To experience this stuff for yourself is something else. We often hear the phrase, “There are songs in that guitar,” and that’s true of the Les Paul Special. Songs just come out of it.

And if there’s one amp to rule them all, which would it be?

I think the greatest circuit of all-time is the tweed Twin/Bassman, which is basically the Marshall circuit. My favourite amp is Keith Urban’s Dumble Overdrive Reverb. I think it’s serial number 59, built in 1978. That amp is special.

It used to be John Mayer’s; I think it’s the one he used on Gravity, and Keith got it after. It was originally made for Jackson Browne. I was blown away when I first heard it. It makes you play more fluid and liquidy.

I’ve heard Keith play through every amp known to man and he sounded different on that one. I love the Dumble circuit. Not everybody is a fan, but I am because I know what it’s capable of.

You’ve seen a lot of pedals over the years. Any favorites?

It’s hard to say – there are so many out there. You can get the job done with just about any pedal. I did a Peter Frampton tour in 2013 called the Guitar Circus because every city had a big-name player come sit in with us. I think there were 26 guests in total, and over half of them had a Klon Centaur on the pedalboard. So, shoutout to the Klon, I guess!

I met a guy while we were doing the Stones record and he had this pedal out called the Love Bomb. It’s even bigger than a Big Muff, but it sounds awesome. It has a little tube inside. I have one with me right now. It’s a fantastic pedal, man!

Ronnie Wood may have plenty in his bank account today, but the Rolling Stones legend and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer has revealed that he stole his first bass guitar.

Wood rose through the ranks with the Birds, later joining Jeff Beck’s band – where he played bass – before forming the Faces in 1969, and eventually replacing Mick Taylor in the Rolling Stones. He’s been with the group for almost a staggering 50 years.

Before that, he’d risen through the British rhythm and blues scene, but getting his hands on a bass – an instrument he'd been encouraged to learn – wasn’t an easy task.

“I went round to a music store called Sound City and said, ‘If you let me borrow one for tonight, I promise I'll come back?’” he says (via the Mirror). However, the transaction played on his mind as he cut his teeth in his early bands.

“I didn't go back until five or six years later, when I was in The Faces [and] I could pay them,” he confesses. “I told them that I was the person who stole the Fender Jazz bass, and I'd come back to pay them. They just smiled and said: ‘We thought it was you!’”

The Faces, who produced seminal blues tracks like Stay With Me, are expected to release their first album since 1973's Ooh La La next year. Drummer Kenny Jones revealed that he had reunited with Wood and vocalist Rod Stewart and recorded 11 new songs.

Meanwhile, Wood is set to release a new career-spanning anthology, Fearless, and in its liner notes, he’s reflected on his formative years as a blues guitarist in 1960s London. One of his earliest highlights came when his band, the Birds, found themselves on the same bill as blues legend Bo Diddley.

“What made him so great was his freedom, his reckless abandon, and the confidence that shone through in his music,” he says. “He could break and change a guitar string onstage without stopping the song.”

By 1976, Wood had become an official member of the Rolling Stones, but Harvey Mandel – who had also auditioned for the gig – recently came out firing, believing he was a far better fit for the job.

Jimmy Rip has looked back on his time working with Jerry Lee Lewis, and recalled his experiences of recording a legion of electric guitar greats over a four-year period for the late pianist/singer's 39th album, Last Man Standing.

Released in 2006, the record sees Lewis dueting with other members of the rock ’n’ roll elite – including Jimmy Page, B.B. King, Buddy Guy and more – on a score of covers. For producer/guitarist Rip, the four-year recording process brought some wild moments, but his memories of putting such an ambitious project together were nothing but joyous.

“I had nothing but a blast making that record,” he tells Guitar World as part of a soon-to-be-published interview. “Needless to say, Jerry’s dangerous reputation preceded him, but in the four years it took to finish that record, we did nothing but laugh and rock ‘n’ roll.”

Across its 21 tracks, Rip formed a fruitful tandem with his “dear friend” Kenny Lovelace, who was Lewis’s guitar player and band leader over a staggering 55-year spell. But they weren’t the only players bringing some electric guitar spice to proceedings.

“Of course, there was what I’m sure is the greatest guest list on any disc in rock history,” Rip continues. “If you’re only speaking about the guitar-playing invitees, there was Jimmy Page, B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Ronnie Wood, Keith Richards, Willie Nelson, Eric Clapton, and Neil Young.”

Capturing such a stellar cast, naturally, had its challenges. Rip was tasked with recording the contributions of each guest player – a mission that took him around the globe.

“I traveled around the world for four years, recording the 22 guests in total in some crazy places, like hotel rooms, rehearsal rooms, and kitchens,” he says. “I had a mic, a preamp, a laptop, and a relentless drive to show the world how great Jerry Lee still was.”

Most tracks saw Lewis reshaping a song in his own sharply dressed style, with ties between his guests and the original songwriters common. That saw Page aiding Lewis’ take on Led Zeppelin’s Rock and Roll, Ronnie Wood helping him cover Mick Jagger’s solo track, Evening Gown, and John Fogerty starring as he recoloured CCR’s Travelin’ Band.

The full conversation with Jimmy Rip is due to be published online in the coming weeks.

Julien's Auctions has recently announced the return of its Music Icons sale – and this year's two-day sale includes over 700 collectible items from some of the world's biggest music icons.

The sale includes several guitars that were stage- or studio-played by the likes of Eric Clapton, Kurt Cobain, Brian May, Melissa Etheridge, and Bob Dylan, to name a mere few.

“This incredible collection brings together the instruments, fashion, and personal items that shaped the soundtrack of our lives – from the guitars that changed music history to the unforgettable looks worn by the world’s biggest stars,” comments Martin Nolan, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Julien’s Auctions. “It’s a celebration of artistry, legacy, and the timeless power and endless enjoyment of music.”

Among the gems, guitar aficionados can find Cobain's 1989 Takamine FP360SC left-handed electro-acoustic guitar, played during Nirvana’s 1991 Hilversum Sessions recorded in North Holland, which is expected to sell for between $300,000 and $500,000.

Elsewhere, Eddie Van Halen's stage-played circa 2007 Charvel EVH Art Series – black with red and white stripes – which the virtuoso played (and signed) on October 5th, 2007 in Uncasville, Connecticut is estimated to fetch $20,000 to $40,000.

Another Nirvana link-up comes by way of a 1989 Warwick Dolphin Pro I bass, which Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic played during a session in Hilversum, also in 1991, just before the band’s performance at Amsterdam’s Paradiso. It’s estimated at $100,000 to $200,000.

Eric Clapton's 1980 Santa Cruz FTC-15 is also part of the auction. This acoustic guitar – owned and played by Clapton – was crafted by Santa Cruz luthier Richard Hoover, who in 1980 received a handwritten letter from an “E. Clapton.” Upon opening it, Hoover discovered it was indeed from Eric Clapton, who had seen the FTC in a magazine and wanted to know how he could “lay my hands on this particular model.” The guitar is expected to fetch upwards of $40,000.

Also featured is a Gibson Les Paul Special DC Tribute in cherry red, signed and stage-played by Joe Perry during Aerosmith’s 50th-anniversary concert in 2022 in Boston, which is estimated at $30,000 to $50,000. David Bowie's name also makes an appearance with a signed 1998 Seagull S6 Mahogany Spruce acoustic, played during his final Australian performance.

Other notable guitars include a Noel Gallagher-autographed Suzuki Hummingbird in cherry burst, and a 2012 ESP Ronnie Wood signature Telecaster, signed by the Rolling Stones guitarist and accompanied by a handwritten lyric: “Have you heard about the midnight rambler?”

An exhibition of the Music Icons highlights will be on display at the Hard Rock Cafe Piccadilly Circus in London from May 9 to May 13, before heading across the pond to the Hard Rock Cafe New York from May 21 to May 31. The collectibles will then hit the auction block on May 30 and 31. For more information, visit Julien’s Auctions.

Late last year, the original Mary Kaye Strat – one of the most iconic Fender electric guitars of all time – sold for $227,500 at an auction hosted by Julien's.

Aside from being one of the pioneers of the two-handed tapping technique that gained steam in the post-Van Halen era, Harvey Mandel made his mark on rock ‘n’ roll history as a member of the Woodstock-era Canned Heat, as well as playing side-by-side with John Mayall. And oh, he was also almost a Rolling Stone...

“I was living in LA at the time. In the middle of the night, suddenly, I got a call, and it’s Mick Jagger,” he tells Guitar World. “I thought it was somebody goofing around at first, but after I talked with him on the phone for a few minutes, I realized this was Mick Jagger.

“They were in Germany at the time, and he said, ‘Well, we want you to come to Germany…’ He didn’t really say it was an ‘audition’ to join the Stones; he wanted me to come and play to be a part of the record.”

Despite playing on Hot Stuff and Memory Motel, which would later be released on 1976’s Black and Blue, Mandel asserts that Keith Richards blocked his trajectory to becoming a Rolling Stone.

“Ronnie Wood came in the next day, and Ronnie Wood and Keith Richards were pals,” he explains. “They grew up together and hung out. Mick Jagger wanted me to play. Keith Richards wanted Ronnie Wood, who won out because he [Keith Richards] had the power to insist that it was Ronnie Woodor else. So, I kind of got aced out.”

In his heart of hearts, however, Mandel still believes that he was the one who should have landed the highly coveted gig.

"Ronnie was a nice guy. I played at his club and hung out with him a couple of times. He was actually a really nice guy – but let’s face it: he ain’t no Mick Taylor, and he’s no Harvey Mandel. He’s what I call a C-plus guitar player,” he says matter-of-factly.

“He had the show, and he could jump around and be part of the craziness, but he never impressed me as an actual player. So, I think they would have been much better off musically if I was the one playing because they didn’t need Ronnie Wood for the show. Mick Jagger was the show.”

Paul McCartney brought his Got Back tour to a star-studded close in London last night (December 19) by performing Beatles classics with Ringo Starr and Ronnie Wood.

The career-spanning setlist included several Beatles, Wings, and solo hits, but it was the surprise appearances of Macca’s fellow rock ’n’ roll heavyweights – and the high-profile return of a legendary bass guitar – that have understandably stolen the show.

A tireless 36-song performance got out of the traps quickly with A Hard Day’s Night, with a feast of some of McCartney’s finest slices of songwriting, including Blackbird, Let Me Roll It – which was bestowed with a little of Jimi Hendrix's Foxy Lady for its final throes – and, of course, his villain-slaying epic, Live and Let Die, following suit.

McCartney had the backing of a children's choir for a timely run-through of Wonderful Christmastime before bringing out Rolling Stones’ Ronnie Wood, with whom he dished out the shuffling grooves of Get Back – a rendition made extra special thanks to Macca’s instrument of choice.

Over 50 years ago, McCartney’s Höfner violin bass was stolen while the Beatles were recording in 1972. The instrument had previously been used on a slew of Beatles songs, including Love Me Do and She Loves You, and is one of the band’s most recognizable instruments.

Miraculously, a project spearheaded by the Lost Bass Project – which had a little help from a Guitar World scribe – helped locate the bass earlier this year, and reunite the Höfner with its rightful owner.

McCartney was said to have been as “excited as a schoolboy” upon its discovery and return, and his promise that it would be fixed up and return to the stage has come true. On the night in question, Macca told the crowd: “We've been looking for it for 50 years, and I got it back. Here to make its first stage appearance in 50 years is my original bass.”

This year has been a wild one for Beatles guitars. John Lennon’s long-lost Framus 12-string acoustic was found in an attic, and George Harrison’s oddball Futurama guitar – used extensively during the band's Hamburg days – sold for $1.27m at auction.

Elsewhere, John Lennon’s first-ever Vox amp was found under strange circumstances, with Guitar World breaking the story in October.

Perhaps then, with all that nostalgia in the air, it prompted the multi-instrumentalist to invite his former Beatles bandmate Ringo Starr onto the stage during the tour’s mega finale.

“I've had a great night tonight!” Ringo quipped to the crowd, before retreating behind his drum kit.

Of course, they chose two unstoppable Beatles jams for the occasion, strutting through a roof-raising Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band – aided by some smooth licks from Rusty Anderson – and the proto-metal pomp of Helter Skelter.

It was the perfect conclusion to a mammoth 59-date run of shows that officially began back in 2022.

“It’s fantastic, playing with my old mate, but there comes a time when we’ve got to go home,” Starr says as he departs the stage. As for McCartney, fears that this could be his final tour seem to have been extinguished as he bids the crowd adieu with a simple but telling line: “All that remains to be said is – see you next time!”

Last month, McCartney joined Jack White and St. Vincent for an electric rendition of The Beatles’ The End during a record-breaking set at Mexico’s Corona Capital Festival.

From his earliest days, Gene Simmons intended to keep it simple when it comes to bass playing. “I’ve always been a pragmatist,” he says. “Pragmatism rules.

“When I was a kid I noticed that everybody wanted to be a guitar player, and I did initially learn to play a few chords. But I picked up bass because there were fewer bass players, and it increased my chances of being in a band – which is what I really wanted.”

Amid the kabuki cladding, flash and explosions of Kiss, it was easy to focus on Ace Frehley’s pyrotechnic lead guitar, Peter Criss’ off-the-rails fills, and Paul Stanley’s soaring vocals. But it was Simmons’ basslines that buoyed many of the band’s Klassics.

“The original-cookie cutter design that other bands seem to ignore was this idea that everybody in a band could be a star,” he says. “All those bass parts that became Firehouse and Love Her All I Can – they’re my bass riffs that the guitars would jump on and double up.”

But he continues: “I don’t consider myself, and was never really interested in being, a bass virtuoso. I don’t like showoffs in music. I’m much more attracted to things that are memorable. It’s part of the joy of music for me. There are very few bass players that are memorable.”

Still, without meaning to, he’s influenced droves of would-be four-stringers. “I don’t mean this to be flippant,” he counters, “but I don’t care. The guy who came up with hamburgers is worshipped around the world. If you go to a French cooking school, they’d never cook a hamburger – but who the fuck puts frog legs in their mouth? I’m a Burger King Whopper; that’s all the credibility I would ever want.”

He puts it another way: “You can be a jazz player and be respected by musicians, but the rest of the world doesn’t care. We’re going to play a game: name a jazz player that means something. How about John McLaughlin? He’s a great player.

“But here’s a question: can you hum any melody that he’s ever played on a solo? Of course not. All due respect, but that music is intended to show off how well you play, and I don’t care about that. The hardest thing to do is write a good simple song or riff – and it’s really hard.

“There are an awful lot of amazing bass players, like Jaco Pastorius and the jazz guys. Or guys like Flea, who is really good on his instrument. But I can’t remember anything he plays. And I also do not like the sound of a bass being slapped.”

Moving on, Simmons continues: “Clapton – before he went pop, when he was considered ‘God’ – said something very profound: ‘The hardest thing to do is to know what notes to put in a solo, and what notes not to put in a solo.’ Sometimes if it’s shockingly simple, barely moving at all, but I can hum it; that’s what matters, because it’s memorable.”

1. Paul McCartney

“McCartney is probably the most influential bassist for me. The biggest compliment I can give Paul McCartney is that you can pick the vast majority of Beatles songs and you’ll remember what the bass was playing.

“There’s not a lot of movement on bass. The bass locks in with the drums, and that’s the railroad track on top of which the train goes. AC/DC do it probably better than anybody in that style and genre – but Paul McCartney and The Beatles were closer to a string quartet, where the violin and the cello have their own melody.

“While the instruments were doing melodies, the bass was, too. It wasn't tied to the drums. I got inspiration for songs that were hopefully so memorable that it inferred, ‘Well, maybe the guitars should double up and play those bass parts.’

”McCartney would come up with these riffs, and sometimes Lennon would too.”

“With all these beautiful songs, you remember the basslines because McCartney’s not sticking to the root. He’s moving around the fretboard and coming up with his own melodies, which is a lot harder to do because you’ve got to be creative and still stay within the harmonic confines of the song.

“So McCartney is hands and feet above the other guys. He’s a triple threat – he wrote songs that were unmatched, became the most successful songwriter of all time, and he wrote them by himself.”

2. Ronnie Wood

“One of the top guys I listened to early on was Ronnie Wood, but only in his stint in the Jeff Beck Group. Those first two records were pivotal. They came out before Led Zeppelin; I heard that stuff and was awed by how free-flowing they were.

“Jeff Beck, of course, soared above everything else, while the bass had its own tone. It took me a while to find the tone that I had in my heart in my head. You have to find the right instrument, the right piece of wood and all that, to get anywhere close.

“So Ronnie Wood – not his guitar playing, which is okay – but his bass playing on both those records is superb. In my estimation he’s a far better bass player than he is a guitar player.

“John Paul Jones from Led Zeppelin was also terrific, but you can’t really hear what he’s playing. The tone is sort of lower, and a muffled kind of R&B bass playing. I can’t really recall in my mind anything John Paul Jones played.

“But when you hear that Jeff Beck Truth record, I distinctly recall the bass playing. Ronnie Wood’s approach to bass playing, and his tone, sounded like a cross between a bass and a guitar.”

3. Felix Pappalardi

“Felix Pappalardi from Mountain had a similar approach on bass, and a tone which was distorted – but there was a lot there. There was Leslie West’s guitar, and keyboards, but I remember Felix’s basslines.

“Again, there’s a lot of really good bass players like that: you hear the riff, and then the bass comes in, and it’s like a train track that locks in with the drums, which is very effective, and you pump that one note. Very seldom do I play like that – the best lines often would become the riff of the song, like Black Diamond.

“Paul wrote that all by himself; I didn’t contribute melody, chords or anything. He played it for me and I said, ‘That’s really good. Let’s run it down once.’ And I came up with the bass riff that descends from the C to the B, A to the F. That melody just came to me, and it became the pivotal hook.

“It was the same when Paul came in with Firehouse and Hotter Than Hell. We liked the bass part so much that the guitar just started playing the bass part. I’ve got too many melodies in my mind; it’s how my mind works.”

4. Chris Squire

“I never paid attention to anybody as far as what I wanted to do. My one piece of advice to anybody is to go into the jungle and find out for yourself what the best path is for you. But another influential guy is Chris Squire from Yes.

“You remember the Yes bass parts, like in Roundabout; you certainly remember what Chris Squire was playing. But strangely, when you hear his solo record, there’s that unique, authentic, personal bass playing and sound. It’s his Rickenbacker bass, distorted and way up in the mix.

“So what does Chris Squire have in common with Ronnie Wood and Paul McCartney? They’re individuals. You can hear what they’re playing; and what they’re playing is iconic. The most memorable thing is often the melody, but it’s that Chris Squire bass lick that stands out.”

5. Carol Kaye

“You can’t say ‘bass playing’ without Carol Kaye. People thought it was an African American gentleman playing bass on those Motown Records – but there was a short Jewish woman doing that. And I knew her, and we played bass together.

“She taught me stuff. She taught me real hard, telling me, ‘No, no, you’re playing the notes but you’re not playing the feel.’ She approached bass – yes – as the low-end of the spectrum. However, with The Beat Goes On, the bassline is the whole song. That’s the most memorable thing, and Carol Kaye came up with that.

“You’ve got to hand it to her. She brought that to whatever record she recorded. You had rooms filled with African American musicians and this little blonde Jewish woman doing all of that.”

6. Michael Anthony

“Michael Anthony from Van Halen never got a lot of attention – but he’s really good. I remember being impressed with him when I produced that first Van Halen demo.

“Of course, with a band like that there’s a lot of room because Eddie is doing his part, especially live. They basically played live at Electric Lady Studios, and Michael – I didn’t tell him to – but he was using an Ampeg, which I also used early on.

“There was that sound, that approach, where Eddie would have a riff, but Michael is playing around it. It’s like people trying to chase a fox and get it in the trap, which is much more interesting to me than walking a straight line where you know where it’s going.”

The Rolling Stones have been around since 1962, so this is their seventh decade making music. With such a long history, the iconic band has a massive body of work, a discography that was recently enlarged by their latest album, Hackney Diamonds.

Starting out as a London-based blues group, The Stones achieved phenomenal worldwide success mixing pop, rock, and blues, crafting their own unique sound that’s stood the test of time with classic songs like Jumpin’ Jack Flash, Honky Tonk Women, and Angie which, even decades on, still sound fresh and exciting.

The Stones have always been a two-guitar outfit, with the legendary Keith Richards having been there from the beginning, partnered originally by Brian Jones, who tragically drowned in his swimming pool in 1969. Jones was followed by ex-John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers guitarist Mick Taylor, who in turn was replaced by Faces guitarist Ronnie Wood in 1975.

Throughout their recorded works, the guitar sounds of The Rolling Stones have been a mix of electric- and acoustic-based, with references to the band’s blues roots in cover versions of classic songs like I’m A King Bee and Little Red Rooster, and Richards, Jones, Taylor, and Wood all contributing slide guitar in various songs, too. Keith Richards' inspired guitar riffs have become the stuff of legend via songs like Jumpin’ Jack Flash and Satisfaction, the latter of which was played using a Gibson Maestro FZ1 fuzz-tone pedal.

Perhaps one of the most recognizable and consistent musical sounds in the Stones' catalog is Richards' open tunings, where his guitar is tuned to open chords such as D, E, or, usually, G, where he removes the sixth string. This can be heard on numerous songs – such as Honky Tonk Women and Start Me Up – and has a big, rich, immensely pleasing sound. 

These songs, among many others, would probably have been played using arguably Richards' most famously recognizable guitar, his 1950s Fender Telecaster, nicknamed Micawber, which features a Gibson PAF humbucker pickup in the neck position.

In this feature we’ll be looking at the styles of all the Stones' guitarists, with examples featuring their individual approaches – including their use of bluesy ideas such as mixing Minor and Major Pentatonic scales, country style flavors with the use of 6th interval shapes, and rock 'n' roll influenced double-stops.

We also look at Richards' open G-tuned rhythm style, as well as some Brian Jones-esque slide. There are also three ‘mini pieces’ which have a short rhythm guitar beginning followed by a solo. These are in three distinct musical flavors – a Major tonality piece, a Minor tonality piece, and a blues style piece.

It’s only rock 'n' roll, etc, so have fun!

Get the tone

Amp Settings: Gain 4, Bass 3, Middle 6, Treble 7, Reverb

Either a single-coil or humbucker-equipped guitar can be used here, since all four guitarists regularly switched between the two. A higher action might be better suited to slide though. You can use anywhere from clean to light or medium overdrive for both rhythm and solo duties. Feel free to add reverb or a mild delay for ambient thickening.

Keith Richards

Example 1: Keith Richards

This is in the key of C and features melodic C Minor Pentatonic licks (C-Eb-F-G-Bb) over the Major chords C, F, and Bb. 

Example 2: Keith Richards

This demonstrates Richards' rock 'n' roll influence from players such as Chuck Berry. Make sure the third string’s tone interval bends are accurate. 

The double-stop bends on the third and second strings in bars 2-4 can be achieved with either the third or fourth finger of the fretting hand pushing upwards, or the flat of the third finger pulling downwards. Either way, make sure the third string bends up a tone and the second string bends up a semitone.

Example 3: Keith Richards

This exercise demonstrates Richards' style of rhythm playing using open G tuning. Tuning as follows, low to high: D-G-D-F-B-D. However, Richards famously removes his sixth string for this tuning, so as to avoid unwanted sixth string noise completely. 

If you don’t want to go to such lengths, simply mute the sixth string with the tip of your fretting hand’s first finger when fretting the chords. Tuning it down to D of course, means if you do accidentally hit it, it’s not a disaster.

Example 4: Keith Richards

An extension of the previous exercise, this one shows how the chords can be embellished with open-string runs and pull-offs to make for a more involved rhythm part. Richards used this idea in tracks like Tumbling Dice and Honky Tonk Women to create an instantly memorable sound.

Brian Jones

Example 1: Brian Jones

This slide guitar example uses open G tuning and a clean guitar tone. Ensure correct pitching by placing the slide directly over the fret. Then add light vibrato.

Example 2: Brian Jones

Another slide guitar example, this uses open E tuning. Tune the strings low to high: E-B-E-G#-B-E. A distorted guitar tone is used here, and side-to-side slide vibrato. Jones was a natural musician, playing a number of instruments and styles. His slide guitar topped the charts on Little Red Rooster.

Mick Taylor

Example 1: Mick Taylor

This example shows how the ‘country’ 6th interval is often played by the band. Taylor, Wood and Richards can all be heard using this approach at various times. 

Make sure your fretting-hand fingers make the appropriate 6th interval shape, with the picking hand either using a fingerstyle approach of thumb and finger, or a hybrid picking approach of pick and fingers, or just the pick using alternate picking. Of the three approaches, hybrid probably makes the most sense.

Example 2: Mick Taylor

This example features some melodic bluesy licks, typical of Taylor’s lyrical style. Bar 1 involves bending the string up a tone but only letting it down by a semitone, so accurate pitching is essential. 

Taylor likely learned this idea from copying Eric Clapton, who favored this often in his soloing. The repeating phrase over two strings in bar 2 is important to play cleanly. As a suggestion, try a downstroke on the second string and an upstroke on the third string.

Ronnie Wood

Example 1: Ronnie Wood

This country-toned E Major Pentatonic (E-F#-G#-B-C#) idea features a 6th, with the third string bending up a tone (use the fretting hand’s third finger), while the fourth finger frets the first string. In bar 3, use the same fingering for the bend on the second string, with the fourth finger fretting the first string.

Example 2 

This example shows how the Major and Minor Pentatonic scales can inter-weave over a Major tonality chord progression in order to create a colourful mix of sweet Major sounds blending with bluesier Minor approaches. B.B. King was the master of this, with Eric Clapton, Peter Green, and others highly influenced by it.

Rolling Stones Mini-Pieces

Piece 1: Major

This piece is in the key of A and is in open G tuning with the capo at the 2nd fret. The first eight bars are a rhythm part and feature our Keith Richards-style approaches. The following eight bars are the solo. As the first string is lowered by a tone, remember the notes won’t be in the same place as they normally are.

Piece 2: Minor

Our Minor piece has a tonal center of B Minor and alternates between a bar of B Minor and a bar of E; the overall sound is B Dorian (B-C#-D-E-F#-G#-A). 

After the first four bars of ‘rhythm,’ the subsequent solo section mainly contains bluesy B Minor Pentatonic (B-D-E-F#-A) licks. In bars 7 and 8 we encounter some E Major Pentatonic country flavored licks over the E chord, adding another tonal character to the solo.

Piece 3 

This 12-bar blues in G has a straight, driving feel, with two bars of chunking blues shuffle rhythm before the solo kicks in. Featuring licks containing both G Major Pentatonic (G-A-B-D-E) and G Minor Pentatonic (G-Bb-C-D-F), the overall feel of the solo is melodic. Make sure your string bends are pitched accurately.   

Jones, Taylor and Wood… It sounds more like the name of a law firm than the surnames of the three phenomenal guitarists who have served alongside Keith Richards during the Rolling Stones’ six-decade-plus career. 

Now that they’ve released Hackney Diamonds, their first album of original material since 2005’s A Bigger Bang, it’s an ideal time to reflect on the contributions that Brian Jones, Mick Taylor and Ronnie Wood have made to the evolution, vitality and uncanny longevity of the Stones.

Each guitarist’s tenure with the group – seven years for Jones, five for Taylor and an amazing 48 for Wood – serves to define and delineate three key phases in the Stones’ stellar career. Here’s how it all happened.

1962-1969, Brian Jones: The rock star as tragic hero

It’s not just that Brian Jones founded and named the Rolling Stones in 1962 – giving birth to one of the most important groups in all of rock history. That alone secures his place of high honor in the rock pantheon. But Jones also was an archetype and icon in so many other ways. 

One of the first young, white Britons to play blues-style slide guitar, his role in bringing the venerable, African-American blues idiom (and blues guitar particularly) to the forefront of rock makes him the godfather of a tradition that includes British guitar greats like Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Peter Green, Mick Taylor, Alvin Lee and so many others.  

With his impeccably coiffed blond mane, boldly extravagant fashion sense and dazzling arsenal of ultra-flash guitars, Jones was one of the 1960s’ most influential guitar heroes. He consorted with Swingin’ London’s glamorous models and actresses, hung out with Bob Dylan and journeyed to Morocco in 1967 to smoke hash and pioneer the world music scene. 

The Pied Piper of the psychedelic explosion, Jones adorned the Stones’ mid-’60s oeuvre with a rainbow orchestra of harpsichords, flutes, sitars, dulcimers and Mellotrons. In this, he played a key role in forging the baroque pop/chamber pop subgenre that’s still flourishing today. He introduced the Jimi Hendrix Experience to the audience for the trio’s American debut at the seminal Monterey Pop Festival in 1967. He was always in the vanguard.

The dark side of all this was that Jones was deeply unhappy in his fame – conflicted, ambivalent and embittered. When he lost creative control of the Stones to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards in the mid-’60s, he went into a prolonged tailspin, abusing dope and booze in ever-increasing amounts until he ended up dead in a swimming pool at age 27 in July 1969.

In so doing, he became a charter member of the infamous “27 Club” – musical legends who died too soon and whose ranks also include Robert Johnson, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain and Amy Winehouse. Even in death, Jones rolled with the best.   

“Brian was an impressive musician,” Keith Richards told me in 1997. “Very promising. He was a sax player as well, to start with. He was dedicated to playing in those early days. I’ll tell you what screwed Brian up: it was fame. Something snapped in him the minute that came.” 

Having already played with London blues kingpin Alexis Korner and preceding Eric Clapton in a group called the Roosters, Jones was definitely heavier business than Jagger and Richards when the three first teamed up in 1962. He was the kingpin, but the blues made a brotherhood of the three young musicians. In those hardscrabble days before fame tore them apart, Brian and Keith would spend hours huddled together with their guitars in a dingy, unheated flat they shared with Jagger in London’s Edith Grove. 

They’d riff along to the precious collection of African-American blues and R&B records the three aficionados had amassed. From this emerged the propulsive, tight-yet-fluid  two-guitar style that Keith Richards has ever since called “an ancient form of weaving.”  

“When Brian and I started playing together,” Keef told me, “we were listening to a lot of Jimmy Reed and Muddy Waters – the two-guitar thing. The weaving. We did it so much. Which is the way you have to do it. So we knew both parts. You get it to where you get it really flash, and you suddenly switch. The one playing the rhythm picks up the lead, and vice versa.” 

One of the great rhythmic paradigms of rock guitar history, the sound Jones and Richards made together was first committed to tape on March 11, 1963. The Stones’ debut demo session was engineered at London’s IBC Studios by soon to be legendary producer/engineer Glyn Johns (the Beatles, Who, Led Zeppelin, Clapton, etc.). It was immediately clear to Johns who was in charge at that point. 

“Brian was pretty much the leader,” Johns told early Jones biographer Mandy Aftel. “He was certainly the spokesman for the group to me. This was their first recording session and Brian was very much concerned about the sounds that I would produce on tape. He had an exact rhythm and blues sound he wanted – the Jimmy Reed type sound, which was virtually unheard of.”

That murky, mysterious sonic miasma was what made early Stones singles like Tell Me and Time Is on My Side so utterly fascinating when they were first released in 1964. Tone was Jones’ obsession. His guitar contribution to the early Stones oeuvre breaks down into two main areas. For one, there’s his raw, raunchy, open-tuned slide playing on tracks like I’m a King Bee, Mona (I Need You Baby), Grown Up Wrong and Little Red Rooster. 

Secondly, there’s Jones’ co-equal role with Richards in forging the gritty, two-guitar grind of the Stones’ mid-’60s sound. With equal aplomb, Jones could crank out a hooky lead riff on The Last Time or pound out a pumping rhythm on tracks like Satisfaction or 19th Nervous Breakdown. He took a slide to a Rickenbacker 360 12-string electric to create the Middle-Eastern flavored riff on Mother’s Little Helper, doubling Richards, who also played slide on an electric 12-string. 

Jones’ tone-mania led him to acquire new guitars as voraciously as he collected new clothes and new girlfriends. He did much to popularize the Gibson Firebird, which was still quite a new and daring instrument at the time, first introduced in 1963.

But the guitars with which Jones is most closely associated are his two white, teardrop-shaped Vox MK III prototypes, handmade for him by Vox design engineer Mick Bennett. The lute-like body shape was very innovative, and the MK III became a garage band classic as soon as the first production models hit the street in 1964. 

“Brian would hop from instrument to instrument,” Richards told me in 2002. “He was always searching for another sound. As a musician, he was very versatile. He’d be just as happy playing the marimba or bells as he was guitar. Sometimes it was, ‘Oh, make up your mind what sound you’re going to have, Brian!’ ’cause he’d keep changing guitars. He wasn’t one of those guys who say, ‘Right, here’s my axe.’ Brian had so many.”

Despite Jones’ growing alienation from the Stones, he was deeply enthusiastic about the return to basics represented by Mick and Keith’s 1968 song, Jumpin’ Jack Flash. “We’ve been in the studio all morning and we’re going back to rock and roll!,” Jones excitedly told a girlfriend. “They got this Jumpin’ Jack Flash and it’s really great.” 

Indeed, a new era was dawning for the Stones – a return to the primordial blues, R&B, rock ’n’ roll roots they’d first dug into with Jones. It’s nice to think that Jones lived to contribute to the glorious, bluesy rebirth that is the Stones’ 1968 masterpiece, Beggars Banquet. His plaintive slide playing on No Expectations brings the story full circle, returning to the guitar style that had launched Jones’ career. 

The Stones’ longtime producer Jimmy Miller said, “As a musician [Brian] should be remembered for the brilliant bottleneck country guitar work on Beggars Banquet and for his interpretation of the blues played honestly, as a white man.” 

Sadly debilitated by drugs and booze, Jones hung on long enough to strum an autoharp on Keith Richards’ song You’ve Got the Silver on Let It Bleed. Shortly thereafter, in June 1969, Jagger, Richards and Watts fired Jones from the Rolling Stones. 

Less than a month later, he was dead. His passing marked the end of one of the greatest eras in rock music and the career of the Rolling Stones. To this day, his DNA is all over the storied group.

1969-1974, Mick Taylor: Golden boy of the Stones’ golden age

The four-year period that spans Beggars Banquet in 1968 and Exile on Main St. in 1972 is, for many, the absolute zenith of the Stones’ career. Sure, they did amazing work both before and after, but the ’68-’72 period was one of those magical moments when pop culture, the stars and the Stones were all aligned.

A new decade was dawning. Crawling from the wreckage of the ’60s, John Lennon was revisiting his roots in ’50s rock ’n’ roll. Bob Dylan had gone into an introspectively folksy acoustic mode. The Stones had ditched the dandelions and rainbows of the psychedelic era for something more earthy and grounded. 

Meanwhile a new breed of blues-based virtuoso guitarists like Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Mike Bloomfield, Peter Green, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page and many others had placed amped-up, single-note pentatonic riffing at the forefront of rock music.  

All of which made Mick Taylor a perfect choice to replace Jones. At just 17 years old, Taylor had succeeded Clapton and Green as the guitarist in John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers – a band that had set the gold standard for British blues guitar mastery. Mayall himself called Jagger to recommend Taylor. As did Ian Stewart, the erstwhile, and brilliant, Rolling Stones pianist who’d been Jones’ oldest and closest comrade within the Stones’ circle.

Taylor made his recorded debut with the Rolling Stones on their July 1969 single Honky Tonk Women. One of the greatest rock records of all time, it announces the arrival of a triumphant period for the Rolling Stones, with Keef rock solid in his recently discovered five-string open-G tuning and Taylor blazing away in six-string standard. 

But Taylor – a teetotaling vegetarian when he joined the Rolling Stones – never seemed to fit in completely. Several years younger than the other Stones, Taylor would always seem a bit fresh-faced and naive amidst the notorious rock libertines known at the time as “Satan’s Jesters.” 

This mismatched lifestyle stood in stark contrast to the phenomenal musical chemistry going down during this period. Music critic Robert Palmer Jr. summed up the situation quite succinctly: 

“Taylor is the most accomplished musician who ever served as a Stone. A blues guitarist with a jazzman’s flair for melodic invention, Taylor was never a rock and roller and never a showman.”

Taylor made his album debut with the Stones on their 1969 album, Let It Bleed, trading licks with Keef on Live with Me. He also overdubbed slide guitar on Country Honk, taking up the bottleneck role that Brian Jones had abdicated, and slipping into the Stones lineup as Jones slipped away. By the time the Stones released their next album, Sticky Fingers, in 1971, Taylor had been fully integrated into the lineup. 

He and Richards had forged a tight, punchy, two-guitar rhythmic and melodic approach. The way their guitars dart and twine around one another in the intro to Brown Sugar is sheer six-string poetry. Taylor’s spontaneously improvised, Latin-tinged, Gibson ES-345 archtop solo on the outro of Can’t You Hear Me Knockin’ is another landmark Stones guitar moment.

Taylor also notably played a 1961 Gibson SG and 1959 Les Paul with the Stones. He shared Jones’ affection for Gibson Firebirds as well. The Stones were in the midst of an Ampeg amp endorsement when they convened to record their double-disc masterpiece, Exile on Main St. 

That album’s opening track, Rocks Off is another two-guitar Stones classic, replete with a balls-out outro solo from Taylor. He’s a vital part of an album that routinely tops Best Rock Record of All Time lists. 

The live side of Taylor’s work with the Stones was generously captured on disc – the seminal Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out – and on film–the Maysles Brothers’ landmark 1970 documentary, Gimme Shelter, and 1974’s Ladies and Gentlemen: The Rolling Stones. Post Exile, he played on two more Stones studio albums, Goat’s Head Soup and It’s Only Rock ’n Roll. And then he was gone – his departure taking his fellow Stones and the band’s fans somewhat by surprise. 

“Mick’s a lovely player,” Richards told me. “I never understood why he left. He’s always been a bit restless and a little uneasy inside his skin. But I enjoyed playing with him. I learned a lot from him. We learned a lot about guitar playing from each other. Because he’s another great weaver. His tone and his touch and his melodic ideas wow me. I’d just hoped he would have gone on to bigger and better things than he did. I thought it was an impetuous move.” 

Publicly, Taylor explained his abrupt departure by saying he’d become bored musically and that the enormous entity that is the Rolling Stones had taken his life over. What went unmentioned at the time was that the clean-cut guitarist had also fallen under the spell of Dame Heroin and wanted to get out before flirtation turned to thralldom.  

Tensions had also arisen between Taylor and Richards, as Taylor’s songwriting role within the Stones grew while Keef sank deeper into his own heroin-addicted lethargy. Taylor and Jagger co-wrote Moonlight Mile and Sway from Sticky Fingers and Till the Next Goodbye and Time Waits for No One on It’s Only Rock ’n’ Roll, released in 1974. Taylor was especially fond of his guitar solo on the latter track. 

“I think it’s probably the best thing I ever did with the Rolling Stones,” he told GW’s Damian Fanelli in 2012. 

Taylor had expected to receive co-writing credit on those tracks. When he didn’t, the animosity grew. In the middle of a party at rock entrepreneur Robert Stigwood’s home, Taylor informed Jagger that he no longer wished to be a Rolling Stone.  

Of Keith Richards’ three co-guitarists in the Rolling Stones, Taylor’s tenure was the briefest, but, in many regards, the most well-remembered today. While Taylor would go on to do much good work after leaving the group, he’d never again achieve the level of fame he’d attained in the Stones. Much like his predecessor, Brian Jones, he was essentially too much of a blues purist to ride rock ’n’ roll’s roller coaster of fame.  

1975-present, Ronnie Wood: Keeper of the flame

Numerous legendary and respected guitarists were in the running to take Mick Taylor’s place in the Stones. The list includes Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, Steve Marriott, Rory Gallagher, Shuggie Otis, Harvey Mandel and Chris Spedding, among others. Many were called, as the saying goes, but only one was chosen. 

There are so many reasons Ronnie Wood has proved to be a perfect match for Keith Richards and the Rolling Stones. He sprang from the same scene as the Stones, playing guitar with a mid-’60s R&B outfit called the Birds (who have absolutely nothing to do with the Byrds, the American band behind Mr. Tambourine Man and Chestnut Mare) and also attending some of the Stones’ earliest gigs at London clubs like the Crawdaddy. So he knew where the Stones were coming from, literally. 

“I was their biggest fan when I joined them,” Wood told me in 1997. “And I still am, while being in the band.” 

Also, unlike both of his predecessors, Wood was no stranger to rock stardom when he first joined the Stones in 1975. Though originally a guitarist, the ever-versatile Wood served as bassist in the Jeff Beck Group, performing on the landmark Beck albums Truth and Beck-Ola and jamming with Jimi Hendrix at the Scene club in New York. From there, Wood had gone on to play guitar with ’70s hitmakers Faces, fronted by former Jeff Beck Group singer Rod Stewart.

So he’d experienced enough of rock ’n’ roll’s fast-lane craziness not to get spooked by the whole thing. In fact, he seemed rather to enjoy it – perhaps a little too much at times. But while he has struggled with addiction issues, Wood has shown much the same uncanny ability to bounce back from oblivion as his Rolling Stones co-guitarist.

Wood made his recording debut with the Stones playing guitar on three tracks from their 1976 album Black and Blue – the funk-inflected Hey Negrita the straight-out rocker Crazy Mama and a cover of the Earl Donaldson reggae classic Cherry Oh Baby (later a hit for UB40).

The Stones were moving in new stylistic directions in the mid-’70s. Wood’s performance on Black and Blue proved that he could go there with them. Musically, he’s the perfect utility man – able to insert himself gracefully into any musical context, as he’s consistently demonstrated over the course of 48 years, 11 studio albums, seven live albums and countless live shows with the Rolling Stones.  

Much like Brian Jones, Wood is a musical chameleon, albeit in a different way. Jones was a multi-instrumentalist; Wood has, for the most part, expressed his own tonal adventurousness within the guitar realm. 

He inherited the Jones/Taylor role of slide guitarist in the Stones, but has expanded on that tonal palette to include lap steel, pedal steel, Dobro and B-benders. A man of many guitars, he’s also versatile and supple on six-string electrics and acoustics in standard tuning. Over the years, he and Richards have developed the kind of intuitive “Vulcan mind meld” approach to guitar arrangement that Keef enjoyed with Jones and Taylor. 

“We just sit down and hack things out,” Wood explained in my ’97 interview. “The great thing about offstage, when Keith and I are together, is that we talk, more or less, through our guitars. We never say, ‘You do this and I’ll do that. I’ll play the riff and you come in and out.’ We weave.”

This approach works very well for Richards too, as he told me in a 1997 interview. “I’m impressed by everything Ronnie does. He’s a great guy to play with. A great guy to hang with. You get two guitars and Ronnie Wood in a room and the rest of the world will go by.”  

Wood’s role within the Rolling Stones is twofold, really. On the one hand, he acts as custodian of the guitar legacy laid down by Jones and Taylor during the Stones’ first dozen or so years. As concerts have come to overshadow albums in the current music industry, this role has been especially crucial – particularly since the departure of the band’s original bassist Bill Wyman and the 2021 passing of Charlie Watts.

“Brian Jones had a very distinctive rhythmic input into the band, which I try and recreate on things like You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” Wood told me. “And on songs like All Down the Line, I try and echo what Mick Taylor did as well. I think that’s part of the song – the melody line he does as a solo.”

But equally important is the role that Wood has played in moving the Stones into the modern era. His guitar work is essential to iconic tracks like Miss You, Beast of Burden and Start Me Up, bringing the Rolling Stones through the disco era and into a new mode of tough, stripped-down contemporary rock classicism that has been their modus operandi ever since – a key ingredient in their phenomenal longevity. 

Latter-day albums like Voodoo Lounge, Steel Wheels and Bridges to Babylon represent a third golden era for the Stones – a triumphant victory lap in which Wood has played no small role. 

He has also manned the bass for tracks like Emotional Rescue and Dance Part 1. The latter song, from 1980’s Emotional Rescue, was also one of Wood’s first co-writing credits with the Stones. 

Credit for songwriting input had been a deal breaker for Mick Taylor, but through patience, perseverance and bonhomie, Wood has been able to gain much-deserved recognition. 

“I spent many years being credited for ‘inspiration’,” he laughed as he told me. “Let’s put it that way. But I didn’t mind waiting. It’s a big nut to crack, that Jagger/Richards songwriting team. I suppose it’s like trying to get a song in with Lennon and McCartney. I like to leave the songwriting for the Stones to Mick and Keith, ’cause they are the institution. But whenever there’s a gap, I’ll gladly offer to fill it. You don’t get anywhere if you don’t try.”

The Rolling Stones’ previous studio album was 2016’s Blue and Lonesome, a down-and-dirty, live-in-the-studio rendition of 12-bar blues classics from legends like Willie Dixon, Little Walter and Jimmy Reed. It’s a loving homage to the music that first inspired the Stones at their inception.

Well more than half a century down the line, the record – and Ronnie Wood’s contribution therein – might well have made the heart of the Stones’ founder Brian Jones swell with pride. The same could be said for Angry, the first single from Hackney Diamonds, which proves that the Stones’ perpetual riff engine is still in fine form. 

From 1968 on, The Rolling Stones’ sound was dominated not only by Mick Jagger’s swaggering vocals and the funky rhythm section of Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts, but the guitars that somehow sounded unlike anything else out there at the time. Keith Richards had discovered a new rhythm sound, and with it an unprecedented burst of creativity.

Open tunings are common in the world of fingerstyle acoustic and blues slide, but far less so with regular strummed rhythm guitar. But when country-blues legend Ry Cooder showed Richards open G tuning while working with the band during 1968, it was a lightbulb moment for Keith. With this new tuning he would go on to write some of the most memorable riffs of all time.

Tuning the sixth, fifth and first strings down by a tone gives the notes DGDGBD. Keith quickly surmised that having a 5th interval on the bottom string (the bass string) would be a hindrance, so in a moment of genius he simply removed it. This gave a five-string G chord with the root on the bottom, so placing a full barre anywhere on the neck created a new major chord; at the 5th fret we get C, on the 7th fret D, and so on.

When Keith added his second and third fingers to the barre to create what looks like an Am7 shape, the G chord became Cadd9/G, the C became Fadd9/C, the D became Gadd9/D, etc. This simple scheme with its unique sound launched many of the Stones’ greatest riffs.

Here, we list the top 10 – as voted by Total Guitar readers – and reveal the stories of how each of them were written and recorded.

10. Tumbling Dice (1972)

Recorded at Keith Richards’ rented chateau in the South of France, the lead single from Exile On Main Street kicks off with a killer riff in B, played in Keith’s newfound open G tuning with a capo at the 4th fret. 

“I was starting to really fix my trademark, starting to find all these other moves,” remembers Richards. “How to make minor chords and suspended chords. The five-string becomes very interesting when you add a capo. It gives a certain ring that can’t be obtained any other way.” As Bill Wyman was absent for the session, lead guitarist Mick Taylor played bass.

9. (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction (1965)

The riff that broke the Stones globally was ‘dreamt’ by Keith who captured it on his cassette recorder before going back to sleep. In the studio he used a Gibson maestro fuzz pedal to emulate horns, as initially he wanted to replace the guitar figure later.

“I was screaming for more distortion,” he recalled. “We turned the shit up and it still wasn’t right.” Pianist Ian Stewart nipped out to a local music store and returned with the pedal. “I never got into the thing after that,” states Richards, “but it was just the right time for that song.”

Guitarist and founding member Brian Jones played the E-D-A chord figure that goes under the riff on acoustic, Richards added clean electric rhythm, while Bill Wyman walked his bass from root to 4th and back, along the E natural minor scale.

8. Midnight Rambler (1969)

Originally recorded during the Beggars Banquet sessions, Midnight Rambler was held over for the following album Let It Bleed. It was also the final track to feature Brian Jones, who played congas. 

Jagger and Richards reckon it’s the archetypal Stones song, written together while on holiday in Italy. Keith said of their four-part epic: “Nobody went in there with the idea of doing a blues opera. That’s just the way it turned out. I think that’s the strength of The Stones; give them a song half raw and they’ll cook it.” 

Held together by Keith’s 5th-fret capo boogie rhythm and slide guitars, Jagger adds fills on harmonica while Wyman and Watts groove as only they can. 

7. Sympathy For the Devil (1968)

The opening track on Beggars Banquet began life on acoustic guitar with Jagger strumming the chords. “The first time I heard it was when Mick was playing it, and it was fantastic,” Charlie Watts enthused. 

Along the way the song transformed into the hypnotic epic we recognise today. As Richards remarked, “It started as sort of a folk song and ended up as a kind of mad samba, with me playing bass and overdubbing the guitar later.” 

Although there is strummed rhythm on the final cut from Brian Jones it’s barely audible. Instead the song is propelled by session pianist Nicky Hopkins, with percussion added by members of the band plus Ghanaian musician Rocky Dijon.

The main guitar feature is Keith’s two spiky-toned solos, played on a three-pickup Gibson Les Paul Custom through a Vox AC30. The first enters two and a half minutes in, with spitting E minor pentatonic licks played mostly in shapes one and two. His second outing begins at 4:42, where he elaborates on the gritty, blues-flavoured theme until the track fades. 

While Richards’ lead work certainly divides opinion, what cannot be denied is that this instantly recognisable guitar playing powers one of the most important rock songs of all time.

6. Start Me Up (1981)

On any Top 10 Greatest Intros list, Start Me Up should be right up there. But the track, which begins with one of Keith’s greatest ever riffs, had a difficult birth. From when the band first tried it for 1978’s Some Girls sessions (and some have said even earlier), Richards always envisaged it as a reggae number. But after 40 or so takes they shelved the song as a lost cause. 

Come 1981’s impending tour, and management demanded a new album. With Mick and Keith not on the best of terms, producer Chris Kimsey trawled the archives knowing he had a clutch of half-finished gems in the can. 

Among the failed reggae attempts, Kimsey found a rockier version of Start Me Up that became the basis for the ‘new’ track. As Richards later mused, “With a band that goes on for a long time, you end up with a backlog of really good stuff that you didn’t get the chance to finish, or put out.” 

Assembling in New York for overdubs, Keith adopted his trademark Telecaster and open G tuning to nail the three-chord boogie intro. Ronnie doubled it using a harder electric tone and added sparse fills. Jagger’s vocal is classic Stones sleaze, while engineer Barry Sage and Santana percussionist Michael Carabello augment Watts and Wyman’s groove with handclaps and cowbell.

5. Honky Tonk Women (1969)

Another brilliant Keith intro, here he simply picks the open fourth and third strings with thumb and forefinger to create the unforgettable, “Der, dert-dert, der’ lick. With it, Richards stamped Honky Tonk on the world in mere seconds – with a little help from producer Jimmy Miller’s cowbell, Charlie’s kick and snare, and it would seem also from Ry Cooder. 

Hired by the band for various projects Cooder has claimed the track is built around licks ‘lifted’ from these sessions.

“A lot of what I did showed up on Let It Bleed, but they only gave me credit for playing mandolin on one cut,” bemoans Cooder. “Honky Tonk Women is taken from one of my licks.” In his autobiography, Life, Richards admits that Cooder showed him the open G tuning that became his mainstay. Over the years, of course, it has become his own.

Mick Taylor played lead on the track. “I didn’t play the riffs that start it,” he states, “that’s Keith. I played the country-influenced rock licks between the verses.”

We’ll leave the last word to Richards: “Honky Tonk can be a bastard to play, man. When it’s right, it’s really right. There’s something about the starkness of the beginning you really have to have down, and the tempo has to be just right. It’s a challenge, but I love it.”

4. Brown Sugar (1971)

It’s that open G thing again! And on Brown Sugar, which opens 1971’s Sticky Fingers album, it forms the basis of the song’s entire rhythm track. From the opening ‘dit-dit, dat-dat-da-daa-da’ lick, Keith runs around the extended turnaround chords of Eb, C, Ab, Bb, C, with added and pulled-off sus4 and 6th (his classic move).

The verses are built around a modified boogie blues, but with the inimitable sound of Richards’ pile-driving guitars stamping them with pure Stones magic. And when Mick Taylor added fills in the G breakdown section, and Bobby Keys played his belting sax solo, a rock classic was born. 

The joyous music, however, is a backdrop to lyrics that were dark and controversial even back in 1971. But 50 years on it was deemed unsuitable to air live, so in 2021 Jagger withdrew it from the band’s setlist, admitting that he would not write such words today.

3. Jumpin’ Jack Flash (1968)

This single from 1968 marked a welcome return from the band’s psychedelic ‘lost weekend’ of Their Satanic Majesties Request to their bluesier, rockier roots. It was also their first time with producer Jimmy Miller, and ushered in a more relaxed and enjoyable way of working – the band had self-produced Satanic Majesties and it had been a long and arduous process. 

“I hated it,” remarked Bill Wyman. “Every day at the studio it was a lottery as to who would turn up and what, if any, positive contribution they would make.” Richards, too, found Jimmy’s regime much more enjoyable. “Suddenly, between us, this whole new idea started to blossom, this second wind. And it just became more and more fun.” 

Jumpin’ Jack Flash is driven mainly by Keith’s Gibson Hummingbird acoustic tuned to open D with capo added. This was fed into a cassette recorder and back out to a mic’d-up extension speaker. “The band all thought I was mad,” laughed Richards, “and they sort of indulged me. But I heard a sound and Jimmy was onto it immediately.” 

Richards added a second acoustic in Nashville tuning (essentially the high octave half of a 12-string set, which gives an almost mandolin-like effect, especially when capo’d). Jones played another rhythm on electric guitar, along with the sparse licks in the choruses. 

Jumpin’ Jack Flash is The Stones’ most performed song, and one of Keith’s best-loved. “As soon as I pick up the guitar and play that riff, it’s one of the best feelings in the world,” he grins. “You just jump on the riff and it plays you!”

2. Gimme Shelter (1969)

The track that kicked off Let It Bleed came from a dark place in Richards’ life, but also represented a time of political unrest, race riots, and the Vietnam war. Keith’s problems were that his girlfriend Anita Pallenberg, whom he’d earlier stolen from Brian Jones, was doing risqué scenes with Jagger for the film Performance, and Richards was convinced they’d take things further. 

He was also consumed by drug use, and came up with Gimme Shelter while watching people outside a friend’s London apartment rushing to escape from a sudden storm. 

Jones doesn’t appear on the track, and Taylor was not yet fully in the band, so Richards played all the guitars. Again it was open G tuning, picking out notes from the descending and ascending C#, B, and A chords, then embellishing them with overdubbed fills.

“That beginning is so eerie, “says Richards. “Sometimes in a stadium you start to hear echoes.” The strumming becomes more insistent as the song progresses, with Keith adding further lead interjections.

Keith also played acoustic on Shelter, but “it died on the very last note,” Richards quipped. “The whole neck fell off. You can hear it on the original take.”

1. Can’t You Hear Me Knocking (1971)

Our poll’s winner is a seven-plus-minute epic of two halves. The first is the ‘song’ part which, unusually for a band that used to jam their tracks into shape, was more or less worked out before they entered the studio. The second section was a Latin-inspired jam that happened purely by accident. More of which later…

The meat and potatoes of Can’t You Hear Me Knocking is Richards’ tight and grungy rhythm track, once again employing the open G, five-string regime and probably played on his black Les Paul Custom. This is countered by a second, equally strident rhythm part performed by Taylor on a walnut brown Gibson ES-345 through a 100-watt Ampeg VT-22 combo amp. 

Richards’ part is relatively complex when compared to simpler numbers such as Honky Tonk Women. Using mainly doublestops in 4ths and 3rds, he weaves around the changes while Taylor supports him with a more straight-ahead feel. The two-guitar arrangement works brilliantly to create one of the band’s tightest and most focused pieces of work.

Unusually for a Stones song, Can’t You Hear Me Knocking features a stack of vocal harmonies. According to Jagger the key was too high and he struggled in places, so layered up his vocals to disguise the crack in his voice on some of the high notes.

The slowly building jam that takes up the majority of the tune is perhaps Mick Taylor’s crowning glory as a Stone. We’ll let him pick up the story: “Towards the end of the song I just felt like carrying on playing” he explains. “Everybody was putting their instruments down, but it sounded good so everybody quickly picked them up again and carried on playing. It just happened, and it was a one-take thing.” 

As luck would have it, the tape was still rolling so Taylor’s beautifully toned licks, languid string bends and smooth vibrato (the antithesis of Richards’ spiky leads), were captured in full.

“We didn’t even know they were still taping,” Keith confirms. “We were just rambling and I figured we’d just fade it off. It was only when we heard the playback that we realised we had two bits of music. There’s the song and there’s the jam.”

Listening to the finished article, on which Bobby Keys added a gritty tenor sax solo, Billy Preston provided organ stabs, and Rocky Dijon and producer Jimmy Miller chimed in with congas and other percussion, it’s clear that Richards was giving Mick Taylor his moment. 

Having no idea that they were being recorded, the confidence and class of the core members is evident throughout, while Miller’s idea to augment the jam with other musicians was a masterstroke. 

Many cite Mick Taylor’s tenure with The Rolling Stones as the band’s most musical period, and listening to this it’s hard to deny. Taylor, however, is more modest about his contribution. 

“I tried to bring my own distinctive sound and style to Sticky Fingers, and I like to think I added some extra spice,” he speculated. “I don’t want to say ‘sophistication’ – I think that sounds pretentious. Charlie said I brought ‘finesse.’ That’s a better word, so I’ll go with what Charlie said.”

You'd be forgiven for greeting the announcement of The Rolling Stones' Hackney Diamonds – their new first album of original material in 18 years – with a bit of skepticism.

For one, the band lost Charlie Watts – the ever-steady drummer who was a cornerstone of their sound and, other than Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, the band's sole constant member over the last 60 years – in 2021. 

Then, there was Hackney Diamonds' inevitable high-profile rollout – a live-streamed Q&A with Jimmy Fallon, and a music video featuring Hollywood it-girl Sydney Sweeney. 

Granted, the band have earned their imperial status many, many times over, but the main question hanging over all this pomp and circumstance was clear: can the Rolling Stones – now together for over 60 years, and whose principal members are either in or rapidly approaching their 80s – still make a great record?

Well, let's start the answer with the song that got the aforementioned glossy video treatment – Hackney Diamonds' opener and lead single, Angry.

Angry greets listeners – from its opening bars – with a striking illustration of what's old and what's new with this rock institution. On the latter front, there's the backbeat from new drummer Steve Jordan – steady, like Watts, but significantly more muscular. On the former, though, there's Ronnie Wood and Mr. Keith Richards. 

Reminiscent of the none-more-iconic opening riff to the Stones' last true mega-hit, Start Me Up, Keef's rhythm guitar hook makes Mick Jagger's job on Angry a whole lot easier, freeing him up to swoon and shout to his heart's content. Jagger, a great-grandfather of three, cries “We haven't made love and I wanna know whyyyyyyy” as Richards and Wood dutifully keep up the riffwork behind him. It's familiar. It works. It's fantastic.

Off to a flying start, the album then serves up the phenomenal Get Close, a swaggering rocker with an absolutely dynamite riff – arguably Keef's finest of the 21st century to the date. His interplay with Wood is spellbinding, and fits like a puzzle piece with Jordan's strutting backbeat and the celebratory sax solo that enters the picture around the song's halfway point.

Richards recently told Guitar Player that the Stones are “all about teamwork,” and it's the enduring strength of that spirit that really makes Hackney Diamonds shine. Just listen to Depending On You, where the band's two-guitar tandem recede and let Jagger do the melodic heavy lifting, especially in the song's soaring chorus. Keef sits back and reacts to Jagger with evocative fills and responses – just as stellar a supporting player as he was in his prime.

Darryl Jones, the Stones' long-serving live bassist, was unable to contribute to Hackney Diamonds due to other commitments, leaving a low-end gap that was filled by Richards, Wood, and even the band's former bass guitar player, Bill Wyman. Another bassist to feature on the album is a lefty you might have heard of, named Paul McCartney.

Just as Jordan gave the band some 21st century muscle on drums, the rotating carousel of bassists makes for some colorful, convention-breaking moments, none more so than McCartney's fuzztastic four-string break on the roof-raiser Bite My Head Off.

Using a Univox Super Fuzz circuit-loaded ‘64 Höfner gifted to him by Hackney Diamonds producer Andrew Watt, McCartney makes the band sound more early-noughties NYC than Swinging Sixties London. 

It's far from the only time Watt – the superstar producer who, in just the last couple of years, has brought incredibly vital music out of veterans like Pearl Jam, Ozzy Osbourne, and Iggy Pop – and his vintage gear stable make a mark on the record.

Though Richards has long had the same guitar amp setup in the studio – a trio of enviable vintage Fenders and an early-Sixties Watkins Joker – Watt brought to the studio five (!) amps that had been worked on by the great Alexander Dumble, of which Richards took a particular shine to a Dumble-modded '58 Fender Twin. 

Wood, meanwhile, alternated between his trusty mid-'50s-era Stratocaster, and the Zemaitis he used on the Faces' iconic song, Stay With Me.

It's a fantastic-sounding blend of the old and the new, gear-wise – perfectly reflective of how the Stones were able to let one of music's most in-demand producers fully take the reins on Hackney Diamonds, without losing their soul, or any of their still-ample charm.

Speaking of charm, after ripping through a number of other strong tracks – including the album's penultimate number, a stunning gospel blowout titled Sweet Sounds of Heaven – the Stones end their new album by taking things all the way back to the beginning. And we do mean all the way back.

Richards uses a 1930 Gibson L-4 acoustic given to him by Watt – and chosen for its similarity to the Gibson L-1 associated with Robert Johnson – to run through Muddy Waters' Rolling Stone Blues, the song that gave the Stones their name and that – incredibly, after all these years – the band had never covered. 

With all of the tabloids they've appeared in, and all of the stadiums they've taken over around the world, the Stones end their new album with the simplest of acoustic blues jams. Close your eyes, and it'll sound like a window into what Mick and Keith's first rehearsals might have sounded like, over 60 years ago.

Richards has insisted that there is no greater meaning about the band's future in choosing to end the album with this cover, but either way, it's a perfect note on which to close a record that finds the Stones embracing new tools and new sounds, but never straying from their spirit and heritage. It makes you wonder why people still even bother telling the Greatest Rock 'n Roll Band in the World to 'hang it up already'...

The Rolling Stones are officially back, sharing the first single from their forthcoming new album, Hackney Diamonds, which hits record stores (and streaming services) worldwide on October 20.

The track is titled Angry, and it is everything you could want from the Stones in the 21st century, with an insistent riff, a big vocal hook, and a couple of solos that sound as though they’ve tumbled head first out of the electric guitar.

The video follows Sydney Sweeney (The White Lotus) in a convertible that’s working its way through a West Coast city’s streets – it has to be L.A. – as billboards along the side of the road come alive with animated renderings of the Stones – and their guitars – through the years.

There’s what looks like the 1969 Madison Square Garden performance that was captured for posterity on Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out! 

There’s Ronnie Wood with his 1978 Zemaitis single-cut – playing a lead that doesn’t quite match what’s laid out on the track here but that’s not what matters; we’re taking a trip through Stones history here.

There is Jagger in a blue jump suit. Keith Richards and his number one Telecaster, the heavily modded Micawber. Director Francois Rousselet does a neat job in threading the line from past to present.

As for the present, Hackney Diamonds will be the English rock ’n’ roll institution’s first album of original material since 2005’s A Bigger Bang. The Stones decamped to various studios across the world in the company of über-producer Andrew Watt – most notable in these parts for his work with Ozzy Osborne and Pearl Jam, but a who also counts blue-chip stars such as Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber among his clients.

Watt reportedly shares a writing credit on Angry, and his itinerary with the band took him on a whistle-stop tour around some of the most legendary recording facilities in the world. There was Henson Recording Studios in Los Angeles, Metropolis in London, Sanctuary Studios under the hot sun in Nassau, Bahamas, Electric Lady Studios and The Hit Factory/Germano Studios in New York.

The album will be their first with new drummer Steve Jordan, but is also reported to have some of the final recordings laid down by the late Charlie Watts. It is not as though the Stones have been in retirement these past few years. 

Their Sixty Tour celebrated the band’s anniversary in stadiums across the world. Keith Richards had made it known on his Instagram page that new music was coming. The question was when.

Today, 6 September, 18 years to the day since A Bigger Bang’s release, we have the answer, with the band in at the Hackney Empire in east London right this minute announcing the album in the company of Jimmy Fallon. 

Hackney Diamonds is out October 20 through Universal.

Last Sunday (June 4), a stellar lineup of electric guitar greats came together at the London Palladium to pay tribute to James Burton, a legendary guitarist most famous for his tenure as Elvis Presley's six-string sidekick.

In a nod to the immense scope of Burton's influence, the show's lineup spanned both genres and generations: from classic rock A-lister Brian May, to acoustic guitar maestro Tommy Emmanuel, and younger blues guitar aces like Arielle and Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, to name just a few participants.

To emphasize the inter-generational spirit of rock n' roll, May also invited an even-younger guest to the Palladium stage for a set-closing jam on Chuck Berry's Johnny B. Goode, 11-year-old Britain's Got Talent sensation Harry Churchill. 

Churchill – for those who haven't been following along in recent weeks – has gone viral twice over for his show-stopping displays of six-string skill on the much-watched competition reality show, first for a phenomenal medley of Queen classics and later for a fiery (literally) display of shred that almost earned the youngster a spot in the competition's final round.

Churchill, to his credit, hardly seems fazed by the star power around him, and is even given the honor of kicking the performance – which you can see below – off.

Churchill also takes the first lead break, executing – just as he did on Britain's Got Talent last week – a smooth impression of Berry's famous 'duck walk' and some tasteful licks, before ceding the spotlight to Arielle, who takes things in a slightly bluesier direction.

Ingram, May, and, of course, Burton himself, also contribute some slinky, satisfying solos to the proceedings. 

“Ladies and gentlemen, rock is a river,” May tells the crowd prior to the performance. “You've seen the river flow tonight – three or four generations all inspired by the amazing James Burton.” 

In an interview with Guitar World earlier this year, May listed Burton – along with early rock guitar pioneers Buddy Holly and Hank Marvin, and latter-day influences like Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, and Pete Townshend – as one of the guitarists who most shaped his playing.

“When I look back on it, I don’t think I could have been born at a better time," May explained. "As kids we were so lucky to have grown up in that period when things were bursting through and all the boundaries were being broken.” 

As if the names above weren't enough rock royalty for the evening, Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood also made an appearance, lending a hand on the rockabilly standard Suzie Q, among other tunes.

Both Wood and his Stones bandmate, Keith Richards, were enormously influenced by Burton. Richards even said, when inducting Burton into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001, “I never bought a Ricky Nelson record, I bought a James Burton record.” 

Wood – wielding a gorgeous Gibson Les Paul – was also on hand to back up one of the show's other top-tier guests, Van Morrison, for an impassioned version of Worried Man Blues.

The Burton tribute show was a one-night only event, but Burton himself said, while sending off the crowd, “I can't wait to do [this] again.” 

Yesterday (May 22), a huge ensemble of A-list electric guitar heroes converged on London’s iconic Royal Albert Hall for the first of two Jeff Beck tribute concerts.

As previously reported, the event was a who’s who of guitar talent, with the likes of Eric Clapton, Gary Clark Jr., Susan Tedeschi, Derek Trucks, John McLaughlin and many more all coming together to pay tribute to the late guitar great, who passed away earlier this year.

The evening itself was filled with high-profile collaborations, but the biggest of all occurred right at the end of the night when everyone – yes, everyone – squeezed onto the historic stage for an eight-minute jam of Going Down.

If ever there was a competition for the most guitar stars to feature on the same stage, this lineup would stake a strong claim, with all those mentioned above performing alongside Ronnie Wood, Billy Gibbons, Johnny Depp, Doyle Bramhall II and Kirk Hammett, who made a surprise appearance with Greeny.

Outside the guitar department, Jeff Beck band members Rhonda Smith and Anike Niles lead the rhythm section, with Rod Stewart, Imelda May, Olivia Safe and Joss Stone all assuming vocal duties.

Having that many people on stage at once was always going to be a logistical challenge – a fact made clear by the drastic level differences between each player’s guitar.

Having said that, a guitar band of almost 20 players was never going to deliver a super-polished performance of Going Down, but that was never really the goal anyway.

Instead, the participants ensured their eight-minute rendition of Going Down turned out exactly as it should have: a gloriously improvised, larger-than-life guitar jam in honor of one of the most influential guitar players of all time. 

Clapton was the de facto conductor of the cover, kicking things off and then conceding the six-string spotlight to his fellow guitar-paying peers for a huge melting pot of solos.

Gary Clark Jr. – with his Gibson ES-335 in tow – took the first 12 bars, followed by a PRS-wielding John McLaughlin, and then a Telecaster-toting Depp, who spent much of last year touring and recording with Beck.

Two solos that especially cut through the mix were the closing efforts offered by Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi. Trucks took the lead, utilizing his Gibson SG for yet another guitar slide masterclass, while Tedeschi went to town on her Tele for 12 bars of bend-heavy blues.

It proved to be a poignant ending to a marathon show, which had been prefaced by an emotional Clapton who told the crowd, “I wish he were here.”

The cover of Going Down was just one of numerous tracks performed by the assortment of guitar heroes in honor of Beck. 

Highlights from the setlist included McLaughlin joining Smith and Niles for a cover of You Know You Know – a Mahavishnu Orchestra track that Beck played live – Depp, Hammett and Gibbons teaming up to perform Isolation, and Clapton sharing the stage with Trucks and Tedeschi for The Sky is Crying.

The second and final Jeff Beck tribute show is set to take place tonight (May 23) at the Royal Albert Hall.

As far as Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremonies go, the 2009 installment wasn’t half bad. Not only did the Hall of Fame’s Class of ‘09 feature two of the guitar world’s most prominent acts, it saw those two inductees – along with a boatload of special guests – team up for one of the Hall’s most memorable performances to date.

Indeed, 2009 saw the late Jeff Beck – one of the most influential players to ever pick up an electric guitar – and Metallica both get inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, with James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett and co. enlisting the Stratocaster master for a cover of Train Kept A-Rollin'.

But as if that wasn’t enough, the pair assembled a legion of rhythm heroes and lead legends to support their sonic assault, with Jimmy Page, Ronnie Wood, Joe Perry and Flea all sharing the stage for the pummeling performance.

Perhaps “pummeling” is underselling it somewhat, because – as noted by Hetfield – this lineup is “rhythm guitar player heaven,” meaning when that riff comes in following Beck’s opening bends, it completely knocks the wind out of you.

The six-strong guitar ensemble continues to smash speakers for the majority of the track, with pockets of lead exchanges given to Beck – whose raucous solo is a particular highlight – and Hammett, who lets loose on the fretboard of his white Ouija ESP model.

Perry, with his custom Gibson ES-335 in tow, also rifles through some suitably untethered pentatonic box-based bends and licks, with the Strat-toting Wood and Les Paul-wielding Page – along with the ever-energetic Flea – instead electing to remain on riff duty.

It was a familiar song to the majority of talent onstage. As Yardbirds alumni, both Beck and Page had played a pivotal role in reinventing Tiny Bradshaw’s original track. With the Yardbirds, Beck helped transform it into a psychedelic romp in 1965, with Page joining the fray for an updated version – titled Stroll On – just one year later that brought the addition of dual guitar exchanges.

Train Kept A-Rollin’ was later adopted by Page and Led Zeppelin and became a setlist stalwart for the heavy rock legends, with Perry's Aerosmith also recording it for their second album in 1974.

Although Page didn’t get the opportunity to flex his lead playing that evening, he did get the chance to wax lyrical about Beck – having been given the honor of inducting the guitar legend into the Hall of Fame that evening.

“You’d sort of listen to Jeff along the way and you’d go, ‘Well, he’s getting really, really good,’” Page said in his speech. “And you’d hear him a few years later and he’d just keep getting better and better and better.

“He still has all the way through, and he leaves us mere mortals just wondering and having so much respect for him.

“Jeff’s whole guitar style is just totally unorthodox to the way anyone was taught, and he’s developed a whole style of expanding the electric guitar and making it into something which has sounds and techniques totally unheard of before. That’s just an amazing feat.”

Page wasn’t the only one from the Train Kept A-Rollin' ensemble to give an induction speech that evening – Flea inducted Metallica, and in his speech recalled how he had been “totally floored” when he first heard the band’s music in 1984.

“I didn’t know what to make of it,” Flea said. “It had loud guitars, and it was fast as lightning, but it wasn’t punk rock. It wasn’t heavy metal. It was precise, explosive and heavy, but quick on its feet. It just totally stood by itself.

“I didn’t know what it was, but the only thing I knew for sure, was that it was a mighty thing. That song was Fight Fire with Fire and it opened up my mind to the mighty force of nature that is Metallica.”

Set at The Band's "farewell concert" of the same name on Thanksgiving Day (November 25), 1976, and directed by Martin Scorsese, The Last Waltz captures one of the most momentous, over-the-top and star-studded concerts in rock music history.

Though centered around The Band themselves, it's most famous for a scarcely believable guest list that included, but was not limited to: Eric Clapton, Joni Mitchell, Muddy Waters, Van Morrison, Ringo Starr, Neil Young, Stephen Stills, Paul Butterfield, Emmylou Harris, and, of course, the man who brought The Band into the limelight, Bob Dylan.

You could write a book on all the electric guitar greatness that occurred at the five-hour show, with an obvious highlight being the two solo-heavy, star-studded jams that went down during its second encore.

The concert's first encore, though, was its climactic moment, and it's powered by one of the greatest Fender Stratocaster armies ever assembled.

For a truly show-stopping version of I Shall Be Released – a Dylan tune made famous by The Band on their debut album, Music from Big Pink – Dylan, Band guitarist Robbie Robertson, Eric Clapton and Ronnie Wood led one of the most star-studded rock ensembles to ever grace a stage.   

Ranked by Rolling Stone as the 6th greatest song Dylan's ever written, and influential enough that even The Beatles jammed on it, I Shall Be Released is one of rock's most towering hymnals, an elegant, yearning ballad that calls for the kind of ragged, evening-ending and (let's be honest here) intoxicated group sing-along that it got in The Last Waltz.

One thing the subdued, melancholy tune does not call for, however, is a blaring guitar presence. 

For instance, rather than pick up his fire-breathing "Old Black" Gibson Les Paul – as he would later in the evening – Last Waltz guest Neil Young stuck to providing just backing vocals on I Shall Be Released, with fellow guest and guitar great Joni Mitchell doing the same.

The fearsome foursome of Dylan, Robertson, Clapton and Wood – all using gorgeous Strats – focused, then, on rhythm work and tasteful little embellishments, so as to not overshadow the evening's most poignant moment.

According to Reverb.com, Dylan used a '50s-era Strat, while Wood toiled away on one from the late '60s/early '70s. Both, by the looks of it, are graced with the classic sunburst finish.

Clapton, meanwhile, used "Blackie", the legendary black Strat that served as his chief six-string from 1974 through 1985. Notably, this same guitar went on to be sold for a then world-record $959,000 at auction in 2004, and it remains one of the most expensive guitars ever sold at auction.

Of all the beautiful guitars on the stage though, it was Robbie Robertson's "bronzed" 1954 Strat that was the most fascinating of the lot.

Purchased by the Band guitarist from Norman’s Rare Guitars in 1973, the Strat was used by Robertson on multiple Dylan albums (on which the legendary singer/songwriter was backed by the Band), before receiving quite the makeover for the big screen.

"When we were preparing to do The Last Waltz, I thought, I should do something for the occasion, and I had it bronzed,” Robertson told Guitar Aficionado in 2011. “They dipped the body in bronze, just like they do with baby shoes. They dip it in, leave it for a minute, and then take it out."

“So then they put the guitar back together again, and it had a completely different sound to it. Just like you would think, it had a more metallic sound. And I liked the sound I got out of it, but it was heavier.”

The unique-sounding Strat – which was later recreated in immaculate detail by the Fender Custom Shop for an ultra-limited run of replicas – helped Robertson stand out, sonically and visually, amidst the crowd of six-string heavyweights.

It bears mentioning that The Last Waltz was not well-received by all members of The Band, with drummer Levon Helm in particular later publicly expressing his distaste for the entire project.

It does mark, however, not only the final public performance by the classic lineup of one of rock's most influential bands, but one of the greatest assemblages of musical talent (and Stratocasters, to boot) on a single stage on a single night, ever. 

Back in 2013, Ronnie Wood gathered some famous friends – including the likes of Paul Weller, Bobby Womack and Wood's predecessor in the Rolling Stones' second guitar slot, Mick Taylor – together for a live tribute to blues guitar pioneer Jimmy Reed at London's Royal Albert Hall.

Wood recently announced that, as the second album in a planned trilogy of live LPs celebrating Wood's musical influences – following 2019's tribute to Chuck Berry, Mad Lad – he'd release a recording of the concert as Mr. Luck – A Tribute To Jimmy Reed: Live at the Royal Albert Hall.

We've heard some spirited selections from the album already, and now, we've been treated to two more rollicking covers from that fateful night, Shame Shame Shame and Roll and Rhumba.

The Ronnie Wood Band's version of Shame, Shame, Shame (a staple of early Stones setlists) features Weller on vocals, while their explosive interpretation of the instrumental Roll and Rhumba features Taylor's sweetly stinging lead electric guitar work.

Other covers on the album – which is set for a September 17 release via BMG – include versions of Reed classics like Baby What You Want Me to Do, Let's Get Together and Bright Lights Big City.

“Jimmy Reed was one of the premier influences on the Rolling Stones and all the bands that love American blues from that era until the present day,” Wood said in a statement. “It is my honor to have the opportunity to celebrate his life and legacy with this tribute.”

You can check out Mr. Luck's cover art and track list below. To preorder the album, head on over to Wood's website.

The Ronnie Wood Band – Mr. Luck - A Tribute to Jimmy Reed: Live at the Royal Albert Hall:

1. Essence
2. Good Lover
3. Mr. Luck
4. Let’s Get Together
5. Ain’t That Loving You Baby
6. Honest I Do
7. High & Lonesome
8. Baby What You Want Me To Do
9. Roll and Rhumba
10. You Don’t Have To Go
11. Shame Shame Shame
12. I’m That Man Down There
13. Got No Where To Go
14. Big Boss Man
15. I Ain’t Got You
16. I’m Going Upside Your Head
17. Bright Lights Big City
18. Ghost of a Man

Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood is set to pay tribute to blues legend Jimmy Reed on a forthcoming live album.

Mr Luck – A Tribute To Jimmy Reed: Live at the Royal Albert Hall was recorded at the iconic London music venue on November 1, 2013, and features a variety of guests, including former Rolling Stones guitarist Mick Taylor – who was replaced by Wood in 1974 – as well as Mick Hucknall, Bobby Womack and Paul Weller.

The album is set to feature 18 tracks covered from Reed's sprawling catalogue, including Good Lover, Let's Get Together and Baby What You Want Me to Do.

“Jimmy Reed was one of the premier influences on the Rolling Stones and all the bands that love American blues from that era until the present day,” Wood explains. “It is my honor to have the opportunity to celebrate his life and legacy with this tribute.”

The new live album is the second in a trilogy which sees Ronnie Wood pay homage to his influences. The first – Mad Lad, released in 2019 – saw the guitarist celebrate the music of rock 'n' roll pioneer Chuck Berry.

Mr Luck is available now for preorder from Ronnie Wood's website. Check out the album's tracklisting below.

1. Essence
2. Good Lover
3. Mr. Luck
4. Let’s Get Together
5. Ain’t That Loving You Baby
6. Honest I Do
7. High & Lonesome
8. Baby What You Want Me To Do
9. Roll and Rhumba
10. You Don’t Have To Go
11. Shame Shame Shame
12. I’m That Man Down There
13. Got No Where To Go
14. Big Boss Man
15. I Ain’t Got You
16. I’m Going Upside Your Head
17. Bright Lights Big City
18. Ghost of a Man

Faces – the long disbanded rock group whose members included Rod Stewart and Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood – are recording brand-new music.

In a new interview with The Times, Wood reveals that he, Stewart and drummer Kenney Jones met up recently, and that he's also been recording new music with Mick Jagger.

“I saw Mick [Jagger] here last week and Rod [Stewart] and Kenney [Jones] were here yesterday,” he says. “Me and Mick have done nine new tracks for the [40th anniversary] re-release of Tattoo You.

“And me, Rod and Kenney have been recording some new Faces music. I've had a front-row seat on some amazing rock 'n' roll projects these past couple of weeks.”

Faces formed in 1969 following the disbandment of rock group Small Faces. They broke up later in 1975 when Rod Stewart left the band and Ronnie Wood began playing with The Rolling Stones.

The outfit released four studio albums during their tenure – First Step, Long Player, A Nod is As Good As a Wink... to a Blind Horse and, most recently, Ooh La La in 1973. This makes the band's new project their first official output in 48 years.

Ronnie Wood has confirmed he’s been given the all-clear after recently being diagnosed with cancer for a second time.

The Rolling Stones guitarist revealed the news to The Sun, saying that, four years on from his first fight with lung cancer, he had battled small-cell carcinoma in secret during the coronavirus lockdown.

Small-cell carcinoma is a type of cancer commonly found in the lungs, though can also affect the prostate, pancreas, bladder or lymph nodes areas.

While in conversation with the British newspaper, Wood said, “I’ve had cancer two different ways now. I had lung cancer in 2017 and I had small-cell more recently that I fought in the last lockdown… I came through with the all clear.”

The 73-year-old rock ‘n’ roll legend, who has been producing pieces of visual art over the past few years, also said that working on his paintings with his wife and their four-year-old twin daughters helped him throughout his recovery.

“I’m going through a lot of problems now, but throughout my recovery, you have to let it go,” he continued. “And when you hand the outcome over to your higher power, that is a magic thing… what will be will be, it’s nothing to do with me.

“All I can do is stay positive in my attitude, be strong and fight it, and the rest is up to my higher power.”

Wood's recent fight with small-cell carcinoma was his second battle with cancer, having been discovered to have lung cancer during a routine health check in 2017. Despite refusing chemotherapy, Wood made a full recovery in 2018 after a successful five-hour long operation.

The Eric Clapton & Friends: A Tribute to Ginger Baker concert took place at London’s Eventim Apollo Hammersmith on February 17, and the one-time-only event didn’t disappoint as far as the friends that came out to celebrate the legendary drummer’s legacy. 

Following a short montage of Baker’s life, Clapton – Baker’s two-time electric guitar band mate in Cream and Blind Faith – and his band were joined by Roger Waters on bass for Cream’s Sunshine of Your Love. 

Waters remained onstage for two more Cream songs, Strange Brew and White Room, the latter also featuring former Faces band mates Ronnie Wood on guitar and Kenney Jones on drums.

Other highlights included Wood on Badge; Chic guitar legend Nile Rodgers on I Feel Free and Tales of Brave Ulysses; and a Blind Faith mini-set (essentially, most of the supergroup’s entire 1969 debut album) with Clapton, Rogers, Steve Winwood on organ, vocals and guitar and Baker’s son, Kofi Baker, on drums.

The entire guest list, which also included drummer Henry Spinetti and guitarist Will Johns (son of producer Andy Johns), closed the night with a run-through of Crossroads, with Clapton, Wood and Rodgers trading solos on a trio of Strats and Johns contributing some tasty licks on an Ernie Ball Music Man EVH.

Commented Clapton to the audience early on, “Some of that stuff was 50 years ago but it feels like yesterday.”

He also riffed on Baker’s famously prickly personality, saying, “He was a scoundrel but I loved him and he loved me and that was that.

“I saw some people get the rough edge of his tongue but I never did, so I feel blessed. That’s why I’m doing this.”

You can check out more performances from the show below.

He may have just wrapped a U.S. tour with The Rolling Stones, but Ronnie Wood is already back at it with a new album, Ronnie Wood with His Wild Five - Mad Lad: A Live Tribute to Chuck Berry.

As stated quite clearly in the title, the effort is a nod to one of Wood’s – and the Stones’ – biggest influences.

In addition to Berry tunes like Back in the USA and, of course, Johnny B. Goode, the 11-track set, recorded live at Wimborne’s Tivoli Theatre in 2018, also boasts Wood’s own Tribute to Chuck Berry.

You can check out Wood’s version of Berry’s Talking About You below.

Due November 15 via BMG, Mad Lad sports hand-painted album artwork from Wood and will be available digitally, on CD, heavyweight vinyl, as a deluxe box set (featuring a CD, LP and 12x12 artcard of the album artwork) and in a super deluxe limited-edition box set that adds in a t-shirt and signed and numbered set list.

The album also features guest appearances from singer Imelda May and pianist Ben Waters. 

According to Wood, the record is the first in a trilogy that will pay tribute to his musical heroes. Stay tuned for who might be up next.

In the meantime, you can preorder Mad Lad here.

If you've ever wondered how it would sound if Jimmy Page were in the Rolling Stones in the mid Eighties, you've just stumbled upon the answer. "One Hit (to the Body)," a Top 40 Rolling Stones hit from 1986, features the Led Zeppelin co-founder on lead guitar.

The song's Russell Mulcahy-directed music video, above, shows Keith Richards skulking around an industrial, Mad Max-style warehouse with a double-bound Fender Tele during the guitar solo (2:27). Well, at least they got the guitar right—Page (who is not shown at all in the clip) is obviously playing his B-bender-equipped Tele—the one he's holding on the cover of the July 1986 issue of Guitar World magazine (shown below). Page was using his B-bender a lot back then; it's heard on his mid-Eighties recordings with the Firm and the Honeydrippers, not to mention Led Zeppelin's In Through the Out Door.

"I installed StringBenders in two of Jimmy Page's guitars—one in a Tele and one in a Les Paul," Gene Parsons, creator/designer of the Parsons/White StringBender, told me last month. "I think he always appreciated [Byrds guitarist and B-bender pioneer] Clarence White and might have even been a fan. It must have been that ‘Clarence sound’ that convinced him to have the StringBenders installed."

Anyway, why did this unlikely recording session even happen? Good question! Page was close to the Stones—geographically speaking—right around the time of Live Aid in July 1985. His guitar contribution was the result of a brief session with Ronnie Wood after Page asked to hear what the band was working on. The song, which reached Number 38 on the U.S. charts, was featured on the Stones' 1986 album, Dirty Work, which sold an impressive 4 million copies worldwide.

As any good Stones fan knows, "One Hit (to the Body)" wasn't the first time Page recorded with (or for) the band. Page, who was a full-time session guitarist before joining the Yardbirds in 1966, appears on an early—and unused—version of "Heart of Stone," which was recorded in July 1964 (with drummer Clem Cattini sitting in for Charlie Watts). The recording, which you can hear above, represents an early stab at blending country with R&B; it was recorded a full four years before the Byrds' country version of William Bell's "You Don't Miss Your Water." It eventually appeared on Metamorphosis in 1975.

By the way, Wood and Richards also play guitar on "One Hit (to the Body)"; that's Wood playing the acoustic intro. The song is even credited to Mick Jagger, Richards and Wood—a rarity.

And what about all those fake punches and nasty looks between Jagger and Richards in the music video? Well, that's an example of art imitating life; the duo weren't really getting along at the time (something to do with Jagger deciding to launch a solo career—and releasing She's the Boss in 1985; incidentally, She's the Boss features Page's Yardbirds buddy, Jeff Beck, on guitar).

Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed this blast from the past. There will be more...

Jimmy Page performance photo (GuitarWorld.com homepage): Clive Rose/Getty Images

Rhino has announced a comprehensive Faces box set titled Faces: You Can Make Me Dance, Sing Or Anything (1970-1975).

The set features newly remastered versions of all four of the band's studio albums—The First Step (1970), Long Player (1971), A Nod Is as Good as a Wink...to a Blind Horse (1971) and Ooh La La (1973)—plus a bonus disc of rarities.

The set will be available August 28 from Rhino Records for a list price of $54.98 on CD and $39.99 digitally.

Here's the contents of the new box set:

The First Step

• 1. "Wicked Messenger"
• 2. "Devotion"
• 3. "Shake, Shudder, Shiver"
• 4. "Stone"
• 5. "Around The Plynth"
• 6. "Flying"
• 7. "Pineapple And The Monkey"
• 8. "Nobody Knows"
• 9. "Looking Out The Window"
• 10. "Three Button Hand Me Down"
• 11. "Behind The Sun" (Outtake) *
• 12. "Mona - The Blues" (Outtake) *
• 13. "Shake, Shudder, Shiver" (BBC Session) *
• 14. "Flying" (Take 3) *
• 15. "Nobody Knows" (Take 2) *

Long Player

1. "Bad 'n' Ruin"
2. "Tell Everyone"
3. "Sweet Lady Mary"
4. "Richmond"
5. "Maybe I'm Amazed"
6. "Had Me A Real Good Time"
7. "On The Beach"
8. "I Feel So Good"
9. "Jerusalem"
10. "Whole Lotta Woman" (Outtake) *
11. "Tell Everyone" (Take 1) *
12. "Sham-Mozzal" (Instrumental - Outtake) *
13. "Too Much Woman" (Live) *
14. "Love In Vain" (Live) *

A Nod Is As Good As A Wink... To A Blind Horse

1. "Miss Judy's Farm"
2. "You're So Rude"
3. "Love Lives Here"
4. "Last Orders Please"
5. "Stay With Me"
6. "Debris"
7. "Memphis"
8. "Too Bad"
9. "That's All You Need"
10. "Miss Judy's Farm" (BBC Session) *
11. "Stay With Me" (BBC Session) *

Ooh La La

1. "Silicone Grown"
2. "Cindy Incidentally"
3. "Flags And Banners"
4. "My Fault"
5. "Borstal Boys"
6. "Fly In The Ointment"
7. "If I'm On The Late Side"
8. "Glad And Sorry"
9. "Just Another Honky"
10. "Ooh La La"
11. "Cindy Incidentally" (BBC Session) *
12. "Borstal Boys" (Rehearsal) *
13. "Silicone Grown" (Rehearsal) *
14. "Glad And Sorry" (Rehearsal) *
15. "Jealous Guy" (Live) *

Bonus Disc

1. "Pool Hall Richard"
2. "I Wish It Would Rain" (With A Trumpet)
3. "Rear Wheel Skid"
4. "Maybe I'm Amazed"
5. "Oh Lord I'm Browned Off"
6. "You Can Make Me Dance, Sing Or Anything (Even Take The Dog For A Walk, Mend A Fuse, Fold
Away The Ironing Board, Or Any Other Domestic Short Comings)" (UK Single Version)
7. "As Long As You Tell Him"
8. "Skewiff (Mend The Fuse)"
9. "Dishevelment Blues"

* previously unreleased

While it was rumored that Keith Richards was going to make a surprise appearance, Rolling Stones guitarists Ronnie Wood and Mick Taylor demonstrated that they were perfectly fine without him as they ripped through more than an hour's worth of gritty blues at an 11 p.m. show at the Cutting Room in New York City Saturday night, November 9.

Focusing primarily on the catalog of Mississippi electric blues pioneer Jimmy Reed, the tight-but-loose band, featuring keyboardist Al Kooper, Bad Company drummer Simon Kirke and two bassists (electric and upright), occasionally sounded like the classic Exile On Main Street-era Stones. But more often they recalled the earthy stomp of the great electric Chess bands from the Fifties, playing Reed classics such as “Big Boss Man” and “Bright Lights, Big City.”

During most of the evening, Wood and Taylor locked in on rhythm parts that were different, but complimentary, as they snaked and slithered around each other, avoiding lengthy solos in favor of tasty fills and sharp statements that would’ve made the economical Reed proud.

More often than not, the comically animated Wood, who sang and stood center stage, let his array of harmonicas do the majority of the soloing as he demonstrated his surprisingly fluid chops on the blues harp.

Fans of Taylor’s great solos on such Stones classics as “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking” and “Ventilator Blues” weren’t completely shut out. Taylor unleashed his signature vibrato and flurries of notes on his sunburst Les Paul several times during the intimate show on songs like “I Ain’t Got You” and two instrumentals.

Wood also thrilled his diehard guitar fans by breaking out his classic black, three-pickup Zemaitis guitar from his Faces days for some lethal slide licks throughout the night.

Yes, it would’ve been grand to see Keef mix it up in a club setting with the two guitarists, but no one was complaining when the show ended well past midnight. Ronnie and Mick, as New Yorkers would say, “aren’t exactly chopped liver,” and the heartfelt performance that paid tribute to one of their heroes made the late-night show one of the best and most memorable of the year.

Brad Tolinksi is the editor-in-chief of Guitar World magazine.

Julien's Auctions has announced its upcoming auction, Property From The Collection of Ronnie and Jo Wood, featuring items belonging to the longtime Rolling Stones guitarist.

The auction, which will include fine and decorative art, antiques, music memorabilia and personal property, will take place in October in Beverly Hills (Check out the times, dates and location below).

The Wood collection features memorabilia from the Rolling Stones, Faces and Wood’s solo career as a musician and an artist, spanning more than four decades. Items include stage-worn leather jackets and clothing, plus two Ronnie Wood custom-painted Fender Stratocasters, one with the body depicting a Stones recording session (valued at $4,000 to $8,000).

For Stones collectors, there's tour clothing, backstage passes and tour ephemera from various tours of the 1990s and 2000s, collectible Rolling Stones books, guitar picks, vinyl record albums and other memorabilia that Jo collected over the years. Other highlights include a Mick Jagger handwritten note to Wood ($200 to $400), a twice-signed Mick Jagger Rolling Stones poster ($400 to $600) and a cardboard cutout in the form of a guitar body inscribed "To Ronnie from Keith,” describing a guitar Richards commissioned for Wood as a Christmas gift ($200 to $300).

Portraits of Richards, Eric Clapton and Bob Dylan are among some of the artwork offered ($800 to $1,200 each).

The collection also includes fine antiques, furniture and decorative art from Holmwood, the Surrey countryside estate shared by Ronnie and Jo. There's an Erard harp ($4,000 to $5,000), a Victorian mahogany dining table ($4,000 to $6,000) and a pair of Aubusson tapestry entre fenetres ($8,000 to $10,000).

Also offered is a collection of British sporting artwork, including a bronze jockey statue by Dame Elisabeth Frink ($65,000 to $85,000), "Shark and his Trainer Price," from the studio of George Stubbs ($45,000 to $55,000) and other equestrian paintings by Richard Roper ($20,000 to $25,000), and Edwin Loder of Bath ($6,000-$8,000). Other fine paintings in the sale are "The Coronation of Saint Cosmos and Saint Damian from the Circle of Pietro Malambra" ($12,000 to $18,000), "The Flower Seller" by John William Hennessey ($25,000 to $30,000) and works by James Arthur O’Connor and Sir William Orpen.

All of the property in the auction will be featured in a full-olor limited-edition catalog available for purchase at juliensauctions.com for $75.

Free Public Exhibition:

• October 15 to 26
• Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Saturday

Live Auction

Fine Art From Other High Profile Collections
Friday, October 26
Session I: 2 p.m. PSTThe Collection of Ronnie and Jo WoodSaturday, October 27
Session II: 10 a.m. PST
Session III: 2 p.m. PSTExhibition and Auction Location:Julien’s Auctions, 9665 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 150, Beverly Hills, CA 90210For more info, visit juliensauctions.com.