Ronnie Wood is an English musician and songwriter, best known as the long-serving guitarist of The Rolling Stones after earlier runs with Faces and the Jeff Beck Group. A prolific artist and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, he embodies rock longevity. His flamboyant stage style is often topped off with bold sunglasses.
Ronnie Wood has spent a lifetime at the centre of rock and roll without ever taking the centre of the stage. As the guitarist of The Rolling Stones since 1975, he completes one of the most famous bands in history, his wiry rhythm playing and effortless slide work weaving through decades of the group's most enduring songs. It is a role that requires generosity, instinct and an almost telepathic connection to his bandmates, and Wood has supplied all three for over half a century.
His road to the Stones ran through some of the era's great bands. He played bass with the Jeff Beck Group and later helped power Faces, the rowdy, booze-soaked outfit whose loose energy made them a cult favourite and a stepping stone to rock's biggest stage. Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice, once with the Stones and once with Faces, Wood's place in music history was secured long ago, yet he has never shown the slightest interest in slowing down.
Beyond music, Wood is a serious painter whose work has been exhibited around the world, and a survivor whose battles with addiction became an unlikely source of inspiration. That creative restlessness, moving between guitar, canvas and constant reinvention, is the mark of a true artist rather than a mere sideman, and it keeps him vital well past an age when most of his peers have faded.
Wood has always understood that rock and roll is as much visual as it is sonic. His stage wardrobe leans flamboyant, all sharp suits, bright colours and the easy swagger of a man who has been doing this forever, and his eyewear plays its part. Bold sunglasses are a recurring feature, adding a flash of rock star attitude to looks that already demand attention.
Whether he is mid-solo in a stadium or stepping off a tour bus, Wood wears his sunglasses like a man entirely at home in the spotlight. They are a natural extension of a personality built on charisma and longevity, the finishing flourish on a career that shows no sign of reaching its final chord.
