How Ron Wood’s Rhythm-First Guitar Changed the Rolling Stones’ Sound After Mick Taylor

The most important thing to know: Ron Wood replaced Mick Taylor’s fluid, jazz-lick soloing with a grittier, rhythm-first attack that pushed the Stones toward funk and a leaner, more locked-in groove. Taylor floated over the beat; Wood sat on it.

Wood’s slide on “Hot Stuff” (1976) is a perfect example. Instead of trying to out-blues Mick Taylor, he used a raw, bottleneck-driven growl that sounded almost swampy—less concerned with melody than with texture. That track, recorded during the Black and Blue sessions, was the band testing the waters of funk and disco, and Wood’s slide gave it a loose, stoned swagger that Taylor’s cleaner style wouldn’t have delivered.

Then came “Miss You” (1978). Here Wood was barely playing lead at all—he locked into a choppy, single-note rhythm part that sounded almost like a clavinet mixed with a muted guitar. It was syncopated, precise, and completely subservient to the bass-and-drums pulse. That track became the blueprint for the Stones’ late-70s dancefloor pivot. Wood understood that the band didn’t need another virtuoso; they needed someone willing to stay out of the way while making the rhythm section hit harder. That shift—from Taylor’s elegant flights to Wood’s earthy, groove-priority playing—is what let the Stones stay relevant without losing their