How Ronnie Wood Bridged the Gap Between Jagger and Richards in the Late 1970s

The most underrated thing Ronnie Wood brought to the Stones wasn’t his slide guitar—it was his ability to sit between Mick Jagger and Keith Richards without taking sides. By the time Some Girls was being cobbled together in 1977, the Glimmer Twins were barely speaking offstage. Jagger was hanging with Studio 54 royalty; Richards was deep into heroin and paranoia. Wood, fresh from the Faces, arrived as a hired gun but quickly became a human buffer.

Wood’s playing style helped too. Unlike Mick Taylor, who was a virtuoso lead player that sometimes forced Keith into a rhythm-only role, Ronnie was happy to weave around Keith’s open-G riffs. That let Richards stay in his comfort zone while still giving the band a thicker, more playful sound. On Some Girls, cuts like “Miss You” and “Beast of Burden” show Wood locking into a secondary rhythm part that frees Jagger’s vocals without stepping on Keith’s signature churn.

But the bigger effect was social. Wood was a natural diplomat—he partied with Keith but also showed up for Jagger’s sessions. When the two principals couldn’t agree on a mix or a lyric, Ronnie could