How the 1975 Tour of the Americas Threw Ronnie Wood into the Deep End as the Rolling Stones' New Guitarist

Ronnie Wood didn’t just walk into the Rolling Stones’ 1975 Tour of the Americas as the new guitarist—he was thrown into the deep end mid-tour with a 40-song setlist and a stage that literally unfolded like a lotus flower. Mick Taylor had quit in December 1974, leaving the band scrambling. They tapped Wood, who was still a member of the Faces, as a temporary replacement. But he had only a few weeks to learn the entire catalog before the tour kicked off in New York in June.

The biggest challenge wasn’t technique—Wood already knew Keith Richards from jamming—but chemistry and logistics. The tour had a massive, elaborate stage design with moving parts,