Many rock musicians engender respect, but few are also deeply charming. Seeing Ronnie Wood, the Rolling Stones' lead guitarist, sit in a hotel suite opposite an untouched bowl of fruit, two opened bottles of fine wine and an almost empty cigarette packet only reinforces the belief that Wood has, throughout his 54 years, landed on his feet. Only a curmudgeon would tut.
"I've always landed on my feet," he agrees, cradling a copy of Not For Beginners, his new solo album. "I learned that lesson from working seven nights a week with the first band I was in, The Birds, and getting ripped off by managers, of whom I've had so many who cleaned me out. I learned so many lessons travelling the world and having to be on your toes."
If Mick Jagger is the leathered and waxed idol of The Rolling Stones, and Keith Richards the wrinkled and worn guitar hero, then Wood is the perfect accompanist. Spindly, with spiky hair, Wood was a post-war baby raised in the fertile rock-music throng of the early 1960s. At art school in London, he befriended the likes of Pete Townshend, Ray Davies and Keith Richards, three of the many who would go on to form world-beating rock bands.
It was at art school that he developed his passions of music and painting, the latter losing out then but, these days, taking up almost as much of his time as music.
"In the early days, I wanted to be a graphic artist or a scenic designer, but there didn't seem to be any openings then for that kind of work. That's why I took the easier route of playing a gig for a fiver, rather than struggle as a signwriter, which I used to do, for a week for £4. It was much more of a tasty prospect to do the music, and it just snowballed from there. I was always in at the right time and the right place."
Wood lent an informal rock 'n' roll primitivism to bands such as The Birds, Jeff Beck and The Small Faces. With The Rolling Stones, he just about gets away with becoming a caricature of a rock star.
"I was initially brought in as a helping hand, after Mick Taylor left," he says. "To not necessarily bridge a gap, but to settle in and be there for no determined amount of time - it could be forever or it could be for a year. But then, during the first year with the band, Keith said, wasn't it about time we made it official?
"We all agreed that I'd slide in and become part of the furniture, with no need to make a big announcement. I was always of the feeling that I was part of their tribe anyway. I always got accepted like I was one of them."
Wood once epitomised the leery lifestyle of the rock-star lush, play-acting with Rod Stewart in the Faces or trading guitar licks with Richards in The Rolling Stones. These days, his doctor has advised him not to drink spirits, and while many perhaps still perceive him as a hard-drinking, hard-drugging rock 'n' roll star, Wood is a new man.
"I'll never change from being the party animal, but what's a party animal these days?" he asks. "Someone who just goes out at night to enjoy a drink? It's not the same as it used to be, that's for sure. The merciless living on the verge of death . . . If the doctor hadn't stopped me from drinking the hard stuff, I'd still be cruising on. I've never had a problem with my system, no ill effects - I still don't know what a hangover is. Nowadays, I enjoy a Guinness and a glass of red wine, and I can cruise on them. That said, I don't miss the vodka, of which I used to drink far too much."
Yet as his new album - his seventh solo release - shows, Wood's spirit isn't flagging. With help from the old school - Bob Dylan, Scotty Moore, D.J. Fontana and Ian MacLagan - and new students - Kelly Jones of Stereophonics and Jesse and Leah, Wood's children - Not For Beginners is a throwback to the laid-back. Mellow, intimate and loose, it's a record to listen to when the lights are low or on an early-morning drive.
"I usually have a couple of plans for albums, one of which I chose for Not For Beginners, which is the mellow option. The other plan is for much more maniac, uptempo rockin' stuff, which might go on the next record. It usually works out roughly every five years I do a solo album, though, which means my next one should be out when I'm about 60."
Wood is of an age when he's considering his future more than reminiscing about his past. He's aware that time is passing him by, alluding to the recent death of Kim Gardener, his old colleague from The Birds, as he remarks that people he knows are dropping like flies. "We've lost quite a few along the way," he says, like a pensioner at a funeral. "I'm part of a dying breed, it's a fact, but I just try and keep the flag flying for the old days."
Speaking of which, next year's 40th anniversary of The Rolling Stones will see those old days revisited again. Although there are no concrete plans, the band is likely to tour extensively. "We'd like to do a celebration on both sides of the world, but there's nothing definite just yet."
As for being a member of one of the world's biggest, best-known rock groups, Wood is sanguine. "It's fabulous," he says, "but it's a great release to take a break now and again. Solo albums afford you that feeling of little or no pressure, and it's like my painting work. I'm in charge of the project, and I can have a word with myself about it. When I go back with the Stones as a team, the outfit, the project is already established. I slot into that and do the best I can. I'm not frustrated with what I do with the Stones - that's just one thing I do. But it's nice to have the solo expression."
Does it surprise him that the Stones are still out there, that they haven't split up or died? "It still amazes me that, when we go on the road, so many people come out of the woodwork; to see the enthusiasm is fantastic. It's also very encouraging, and it tells you there's nothing quite like the memories that may be stirred up from different eras during the Stones' life, songs that spark off so many different things."
Prior to the Rolling Stones juggernaut pulling out of the garage sometime next year, Wood will work on an album with his friend Rod Stewart, who used to be the Faces' singer. Then there is the art - a commission for Muhammad Ali, to tie in with the new biopic featuring Will Smith, and a big project for The Ivy, the London restaurant, which involves painting portraits of well-known people from theatre, fashion and music.
"I had no more know-how than the next guy," says Wood about his place in the rock-music hierarchy. "I was playing and living by instinct, giving my best all the time, always onwards and upwards, improving musically and artistically. Hopefully, I still have that ambition. That's the greatest driving force anyone can have, to want to do new and better things. It'd be horrible if I thought there was nothing left for me to do. As it is, I've got lots to look forward to."
Ronnie Wood plays Vicar Street (1890- 925150), Dublin, on Saturday. Not For Beginners is on Steamhammer/SPV
