The Rolling Stones legend played two songs with the rock supergroup at the storied O2
The Hollywood Vampires launched their 2026 European tour in appropriately spectacular fashion at London’s O2 Arena on Wednesday, August 12, with The Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood making a surprise appearance during the encore. The concert marked the first Hollywood Vampires live performance in nearly three years and brought Alice Cooper, Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry, Johnny Depp and Tommy Henriksen back together for a sprawling celebration of classic rock, their own material and the late musicians who inspired the supergroup. The Jesus and Mary Chain served as special guests for the London show, which kicked off a European run scheduled to continue into September.
The Vampires opened the night with “I Want My Now,” from their 2019 album Rise, before moving through “Raise the Dead” and “My Dead Drunk Friends.” From there, the group revisited Cooper’s classic “I’m Eighteen” and mixed original material with songs connected to some of rock’s most influential figures. The set included The Velvet Underground’s “Venus in Furs,” The Jim Carroll Band’s “People Who Died,” Johnny Thunders’ “You Can’t Put Your Arms Round a Memory,” Aerosmith’s “Livin’ on the Edge” and The Who’s “Baba O’Riley.” Perry handled lead vocals on the Johnny Thunders tribute, while the performance of “Baba O’Riley” honored late Who members Keith Moon and John Entwistle. The band also worked through Jeff Beck’s “Beck’s Bolero,” David Bowie’s “Heroes,” AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell,” Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way” and a combination of Cooper’s “School’s Out” and Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2.”
The biggest surprise, however, was saved for the encore. Wood walked onstage to join Cooper, Perry, Depp, Henriksen and the rest of the band for “The Train Kept A-Rollin’,” the blues and rock standard that has been recorded by numerous artists and became particularly associated with The Yardbirds and Aerosmith. Putting Wood beside Perry carried considerable rock-history weight: the two guitarists came out of the same blues-based tradition and went on to help define the sound and image of two of the biggest rock bands of the 1970s and beyond. With Wood added to an already guitar-heavy Hollywood Vampires lineup, “Train Kept A-Rollin’” became a loose, celebratory all-star jam rather than simply another cover in the set.
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Wood remained onstage for an even more fitting selection: The Rolling Stones’ “Brown Sugar.” Singer Imelda May joined the musicians for the performance, while Wood played alongside Perry, Depp and Henriksen. Although “Brown Sugar” predates Wood’s membership in the Stones — it was released in 1971, while Wood officially joined the band later in the decade — the song has been part of his musical life for decades through countless Stones performances. Guitar World reported that Wood played a Duesenberg Starplayer TV Ronnie Wood signature guitar during his guest appearance. With May handling the vocals and four prominent guitarists sharing the stage, the performance turned one of the Stones’ best-known songs into a sprawling Hollywood Vampires-style rock jam.
Wood’s appearance was also particularly timely. The Stones guitarist has been preparing for a series of his own intimate performances with his band featuring May, including a scheduled August 21 show at London’s O2 Forum Kentish Town. Those dates are being billed as Wood’s first full solo live sets in more than 16 years, making his Hollywood Vampires cameo something of a high-profile warmup as well as a meeting of longtime friends and peers. Wood and Depp also share a connection through the late Jeff Beck: Depp toured and recorded with Beck before the legendary guitarist’s death in 2023, while Wood and Beck famously played together in the Jeff Beck Group during the late 1960s.
After “Brown Sugar,” Wood departed and the Vampires closed the evening with “Hi Ho Silver Lining,” the song famously associated with Beck. That choice gave the conclusion another layer of meaning, particularly after Wood’s appearance. The Hollywood Vampires have always built their identity around celebrating rock history and honoring musicians who have died — the group itself originated as a tribute to Cooper’s hard-living musician friends of the 1970s — and the London performance leaned heavily into that concept. Images of departed stars accompanied parts of the show, while songs associated with Thunders, Moon, Entwistle, Bowie and Beck helped turn the concert into both a rock spectacle and an extended tribute.
For Wood, the appearance offered another reminder of how naturally he fits into an informal rock-and-roll setting. Rather than arriving for an elaborate solo showcase, the 79-year-old guitarist simply joined an already crowded stage filled with famous friends and helped push two classic songs over the finish line. His loose, blues-rooted style was particularly well suited to a group like the Hollywood Vampires, whose concerts frequently feel less like tightly controlled arena productions than oversized rock-club jams populated by veteran musicians. Previous Vampires shows have similarly featured major guests, including Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi during the band’s 2023 tour.
The cameo ultimately provided a memorable opening-night moment for a tour already built around rock history. Hollywood Vampires had been away from the concert stage for almost three years, and beginning their comeback at the O2 with Cooper, Perry and Depp performing songs by generations of departed heroes was already an event. Adding Ronnie Wood — a guitarist whose career stretches from the Faces and Jeff Beck Group to more than five decades with The Rolling Stones — transformed the encore into an even broader celebration of the music that shaped the Vampires in the first place. On a night devoted to the communal spirit of rock and roll, few guests could have been more appropriate.