One Direction Perform With Ronnie Wood: One Directioners Ask Who? Rolling Stones Fans Ask Why?

When One Direction were joined onstage at Wembley arena during the X-Factor final by none other than the Rolling Stones rhythm guitarist Ronnie Wood, it seemed to many stunned and bewildered viewers like a match made in the inner cycle of Simon Cowell’s pop hell.

Ahead of One Direction performing their exclusive new track “Where Do Broken Hearts Go,” viewers of the X-Factor final were repeatedly teased that Harry Styles and his less famous bandmates would be joined onstage by a very special guest.

After much fanfare about how many albums they had sold and the sheer scale of people they had preformed to, One Direction finally took to the stage and 1D fans everywhere were on the edge of their seats and gripped by a familiar hormonal hysteria as to who the special guest might be.

Justin Bieber perhaps? Bruno Mars maybe? Possibly Justin Timberlake. Nope. As the lights dimmed and a familiar axe-wielding figure shuffled onto the stage with a sort of tenacious gait that only spritely men of a certain age boast, viewers everywhere were stunned into silence and in some quarters, abject disbelief.

Seasoned fans of The Rolling Stones were horrified that the sparring partner of Keith Richards and one fourth of the group who once upon a time epitomized the rock n’ roll spirit before Mick Jagger became a knight and the hip and knee problems set in, was jamming on national television with (spit it) a boy band during the X-Factor final.

As Harry Styles dropped to his knees and played air-guitar at Ronnie’s feet like an adolescent who’s had one too many shandy tops, you could almost hear Stones’ fans sipping their herbal teas as a collective and lamenting, “On my Ronnie, what have you done.”

Many of these disgruntled baby boomers took to Twitter to voice their upset at such heinous treachery from one of their own.

“One Direction and the Rolling Stones should never be mentioned in the same sentence never mind playing together,” one fan raged.

“Following One Direction’s duet with The Rolling Stones, Steps have agreed to record a duet with AC/DC,” another said in wounded jest.

Another snarled, “Instead of having Ronnie Wood playing guitar for One Direction, could they not have had The Rolling Stones?”

Meanwhile many One Direction fans were left starring google-eyed in confusion as someone who looked liked their granddad in a fancy dress costume and a wig started jumping around on stage with their heroes. “Was it some sort of sick joke?” they wondered. “What twaddle is this?” they asked.

For many, seeing a 67-year-old Ronnie Wood and the twenty-something One Direction lads share the same stage was less like an elder statesman of rock passing the torch to a new breed of pop tarts and more like an ill-devised and half-baked pantomime conjured up by Simon Cowell in his ongoing one-man war against music.

Yet the more musically knowledgeable 1D fan was thrilled that their boys had been given the seal of approval by a rock and rolling grandpappy like Ronnie Wood.

“I can’t believe One Direction just performed with a member of the Rolling Stones. I’m so proud of them I can’t,” one wrote.

For Niall Horan in particular, having a real guitar player on stage to excitedly trade licks with was an amazing experience that must have validated his ongoing desire to be seen as a member of a “real band.”

As for Ronnie, he appeared to have an equally fantastic time with One Direction, and had nothing but compliments for the biggest pop group on the planet.

“They’re a great bunch of guys and really fabulous fun to work with, you know?”