The Rolling Stones News

The Rolling Stones may be falling out of trees and battling addictions, but they're gonna keep on rockin'.

A spokeswoman confirmed Friday that the band is "absolutely going ahead on tour, beginning [July 11] in Milan," despite reports that guitarist Ron Wood (or Ronnie, as the fans call him) has entered rehab to be treated for alcohol dependency.

Publicist Fran Curtis told Reuters that Wood, 59, checked into a South London clinic earlier this week but would be onstage with the Rolling Stones in Italy to open the already-postponed European leg of the group's A Bigger Bang tour.

"He needs some rest, but he will definitely be fit for the first night of the European tour," Curtis told England's Sun newspaper.

Good, because a Stones concert wouldn't be the same without Wood, cigarette clenched firmly between his lips, at frontman Mick Jagger's side and trading licks with Keith Richards.

According to Reuters, Wood also served a stint in rehab last year and, per BBC News, he also checked into London's Priory Clinic in 2000 to battle alcohol abuse.

Fifteen dates of the Stones' latest tour were postponed last month to give Richards time to recuperate after he injured his head in a fall. The 62-year-old guitarist and Wood were engaged in the popular pastime of coconut-picking while on vacation in Fiji with their wives in April, when Richards lost his footing and toppled out of a palm tree. He suffered a "mild concession" and underwent "minor surgery" in New Zealand early last month to relieve some pressure in his brain, which can result from a bump to the noggin.

The Stones announced their new itinerary a couple weeks ago, stating that Richards had made a "complete recovery." The revamped schedule will take the band to 21 stadiums in 11 countries, including Norway, Portugal and Spain. Ten postponed dates have not been reset and they may be pushed to 2007, since the group has a jaunt to the States on tap for the fall. Shows in Leipzig and Nuremberg, Germany, have been canceled.

Richards, Wood, Jagger and drummer Charlie Watts have been traversing the globe for A Bigger Bang since August 2005, making a performance stop in China for the first time ever and playing a free show on Brazil's Copacabana Beach in front of more than 1 million fans.