The day Keith Richards pulled a gun on me...by fellow Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood

Lead guitarist "Keef" was incensed that the Stones' bassist was smoking purified cocaine in a method known as freebasing.

And in Wood's startling new memoir, serialised today in Review, he reveals how Richards's fury at the habit frequently spilled into violence.

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Wood, 60, says of one terrifying moment: "After a row with Keith one day, he stormed off to get his gun. I warned everyone to 'clear the decks'.

"Keith came back with his Derringer, pointed it at me and yelled, 'You f****** b****** Woody!'

"But I had my own gun, a .44 Magnum. I didn't have any bullets for it but I calmly pulled it out. And that was the last time Keith pulled a gun on me... until the next time."

The autobiography, called Ronnie, is the first time a member of the Rolling Stones has disclosed the incredible inside story of the world's biggest band. It also paints a picture of Richards at odds with his laid-back image.

Wood joined the Rolling Stones in 1975 after being a key member of The Faces, where he had teamed up with Rod Stewart.

With his new band, he was instantly introduced to a world where members were transported in a private Boeing 720, with "bedroom, lounge, library, showers, a bar and, occasionally, naked girls running up and down the aisles".

He reveals his drug excesses also included toasting his wedding to wife Jo by snorting cocaine off the dashboard of his white Rolls-Royce and smoking heroin with John Lennon while Yoko Ono sat knitting in the corner of the room.

Other bizarre behaviour included banning his children from eating meringues during his cocaine smoking sessions in case he mistookcrumbs for the drug.

He also squandered a large chunk of a £40,000 home improvement loan on drugs in just six weeks.

And once, while living in New York, his son Jamie came downstairs the morning after a party and saw Superman actor Christopher Reeve on a sofa "completely out of it". Wood says: "He ran into our room crying, 'You've destroyed Superman.' "

But the Stone's outrageous behaviour was not not confined to drugs.

He cleared out the wine cellar of actor Tony Curtis when the Hollywood star foolishly asked him and Jo to look after his London house.

Wood and his friends polished off 50 cases of Curtis's finest --and irreplaceable - wines in a matter of days.