Stewart played guitar in a school skiffle group called The Kool Kats, the first band he joined. His career really began in January of 1964, when he was discovered by Long John Baldry, who saw him playing the harmonica in a Twickenham railway station.

Stewart ’ s first major exposure came in 1968, when he and Ron Wood joined forces with guitarist Jeff Beck, who had quite a following on both sides of the Atlantic from his groundbreaking work in the Yardbirds band.