2001 Rod Stewart Biography (Edited)

[Music] stewart was a rising young rock and roll idol in the fall of 1971 with a number one song and a number one album on both sides of the atlantic it's late [Music] three decades later after all the bands blues breakups and blondes rod stewart still has the one thing he started out with his voice a one-of-a-kind blend of sandpaper and soul for me he's got the quintessential voice for rock and roll and ballads and it's just got a marvelous rasp i mean bar none he's the best singer that i've heard in rock and roll he's the greatest white soul singer you know roster is the greatest white soul scene if you've got that raw emotion and you can reach and touch people touch their heart strings pull their heart strings that soul he was a natural born singer a natural one of a kind to this day image meister and he was deluxe and he still is everyone knows how good work can be they don't want him to sing wimp stupid songs [Music] though blessed with one of rock's most valuable voices rod by his own admission squandered his musical gifts he was then perceived as the wonderful scottish street singer who had given it all up and come to california and been involved with beautiful blonde women in fast cars and he had you know betrayed his core audience rod's admirers in the music press felt betrayed too you're now a jet setter and the images changed why should that change now i moved to los angeles you're a different person now you are you've changed a lot i will i'll go and play the london palladium if they don't turn up i'll sing to me mum and dad at the time i think i was off womanizing and doing all sorts of things i may have lost it they may have been right on that one but they haven't left me let me off the hook seats german bombs were falling on london in january of 1945 as the end of the second world war approached amid the terror and chaos in the working-class suburb of highgate bob and elsie stewart were expecting their fifth child they huddled in their backyard bomb shelter with their four children preparing for the new arrival everybody was knitting for so-called little willy you know he wasn't born then so everybody was in the shelter and they were knitting and doing things like that bob and elsie's two sons don and bobby and daughters mary and peggy listened as nazi bombs rained down you didn't really know when they were coming or when they were going to explode because you didn't get a warning with them they just come straight over [Music] on january 10 1945 a bomb blasted a nearby neighborhood claiming 14 lives that day rod stewart was born though rod's father raised his family in london bob stewart was bound heart and soul to his native scotland his scottishness was an influence on me because he had a really hard upbringing he ran away to see when he was 16 and he settled in england when he was about 19 became a plumber the stewards worked hard but they knew how to enjoy themselves we had a lot of parties it was really wonderful everybody used to sing al johnson's songs so i can sing every al jazeera song on the book by the mid-1950s american rock and roll had invaded england and rod was inspired by another yank singing star my big brother bought little richard singing the girl can't help it and i remember trying to sound like little richard [Music] the king of rock and roll was in europe serving in the u.s army in 1959 when 14 year old rod got his first guitar my dad came home with a guitar and he said he said you know i hear there's some money in this massage so that was it i you know i started playing guitar [Applause] rod enjoyed making music but he really got his kicks playing soccer i grew up in in an absolutely mad soccer family i mean my dad used to run three teams all three of us played football and i think probably roddy was the best footballer out of the lot definitely was couldn't have been a ballet dancer or anything like that i had to play football and i wanted to but my dad wanted one of his sons to be professional by 1961 16 year old rod was on the way to fulfilling his father's dream when he signed on as an apprentice with the brentford soccer club in west london when he joined brentford i thought you know he would make it and he would go all the way but after a few weeks rod quit the team i was a bit lazy when it came to soccer really because it meant i had to get up early in the morning and go and clean the first team's boot and i was just beginning to be aware that i had a voice and i was loving music the times were changing and rod was changing with them i became a beatnik and grew my hair long and was just generally smelly and my mom dad more or less kicked me out you know [Music] rod left home for europe packing little more than his guitar and harmonica [Music] it was a wonderful experience for me just roaming around europe and didn't last very long because i was sleeping under the bridges in paris and it started getting really cold when prodigal rod returned home his family was shocked by his appearance he was filthy he was rotten that was all part of being wonderfully rebellious you know to be anti-social and rebellious and he had to smell at the same time god and i remember dad stripping the clothes off him and throwing him in the mouth his hair was all black and burnt a lot burnt all his clothes and everything i was told on one occasion by my dad to give him a good roasting give him a good talking to until it would get a decent job which which i did rod wound up in a dead end job digging graves that's the most depressing job because no sage had to dig a dig to graves with a shovel there was no machinery to do it it was hard work don't think he does the job very well don't decide collapsing in by 1963 18 year old rod turned in his shovel cleaned up his act and began to take music more seriously i completely changed to a mod you know cut my hair off and love smart clothes beetlemania was sweeping the globe and london was the swinging center of a revolution in music and fashion it was truly the austin powers period of london swinging london et cetera et cetera you'd run into like the move and the action and the who and you know drink with logan john baldry and all the nut cases of the time we all socialize together i mean the the beatles the stones the kinks you name them by that time i was really singing great so it was only a matter of time i thought before united to get into a band [Music] on a cold night in january 1964 rod got into a band i was on the train station coming back from twickenham into london and was playing on my harmonica and singing a blues song and john was on the other station long john baldry a popular english blues band leader was listening i heard the sounds of howling wolf's harmonica riff from smokestack lightning anyway it was he his lordship uh sitting there on the platform waiting for the same train so i said would you like to come down and play a couple of songs with a band having no idea that he sang as well i was inviting him to come down and play the harmonica and i said yes this is the breakthrough i've been looking for two days later on the day before he turned 19 rod joined long john baldry and his hoochie coochie man he said do you mind if i sing a couple of songs there's no sure go ahead he was a nervous wreck but he went down so well i offered him a job there and then in the blues tradition rod opened the show before baldry made his entrance i went to see the hoochie coochie man featuring rod stewart who came out and did two or three songs with the biggest hairstyle and the most incredible outfit and clothes and stage presence and confidence and cockiness and then this great voice club promoters dubbed him rod the mod so we adopted the the title you know there's a long john boulder in his hoochie bin featuring rod the mod steward but raj the mod wanted a recording deal of his own four or five record companies who turned me down they said well your voice is too gruff and rough and you don't look standard you don't look pretty enough but by the fall of 64 five years after getting his first guitar rod stewart had landed a solo deal with decca records in october rod released his debut single but good morning little school girl failed to dent the charts that same month the huchikuchi men [Music] despite those dual disappointments 1964 had been a big year for bob stewart's youngest son bigger years lay ahead coming up rod producing marvelously rode the mod and me hit it off right from the start he came up to me had a black eye for some unknown reason and he said hello face who are you strange that we ended up in the faces later on by 1964 19 year old rod stewart's pub rocking soul and flamboyant style had earned him the title of rod the mod after a brief stint with a london blues band called the soul agents rod joined with his former band leader long john baldry in an all-star group called steam packet also featuring organist brian auger and singer julie driscoll [Music] this was like a soul band because soul music was just becoming really big them on the college circuit rod had a different girlfriend in every town we visited brian august and the steam packet was one of the best bands i've ever seen in my life because brianal was an incredible organ player and then you had rod stewart and julie just as the vocalist i mean it was amazing band steam packet was bursting with young talent but was unable to land a recording contract they were all with different record companies judy was with one company long-term boarded with another and problems with another so it wasn't possible steam packet ran out of steam and rod formed shotgun express in the spring of 66 with singer barrel marsden and future fleetwood mac founders peter green and mick fleetwood he was already a star i knew his singing just by reputation on the london scene i mean this is a guy that you would want in your band you know he looks great he sings like something from heaven he's got it all covered [Music] for rod looking good was no small part of the job we were all packing up the equipment and it would be oh no no no absolutely out of the question it's it's drizzling it's the do's going to be blown it's no good no good no good it won't be deluxe uh and you're like bloody hell yeah help load the van up i used to just carry the mic in because i was a singer that was that's what i did then you suddenly realize you know his it's gonna ruin the look and it's gonna my jacket's gonna get messed up or something so we learned to live with rod's uh reticence to dig into the equipment thank you mick for being so understanding after nine months shotgun express came to a stop in early 67. that february former yardbirds lead guitarist jeff beck asked 22 year old rod to join his band we just were going to play chicago blues you know and it just took off you know rounding out the jeff beck group were drummer mickey waller and bass player ron wood it felt like home because of the the blues and the the soulful elements rod and ron wood quickly developed a special chemistry he's like a brother i mean we both have the same nose and same haircut and we have this the same sense of humor which no one else in the world seems to have everyone says why are you shouting why are you falling over why are you taking your trousers down you know we used to camp it up a lot and do all silly things and really get dressed up for the shows the jeff beck group made their first u.s appearance at new york's fillmore east in june of 68. you can't rock me i was just petrified i said to woody i can't go out and i did the first song just be on the apps we'd sort of lure him out during the sun come on i looked over the top the amps and the audience were going wild they loved it so that was it oh they like us i'll go out the front now we couldn't believe how well it went down that was just the ideal combination style great music great visual and we had it all [Music] in the summer of 68 the jeff beck group recorded what was to become a classic album truth [Music] truth was the band would only play together another year and by the fall of 69 rod was unemployed [Music] ron wood hooked up with the former members of the small faces whose lead singer steve marriott had left to form humble pie ron knew he and keyboard player ian mclachlan basis ronnie lane and drummer kenny jones needed a voice and rod stewart was that voice we needed a vocalist and rod was too shy once again to get involved so one day kenny jones said come on down right you know come on at least come down and have a listen and maybe have a sing jones wanted him in the band the others weren't so sure about rod the mod i said look i have great news i've asked to join the band and oh no we don't we don't want another steve marriott we don't want another prima donna we don't want this sound oh god i think ronnie lane was a bit opposed to me joining the band at the time and so was mack because they'd haven't had enough of temperamental singers with steve i sat up all night convincing the other three that you know that was the right thing to do they had a vote on it and they said yeah we're right we do need someone to sing that was the beginning of an era of serious serious drinking coming up rod makes love to a movie goddess he bagged a a film star you know we are not married and perhaps that's got something to do with it are you going to well 24 year old rod stewart found a group of rocking soul mates in the fall of 69 when he joined forces with ron wood kenny jones ian mclaughlin and ronnie lane they called the rowdy new rock and roll drinking society the faces we had a real free living band it's all great guys having a great time producing marvelously ragged music fishing out crates of lionel champagne instead of having a backing group we'd get the audience in the same state we were in you know we consumed so much alcohol i can't remember to be honest it really was fun not only for us on stage but for the audience it was really like a giant party the faces were a wild band when you went out with them it was like that fastened your seat belts because it's uh it was going to be a bumpy night not only they're playing great music they're having a great time as well and you used to think which one's gonna fall over first we were loose that's what people loved about us we got drunk last night let's get drunk again tonight and let's get more drunk and so there was a lot of falling about but we managed to keep it together keeping the faces together would not be easy there was one stumbling block before i joined the faces i'd already signed a solo recording deal so i had to make solo records and they knew that going in one hand he had this great kick-ass rock and roll band behind him and on the other hand he was doing these almost folky albums just months after joining the faces rod released his first solo album with the help of ron wood he needs to kick up the ass from me and that's what i give him and when i give him it he sings excellent we weren't anticipating great sales at all i love the album but you know i think this is too often the album failed to chart in the uk but it reached number 139 in the i remember i got a phone call from the record company said you sold 50 000 albums i went dude what 50 000 albums 50 000 people like my voice that's amazing a year after his modest debut rod released a soulful second solo album in the fall of 70. gasoline alley cracked the us top 30 and impressed the critics as well i was very aware of the blues and very aware of american folk music and you know being british and that whole combination was was extraordinarily interesting and i think that's what the critics got on to [Music] those albums are good they're just humble honest albums humble albums is a good word because we didn't know what we were doing we're just making as good songs as we thought we could do the face's first album had also met with moderate success that year but there was concern within the band that rod was more interested in his own records i don't think we had a lot of good quality songs i mean basically the songs were ending up on rod's album all the good songs the second faces album outsold the first easing some of the band's fears and as their popularity grew so did their legion of female fans we attracted fantastic women most of the audience were women there was models there and film styles backstage and god knows what you know there used to be all these great girls with party girls and oh i saw jimmy page last night you know now i'm with you i was like any red-blooded male i suppose i was enjoying my so-called stardom and enjoying what it brought which was inevitably a girl's and why turn it down you know londoner d harrington was shocked by the flocks of groupies herds of women arrived all sort of done up and glittery stuff on and rod seemed to sort of peel women off him and then he came and asked me to dance and that was the beginning of our relationship [Music] rod and d became a regular item but rod had a more fleeting affair in mind when he wrote a song called maggie may for his third solo album maggie didn't exist she was uh the first one i've ever had sex with and i was probably around i would say 16. she must have fancied me because she just dragged me inside her tent and i put it in and it lasted about 20 seconds rod song would have far more staying power ironically maggie may was on the b side when the first single off every picture tells a story was released it was a disc jockey in cleveland i believe that turned it over and that was it in october of 71 both the single maggie may and rod's third album topped the charts in america and great britain your dad could walk down the street with his cigar sons of number one mr truth yes he certainly is and he was very proud very proud 26 year old rod stewart's life was changed forever he was still rod but he had this huge sudden rise in fame to deal with the faces would have to deal with rod's growing stardom too it was not very nice to see for the first time when you get to a gig and you look you know the building was rod stewing the faces instead of the faces it's like well we haven't got a separate singer you know it's a band you could sense going to a faces show the tension had set in there was this kind of what i would call the bubbling resentment that you know rod's a big star and he's on the front page of the tabloids i think i came through it pretty unscathed i don't think it changed me radically i think when the money started coming in now that may have changed me rolling in royalties rod bought himself a royal mansion from an english lord he called me up and he said um come and have a look at the house i've bought and i can see it as plain as anything laying on the floor in the hallway with his arms and legs up shouting it's all mine it's all mine he was really conscious about the fact that this was such a vast place and we could just never find each other we were a very new relationship we moved on january the 1st at the beginning of the year and we'd only met in the summer of that year as 1972 rolled around rod stewart was now living among rock's elite rod became very successful in america about the same time as me probably a little bit before rod and i've always had this intense rivalry but at the heart of it we've also had this incredible friendship rod's wave of success swept up the faces and as their third album went top ten their perpetual party kicked into high gear [Music] and look at what bands get up to nowadays and i think hold on a minute we've done all that before you know got hotel thrashing and all those things everything we were like a family you know we were really close mates for three or four years with and without the faces rod stewart was an established superstar by 1975 and his elevated status would bring personal and professional changes i had to leave the uk because the taxation in those days you know it was uh i think about 88 in the dollar you know it was terrible but when 30 year old rod began his new life in los angeles in the spring of 75 he left behind girlfriend dee harrington i wanted to grow as a person and he really didn't ever like me doing anything he used to say to me you can't go out to work because everybody will say look at that man in that great white house he sends his wife out to work and then really you know he was going to become a tax exile and it seemed like a natural breaking point had come along soon after rod and d broke up he took up with another blonde swedish film star brett eklund we make pretty photographs don't worry we come out very well she was a great girl she is you know a good rock and roll spirit tour you know she was older than me which made a change for me to going out with an older woman but changing the subject quickly um we are not married and perhaps that's got something to do with it are you going to well that's up to uh prompt we don't know yet we haven't it's not in the plans right now he really needed to sort of go off and have some sort of glamorous woman to to be with changed a lot a bit i just think because he you know he bagged a film star you know and then he had his own dressing room that's when things went on about that he's got his own dressing room maybe that's because brits in there you know celebrating his move to america rod released a solo album entitled atlantic crossing in the summer of 75. for the first time ever i was using american musicians recording in america and um that's called the album atlantic crossing because i'd moved to the states atlantic crossing was a top 10 smash stateside and record label executive mike gill flew to the u.s to award rod with a platinum album all the other faces were there you could have cut the atmosphere with a knife and i thought this is the end the real demise in the face is when rod moved to america so there was this trans atlantic breakdown of communication by the end of the year the faces disbanded now and for the rest of his career rod would front for no one but himself even when maggie may was huge in 1971 i wanted to stay with the band i don't think i ever did convince them i always wanted to be a band member and i swear from my heart that's all i wanted to be if i'd have been a member of the faces for the rest of my life that would have been happy when the faces broke up after more than five raucous rocking years at the end of 1975 rod stewart was on his own he'd earned respect from fans and critics alike for his earthy blend of acoustic and electric rock and roll soul in the years ahead that reputation would be hard to keep even as the hits kept on coming rod's 1976 album a night on the town hit number two in america and tonight's the night topped the charts though the suggestive single was banned on british radio it's timid now but you know spread your wings and let me come inside and we all know what we're talking about don't we but in 1976 it was considered pretty risque rod's glamorous girlfriend bret eklund sang in french at the end of the song but that was just part of her contribution to rod's act she also influenced his increasingly campy look she's put eyelashes on me and things i thought okay you know when you're in love with someone you just go along and say oh it's okay i did look a tart a right tart it was alarming sometimes when it was with brit the gear he used to wear really was alarm he dreadful some of those costumes i mean i used to have these outfits that would go across here and just show one nipple you know and and um feather bowers tied around my waist and uh it's funny when you look back that i it felt good at the time the soulful blue singer from north london was surrendering to the glitz and glamour of hollywood he loves the hollywood you know the glitz and all that but when it comes to his voice it doesn't work with it [Music] rod's friend ron wood tried to warn him i said get out of this palace that you're building and he said don't flick any ash on the carpet and i went what do you say ron stayed in tinseltown where like so many hollywood couples he and his film star girlfriend were soon on the outs is there any chance of you and britt getting back together no chance nice finished don't you feel you owe her something after two and a half years uh that's a bit of a pointy question when the clock case is eventually finished and i'll be able to answer she says she helped you write some of your songs she certainly did not [Music] know within the year rod replaced brit with another blonde texas model alana hamilton the ex-wife of actor george hamilton we were extremely wild couple we were you know the epitome of a partying couple was it love at first well no i thought he was sort of very cocky and sure of himself and i thought who does he think he is anyway rock critics were beginning to wonder the same thing in january of 78 rod's album footloose and fancy free scored with fans but the once adoring music press was not impressed they wanted him to make records like maggie may and things like that and an artist has to move on and i think because rod's records were so huge and so commercially successful that they thought that he'd sold out but you know that voice can see anything and it sounds good i may have been getting too big for my own boots i love your honey you know and started believing my own press i was like this amazing you know sex symbol you know whatever it was i was you know i was just getting really cheap i was getting cheap and tarty blondes although it was a huge selling album wasn't particularly based on rock and roll i mean i'd seem to have lost all my rock and roll roots by the time we got to that it's got a lovely soulful voice and when it's a bit manufactured it's it's it grates on me a bit you know because i know you can do so much more earthy raw music i'm just glad i wasn't there during do you think i'm sexy [Music] do you think i'm sexy was number one around the world but while rod won millions of new disco fans rock critics condemned him because they know what rod can do and what he wasn't doing i remember saying to myself i think they're actually right you know and i was believing everything i read about myself do you think i'm sexy i thought well maybe i really am you know so i just got carried away with the image [Music] for many of his early fans rod the mod had lost his soul in a highly commercial act of artistic suicide you know he was this great rock icon that was doing this sort of silly song did you think i'm sexy tour it was rod stewart stretched out in spandex pants and it made every guy think well he thinks he's hotter than me the mistake was that everybody thought i was actually singing about myself you know i think if you listen to the song it's in the third party but you know it didn't get perceived that way the sexy superstar shocked his public even more in april of 79 by suddenly marrying alana hamilton i remember i spoke to my dad and i said dad i'm getting married and he said what you're only 35 wait another 10 years i think between the lana and i there was a bit of a rush to judgement there maybe should have just you know romanced each other for a while then as rod and alana honeymooned in italy a rumor began to spread there's that famous story rod had collapsed and been rushed to a hospital where a certain amount of um how do you say semen was pumped from his stomach when we actually found out about the so-called bloody stomach pump i was actually uh on honeymoon trust me it couldn't have possibly happened but it didn't happen to me just look at me guys even as he sold more records than ever rod's reputation was suffering in the years to come rod stewart would seek to reclaim his rock and roll soul coming up a season of changes no longer with your manager going through a divorce what's going on has to do with taming him i just think that maybe getting married and having children you'd rather spend more time with them than be out in nightclubs or up all night superstar rod stewart wasn't exactly settling down but just four months into their marriage on august 21 1979 alana stewart gave birth to rod's first child a daughter named kimberly my favorite thing to do is go on stage i was like oh my god dad please put me on stage please put me on stage like i loved it i wouldn't stop bugging him until i got to go on stage and he'd say yes a year later their son sean was born i think it's kind of funny dude because i've seen pictures like my dad's wearing tights you know my dad why you wearing tights you know i guess that's what people wore back then he would come out in these outfits like fluorescent pink polka dots with yellow and black and burgundy checkered pants they're like dad you have to change this is so embarrassing [Music] as he strutted his way across the world's concert stages in 1982 37 year old rod was torn between the conflicting roles of rock star and father in the early days i think i was under the illusion that if you were a father and a devoted husband it would ruin my image rod's rock hero image had already been dealt to blow by his flirtation with disco is there anything you would do differently if you had it to do all over the world millions of things millions of mistakes that i've made sometimes i wish i'd never recorded to think i'm sexy but everybody the public love the songs and that's what counts in a bid to reclaim his rock and roll reputation rod overhauled his management team in the spring of 82 a year later agent arnold stiefel became his manager rod and i talked about building a rebirth kind of thing to recapture his audience and find out what his audience was going to be for the next chunk of his career it was a time of profound change for rod on a professional and personal level he and alana separated in 83. we were great fun together it's just one of those things once we got married it all changed you know i'm not blaming all on her i'd take responsibility too alana has been quoted in the press as saying that she was real angry at what she called your and i quote swinging lifestyle did she say that it's very unlikely to use such old-fashioned sixties as expressions like swinging lifestyle of course you know a few years later when i did it again um don't rush into marriage i should have said but when he did it again a few years later heart stronger than the mind rod's heart fell for another texas beauty in 83 fashion model kelly emberg i thought what a sweet guy i feel so sorry for him he's going to use divorce you know he's roger's block i saw his sensitive side and i fell in love with him i guess kelly joined rod on tour and got an eye-opening view of rod's rigorous life on the road it was really hard at times because it's all about what he's doing and he can't speak to you because he has to save his voice you become a prisoner of your own voice you're constantly worried about the temperature you're constantly worried about people smoking around you it was pretty vulnerable spot just there you can't really go anywhere because everyone knows who he is and it's uncomfortable so after 10 days of the tour i'd have to like leave and do my thing and come back [Applause] rod was reaching millions of fans in the early 80s and by 1984 he was in the vanguard of the music video revolution [Music] he was certainly one of the centerpieces of mtv for every single there was a video that went with it rod was entertaining on mtv but he'd lost his status as a rock and roll hero he didn't have the image he wanted to have he wanted to be rock and roll it took me a couple of years before i actually got back i listened to my own voice and said you've got to get in the studio and just work your ass off i went through a period where i wasn't very creative i think i was partying and enjoying life as one must reconnecting with his blues-based roots rod reunited with an old friend guitar legend jeff beck rod lent a soulful rendition of people get ready to beck's 1985 album flash that was such a magical moment you know it's just we laid that down real quick just that voice and that guitar it's magical we don't always see eye to eye on many things but i think that's what makes us creatively magic when we play together the following year rod continued his musical homecoming [Applause] in the summer of 86 at the end of a wembley stadium concert rod surprised fans by reuniting with the faces for an unannounced half hour set emotions ran high as former bandmate ronnie lane was led on stage suffering from multiple sclerosis it was quite a tear-jerker and it was nice to see that you know for all anyone's differences that everyone got together again and forgotten about it do you think putting the faces back together again will teach new bands how good rock and roll is supposed to be played well there's nothing new you these days bill lyman extraordinary bass player mclaren extraordinary keyboard birds have just turned up rod stewart extraordinary jackets it's unfortunate rod continued his rock and roll renewal in the spring of 88 by winning back the critics with out of order against a more personal triumph when with his father in the crowd at a wembley stadium charity match he scored a goal for scotland against england he don't leash again [Applause] he got this cup we have pictures of him drinking beer or something out of the cup with his father and it was a very exciting thing for him dad was very very pleased he seen his son score a goal at wembley stadium for scotland against england [Applause] though he didn't pursue it professionally soccer has remained rod's passion [Music] soccer has been the mainstay of my life i mean it really has kept me together rod and fellow englishman lionel conway formed the la exiles soccer team when we used to pick up teams everyone would want to pick rod first not because he was a celebrity this is the best player you play with good players they make you look good and i was surrounded by good players he's just one of the guys and on the field he's you know just a right back that's civil rod is he's a right back he could have been a good football player he's very fit he played brilliantly i mean i don't play very well at all so we've had huge arguments about football [Music] he considers football his love i mean he loves singing as well but you know it can only go so far then football will take over from that i love the camaraderie of it you know it's wonderfully grounding i know that sounds an old cliche but it is it's tremendously grounding he's got his own football pitch within his grounds he spent a lot of money on that you're always sort of aware that uh soccer is a big priority for him recording session game of football you know i don't have to tell you which one he ends up doing so we literally build tours around the soccer games as the 80s ended rod was once again scoring hits on a regular basis in america but his european sales were sluggish so he approached the head of warner brothers in the uk rob dickens rod said why don't i steal records here anymore and i said you know you're an okay singer of okay songs but you're a great singer of great songs and i don't think you've done a great song in some time and he said you can find a great song and i said yeah i can find you a great song he said okay then do it dickens knew the song to resurrect rod stewart's vocal soul i went over to his house in epping with downtown train by tom waits i played it once and i said to rod don't say anything and i played it again and i played a third time because i just didn't want that immediate reaction within the song to sink in i loved it because i could hear a melody in there that i didn't think tom was singing you know well i see you tonight on the downtown train it was the end of 1989 and rod had just completed storyteller a 25-year retrospective of his career rod recorded downtown train as a last minute addition to the collection rod sent the finished track to his sister mary and it just made me cry we start with gotta hit me and there is crime by the spring of 90 downtown train went top 10 in england and america further restoring the critics faith and the soulful resurgence of rod stewart i just think they rediscovered why they loved him in the first place i think that's what happened with the critics it jolted everyone back to what he could do there was a period when he was not fashionable but he never stopped singing and he never stopped making albums and he never stopped having hits coming up a love story becomes a legal battle [Music] as the 1990s dawned rod stewart's musical soul was renewed and his legendary career graced with new life but meanwhile his seven-year relationship with girlfriend kelly emberg was dying there had been affairs and there had been things in the tabloids about things that he had been doing with other women and he always had a reason you know he's like oh they just you know people aren't jealous of our relationship but in the end you didn't want to get married kelly and i were very close to getting married you know i just just didn't quite do it i just needed that little push actually no we didn't marry if he didn't know after a baby in seven years that we should be together then i felt that we shouldn't so that's basically why i left rod was served with a 25 million dollar palimony lawsuit it was on the news that i was suing him for 25 million dollars and i was shocked i was i was so upset i couldn't believe my lawyer would do something like this it was very vulnerable and emotional and i had no idea what the complaint said in it i think when relationships are broken up we tend to go for the pocketbook they know guys don't like it that's where it hurts it wasn't something i ever wanted to do and and never really sued him in the end you know i was appalled that even happened it was a wonderful relationship and it should have come to its natural conclusion a bit earlier probably but we we had a wonderful daughter together and we're still great mates [Music] after splitting with kelly rod met supermodel rachel hunter in the summer of 1990. when i first met him actually i was just god hell was i was 20. she was doing a sports illustrated video it was being played on the cnn all the time and then one night i bumped into her on sunset strip he just came up and put his face right in front of mine and made some odd comment and i just started laughing and then he just was imitating this exercise video that i just done for sports illustrated i wouldn't say i was love at first sight but she still is a stunning woman soon rod and rachel were serious about each other on hindsight i wish somebody would have said look she's far too young would she of course she was she was only like 21 and i was 45 at the time i think having met what i thought was going to be the love of my life and you know my dad had gone that september rod's beloved father passed away from a heart attack his dad actually died on my birthday which was very very strange as well and i was with him when he actually found out that news i ran roddy and i said to him that you know dad had just died and he just banged the phone down he just couldn't believe it there's a magnificent funeral my dad's the whole of highgate stop everybody just stood in the street because they all knew him so well he was a great man lovely man i didn't really mourn his death until probably about a year later because i met rachel so i was emotionally really confused he asked me to marry him and i was like okay let's do it and three months later i was married rachel became the second mrs stewart on december 15 1990. my sister only told me recently she said she is you know when that wedding was going on as much as we all loved rachel she said i went across and said to your brother or somebody you know that girl's gonna break his heart one day i said why don't you tell me the next spring love was the inspiration for vagabond heart dedicated to rod's late father the album was a top 10 smash 45 year old rod stewart was still at the top of his game being at your peak now as a vocalist is that luck or is that work that would be a lot of hard work the only luck would that would come into it is i've looked after it you know i've got no polyps i've got no terrible diseases to throw as far as i know anyways [Applause] though rod battled laryngitis on the vagabond heart tour it was an otherwise upbeat time for him [Music] in the summer of 92 he and rachel had their first child daughter renee these are my girls this is two of the three girls i have and two of the five children of the last cow that i possess rod's children found the years had not dimmed their father's sense of humor yeah he was on this little skirt and a wig and he came in and and i was sitting on my bed crying and i started laughing my favorite part of my dad is his humor like whenever you're sad or you're down he like always cheers you up you couldn't ask for a better dad than my dad seriously and i'm not just saying that because the camera's on the cameras were on in early 93 when rod reunited with his old pal ron wood for a performance on mtv's unplugged and we haven't done this together since we recorded it 22 years ago most of the band weren't born my wife was only one [Applause] if i listened long enough to you i mean to see him and ronnie up there is just like you know seeing two brothers together [Music] and it just really came across as a very warm fun evening lately that i love you that is the one time when i got very emotional when i sung how i told you lately because i'm so wonderfully in love with rachel and i just broke down at the end of that one because people asked me was it genuine it was absolutely genuine [Music] the album he recorded that night went to number two on the charts the year's bigger honor came when rod was voted into the rock and roll hall of fame i thought it was going to take me another 10 years before i got invited in you know but unfortunately we had the earthquake and it was a horrible experience three days before the hall of fame induction ceremony los angeles was rocked by a devastating earthquake i had just found out too that i was pregnant with liam and we had had the earthquake that night we were literally thrown all the way across the hallways in the house in renee's room he literally grabbed her feet and just yanked her out of the crib i remember looking out from this house and looking over california and seeing like all the lights had gone out and i thought player were the only ones alive he was just like two minds you know it's like protection over the family as well as that's a huge honor i couldn't go to the rock and roll hall of fame the kids were just too scared i couldn't leave them [Music] on january 19th rod was inducted into the rock and roll hall of fame by jeff beck he said rod and i have a love hate relationship he loves me and i hate him thanks jeff to cap off a great year rachel and rod's second child liam was born as the millennium came to a close rod seemed to have found a perfect balance between life as a family man and a rock star but in january of 99 his young wife stunned him by walking out on their nine-year marriage it was pretty instant i mean i moved out and i think it has a lot to do with me being very very young when we first met and i had a lot of growing up to do i was wasn't equipped for it so i just literally fell to pieces i lost tons of weight he didn't have any past experience to lean on and know that he was going to be all right everything became like you're in a dream nothing was real i go and play football and it wasn't it was like everybody else were ghosts it's the weirdest real is the word i'm looking for surreal [Music] coming up rod battles cancer with his voice in the balance i'd always be able to sing [Music] any regrets from the 70s oh not at all no no i've got please don't ask me about regrets i have none whatsoever i am one hell of a lucky bastard i'll tell you i'm just thankful for sitting here doing this interview i could still be digging graves ron stewart was heartbroken when his wife rachel hunter abruptly left him in 1999. it was a painful blow to a man who had had his way with women for nearly four decades but rod wasn't about to drown his sorrow when you go through something as traumatic as that you want to like get right grounded because alcohol is only going to make it worse [Music] so there was one night where i went on 18 000 people totally sober how i had the strength to do that with the way i was hurting inside is totally beyond me this last tour rod wasn't drinking anymore before the shows he was you know doing his show sober previously i'd gone like 30 years every time i opened my voice to singing i'd have to have a dream booze was banished from the tour and the groupies were also gone today a family atmosphere prevails backstage i met all of his children maybe they'll come on the tour for a week or two here and there i'm still learning as a father i think i've still got a long way to go i'm far from perfect rod also tries his best to get along with the mothers of his five children i speak to rachel every day i speak to a lana every day and i speak to kelly every day in fact um christmas before last they all came up and and cooked christmas dinner for me it was the craziest christmas ever known as the three blondes and a turkey christmas it was kind of my idea to bring all the aces together rod wasn't with anybody at the time i've always my whole life had a woman by my side i really enjoy my own company now and i go so far as to say i don't think i could live with anybody anymore i would find that so suffocating now in my advanced years 55 year old rod's charmed life would suffer a jolt of dark reality in may of 2000 i had a cat scan done and they just found small cancerous growth on the thyroid which is really bad luck i just took the carpet from under my life you know the next day rod underwent emergency surgery when you have an operation the muscles just disappear well the same thing happens in your neck because they really did cut it they went right through there fortunately i had a particular slow growing cancer which was removed surgically within 24 hours early detection saved my voice and i imagined my life she was a pure but i couldn't sing and you know this is a you know a vehicle i've had all my life and it just i was i took it for granted after eight months of vocal recovery rod was able to complete his 2001 album human [Music] we were dead lucky we'd done most of the vocals we'd done i would say 90 of them it's got to be a good album because it's the only one i've played over and over again myself [Music] you know not sure we wanted soul we wanted soul which is one thing i think i can give on a good day [Music] baby we wanted to flow nothing too mad nothing too soft just a nice album [Music] there was a time when this london blues belter lost his soul but rod stewart managed to survive his super and keep his voice alive [Music] the basic thing you've got to have in this business is be a great live entertainer and if you've got that and you've got a voice you've got a good chance of lasting for a long time no matter what the critics say about you [Music] he loves doing concerts he loves playing to an audience i don't see him not doing it you know i'll be pushing him out in a wheelchair he just needs to work and and make an album and feel good about himself you know and also his lifestyle i mean he's got all these houses and stuff you know somebody's got to pay the bills he loves going on stage and he loves showing off like all performers do but he also loves playing football he loves his cars he's got other things going on apart from his career everything that my dad does he does it with full force he loves what he does you can rock and roll for yourself you don't you think there are some of them out there must be 70 now we'll see we'll see what happens one tends to think that being a rock star doesn't actually go with being in your 50s but it's how you carry it off as it is i'm enjoying it you know you never know how long that's gonna last for

Channel: JPMcFly1985 Retro Videos

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Length: 56min 9sec (3369 seconds)

Published: Mon May 10 2021