A glimpse of the rehearsals for his tour revealed that tartan drapes will ring the circular stage, while the four-leaf clover logo for Stewart’s beloved Celtic Football Club will be emblazoned across the floor of a raised platform. Fans can supply the bagpipes and shortbread.
Stewart, 61, would have been the world’s best known Scotsman if he hadn’t been born in London. His father and older siblings all hailed from north of the border, and his son, Alastair, was christened in Edinburgh in June.
The geographical snafu was an early setback, but life has been pretty good to “Rod the Mod” ever since.
His latest album, “Still the Same … Great Rock Classics of Our Time,” debuted at No. 1 on the U.S. pop charts in October, the fourth time he has reached the top in a career spanning almost 40 years.
He won his first ever Grammy last year, for the fourth volume in his hugely successful “Great American Songbook” standards series. And he will get married in the summer to his 35-year-old fiancee, Penny Lancaster.
On Stewart’s last tour, he donned a tuxedo, brought out an orchestra and serenaded fans with standards like “Blue Moon,” “As Time Goes By” and “What a Wonderful World.”
But when the new tour begins on Jan. 12 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Rod will rock. The set list will include many of the songs on the new cover album, including the Bob Seger-written title track, Eric Clapton’s “Lay Down Sally,” Bonnie Tyler’s “It’s a Heartache” and Van Morrison’s “Crazy Love.”
The standards are not gone forever. He would like to do an all-standards show at tony venues like Carnegie Hall in New York or the Olympia in Paris.
“A really sophisticated evening, if that’s possible nowadays,” he told Reuters during a rehearsal break at the Forum arena in Los Angeles.
Touring is the one aspect of the business that he still enjoys. “People say, ‘Why don’t you just retire?’ Well, why the fuck do I want to retire for? What am I supposed to do? It’s my job … As long as I’ve got hair on my head, I’m gonna sing.”
Other songs the well coiffed crooner ran through at the rehearsal included “Dirty Old Town,” which he covered on his 1969 debut album, and “Ooh La La,” a tune from his time with his hedonistic ’70s rock band the Faces.
As he discounted talk of a reunion with surviving bandmates Ron Wood, Ian McLagan and Kenney Jones, it did occur to him that he would not mind getting together with them for a charity event, maybe the recently announced all-star commemoration for Princess Diana at Wembley Stadium next July.
The North American tour runs through April 2 in Denver, and Stewart will then take the show to European football stadiums. He expects his label will want another album of rock ‘n’ roll covers, but what he really wants to do is a country album, and he sang a little of “Behind Closed Doors,” a 1973 hit for Charlie Rich, to prove his mettle.
Rock. Pop. Country. How about gospel?
“No, I’m not that good a singer,” he said.
courtesy Reuters