Rod Stewart planning rock retirement

Rod Stewart is planning to retire from rock music in order to focus on performing jazz standards and show tunes.

The Maggie May hitmaker, 74, is still out on the road while many of his contemporaries, including Elton John and Ozzy Osbourne, have announced plans to give up touring due to their advancing years.

Although Rod isn’t ready to quit performing altogether, he revealed plans to phase out his trademark tight clothes and raunchy rock hits.

“It’s closer than you think,” he told The Sun of his retirement plans. “I think I’ll always sing but I can’t always do this. There’s got to come a time when I’m going to say, ‘Right, put away the tight trousers and all the funny clothes’.”

The rocker went on to reveal he’s already had discussions about putting together a show in which he sings from the Great American Songbook, the collective term for a host of songs that were popular in the U.S. in the first half of the 20th Century.

“I want to go on and do the Great American Songbook. In fact, I had a meeting about it last week, doing all the jazz standards at the Albert Hall,” he shared. “It’s nearer than you think. But retirement? No. From doing rock ‘n’ roll stuff? Yes.”

His gradual retirement plan contrasts strongly with that of Elton, who is currently on the second leg of his 300-date farewell tour, which Rod previously criticised as a money grabbing exercise.

Although he later apologised to the Tiny Dancer hitmaker, Rod can’t resist another dig at him, adding: “I certainly won’t do 300 dates and then retire. I’ll just fade away like the old soldier I am.”

The pair have been locked in a feud for decades, and there seems to be no chance of a reconciliation, as the former Faces frontman says they’re “not mates” and “don’t talk to each other”.

While the 60s was a time of great musical and cultural innovation, most of the stars of the time, who are still working, are content to appear on package tours and relive those great memories.

A product of those times, Rod Stewart cut his teeth with Steampacket and The Jeff Beck Group before making his big breakthrough with The Faces and a parallel solo career in the 70s. After 50+ years in the business many would be content to sit back, put their feet up and reflect on a glorious career, but not Sir Rod.

I HAVE HAD A GREAT CAREER AND I CAN’T ASK FOR MUCH MORE THAN THAT

No, with another number one album under his belt, Rod Stewart has embarked on his biggest UK tour to date with outdoor summer dates.

“I enjoy it, that’s what it comes down to,” says Rod. “And most of my peers are dead, not retired! There will be a time, I’m sure, for retirement and I’m closer than I was years ago. To me, retirement is not a lovely word. People always talk about ‘looking forward to retiring’ but for me that’s an awful thought. I’m lucky I have a brilliant job that I love and, as long as I enjoy it and people are coming out in their droves to the shows, then I will go on.”

Rod had a long apprenticeship before the big break came, in 1971, with the classic anthem Maggie May. Could he ever have thought he would still be selling out football stadiums into his mid-70s?

“When I first came into the business, I thought ‘I’ll be happy if this lasts a couple of months’. I don’t know what the secret is to still being here, though. Maybe I put on a good show, have a distinctive voice, an army of songs and some very loyal fans. As long as people still want to hear them, I’m going to be there!

“It’s always lovely when you have a sunny evening, it’s the weekend and the audience are out for a drink and a laugh. Starting out in the day light or dusk and going through the magical phase as the light goes and it gets dark – then the fun really begins.”

Besides an incredible back catalogue from which to choose for his shows, Rod now has a new collection of songs from his chart topping album Blood Red Roses. Released last year, the album saw Rod return to recording original material, much to the delight of his army of fans. So what brought about this change of direction?

“Writing my book, Rod: The Autobiography, sparked in me the realisation that I still had stories to tell, about my early beginnings, my dad, and that book spawned the writing, it came back to me. I had thought it had gone and left me, but it doesn’t really, it’s not a physical thing, you just have to put your mind to it. I teamed up again with Kevin Savigar, my co-writer and producer now, and he brought it out of me again.

“There was a point I didn’t want to go into the studio. I couldn’t bear the thought of going into the dark studio space. But again, it was Kevin who got me back. He came along and is my co-producer and we started doing it on our computers. He would write a tune, send it to me, I’d ‘la-di-diddly-dah’ over it and send it back. We’d add drum machines, or whatever, and see how it sounded. Then if we felt it needed a drummer, we would get a drummer in and embellish it with real musician. And all the while, I’d be seeing daylight and enjoying fresh air! What we do, rock and roll, is such an innocent form of music, using the same chords and themes time and time again, but it stays fresh.

“The album was number one in the UK chart, and that was the best feeling! We had a big celebration when that news came through. I have had a great career and I can’t ask for much more than that.”

Among the reflections included in Blood Red Roses, Farewell looks back at the carefree life young Rod enjoyed in the swinging 60s, Honey Gold reminisces about a mysterious lady from Rod’s past while the moving Celtic ballad Grace tells the story of a tragic love affair cut short by the 1916 Easter Uprising in Dublin.

The album also features Julia, a track co-written by Rod with Jon McLaughlin, frontman with Johnny Mac And The Faithful who will be supporting Rod on the summer leg of the tour.

“Johnny supplies all the music for Celtic Football Club and is a big supporter, like I am, and I think they’re brilliant,” Rod enthuses. “It’s a very Irish-orientated sound, and I really like the music. It’s real party music, just what you need to warm up the audience, but they are a very, very flexible band and very talented. I wanted to give him a chance.

“I’d heard them play over the years but never knew anything about who they were. And one time I was watching footage of the players training on Celtic’s TV channel, and I loved the background music which was being used. I looked all over the place to find out what it was. I thought it was a band from Australia and we’d tracked it down… But it turned out it was Johnny, and they were on the doorstep. I instantly had lyrics to go with the music, and that led to us co-writing Julia.”

The summer leg of his tour closes at the Lytham Festival celebrating its 10th anniversary on 13th July, and sure to be a special night.

“The last show on a tour is always a celebration for us,” says Rod, “even if the audience don’t realise, although we’ve got a lot more on once the summer shows have finished; Las Vegas and the Hollywood Bowl in September, then back to the UK for the indoor shows.”

What life is like when your dad’s Rod Stewart

When her father first tried it he fell into a fireplace, but yoga helped Renee Stewart deal with her celebrity upbringing

It was in the pool on family holidays that Renee Stewart began to do the maths. Once they went to Palm Beach in Florida. Another time it was Hawaii. There could be up to seven children in the water and, in the evenings, phone calls from their various mums. Presiding over it all would be dad Rod. Expansive after a couple of glasses of wine, he would call the children “the fruit of my loins”.

“They were, and are still, amazing get-togethers. It’s like a tribe gathering. But of course my mum wasn’t there and neither were the other ex-wives. It was just Dad and Penny [Lancaster]. Sometimes I’d look at all us children and think, ‘Dad has had quite a life.’”

When 26-year-old Renee laughs you see it: her father’s almond eyes and snaggle-toothed grin. When she stands, it’s all about her mother, the former model Rachel Hunter; she’s easily 6ft in flat-heeled brogues.

It’s tough being a celebrity child, but it’s an arduous scramble to the top as well. We discuss a forthcoming Channel 4 documentary made by Gordon Ramsay in which his son Jack and other celebrity offspring attempt to survive the lives their parents did before making it. Could Renee have hacked it as a young Rod?

“Oh, Dad lived through an amazing time in music. He has worked so hard. And of course at some point you open your mouth and wonder if a soulful rasping voice will come out. My sister Ruby [by the model Kelly Emberg] was lucky. She has the voice and is in a band [the Sisterhood], but I don’t have it.

“In terms of a music career, I actually think it might be harder to make it in music these days. I don’t think the next Rolling Stones or Naomi Campbell would stand a chance of making it now because there are literally millions of people on social media launching careers. As for my mother, she’d already moved to New York, got married and had me by the time she was 25. I am in awe of her being a mother so young.”

Rod Stewart, aged 45, had admired the 21-year-old Hunter’s performance in a Sports Illustrated fitness video before they met in an Los Angeles night club. He then proceeded to imitate her video workout on the dancefloor before inviting her back to his room. All this despite him having chartered a plane to pull a banner bearing a wedding proposal for his girlfriend Emberg across the city’s skyline the next morning.

Three months later Hunter and Stewart were married, with the almost incontinently promiscuous Stewart telling the press: “I’ve put my last banana in the fruit bowl.” It was a pretty wild start, I say to Renee. “Pretty wild,” she murmurs, sipping her tap water.

Some children compensate for extrovert parents by turning inward. Her mum was a Playboy centrefold and Renee grew up opposed to the profession. Eventually she tried it, walking for Dolce & Gabbana, but she hates the term “model”. “I prefer being called ‘a creative’,” she says.

Was she embarrassed by her mum being a centrefold? “A what?” A centrefold model. “What’s that? It’s not something I know about.” She looks unhappy when I tell her it involves being naked. “Oh my God, that is not something I can imagine a model of my generation doing. I definitely wouldn’t do that. I think this generation of young women thinks totally differently.”

Interestingly Hunter has become something of a yogi, having rebuilt her life after the end of the marriage. After eight years, two children (Liam, 24, followed Renee) she left Stewart, sounding very unhappy. “I’d become so cosseted I was too scared to do anything for myself,” she has said. “Like lots of women who marry young and find themselves mothers by the time they’re 25 I felt I no longer had an identity. I was just nothing.”

In his 2012 autobiography Stewart describes lying on a sofa for months being “distracted almost to the point of madness” by Hunter’s departure. He also took up yoga in an attempt to mend his broken heart. “As I was attempting to master a beginner’s level ‘balancing table’ position, I fell over into the fireplace,” he writes.

“Well I think he might be ready to try yoga again now,” Renee says. “He loved my photos from Rishikesh and he has asked me to lead a family yoga session. He’s the sort of dad who’ll buy all the gear and get into it.”

By contrast, Hunter is now an expert who teaches yoga at retreats across India. “Oh her journey has been amazing. And she was always very clear with me and Liam: find what you love and do it.”

Renee shows me some of the mudra hand gestures her mother has taught her. One looks like the thumb and forefinger gesture for “OK”. Others look like gang signs. All are simple ways of channelling your energy during a quiet moment. “You can whip them out anytime and anywhere you feel the need to re-focus,” she enthuses.

Renee has just moved house with her rescue chihuahua, Jagger (“I’ve explained to Dad, he’s a rescue dog and came with that name”). She talks passionately about mastering the “eight limbs” of yoga and basing her life and those of her future children around them.

Does that mean her future partner will have to be a yogi? “I’m not going to talk about yoga any more if you’re going to be sarcastic. I don’t sit there on a cushion all day meditating,” she snaps.

I apologise. I hadn’t intended sarcasm. I only meant that if you are a dedicated practitioner it would be hard to live with someone who wasn’t. “I’m sorry, but it is weird how some people think you’re just this hippy sitting there twiddling beads all day. I still go out for drinks. I still eat fries at McDonald’s.”

Her dad is a male icon from a culturally different age. Stewart famously has never cooked a meal in his life. As a millennial, she will surely not stand for such domestic incompetence? “Dad had to look after me and Ruby once and he tried to make us eggs on toast and I must admit I could see a certain fear in his eyes, but he is unusual. Most people these days can get by in the kitchen.”

She’s thinking about advertising her first yoga class on Instagram. She’s unsure what to charge as her hourly rate. And she is also concerned that millennials don’t appreciate what yoga actually is. “In the West it’s become corrupted and used simply as a keep-fit exercise,” she complains. “Its thousand-year-old roots are ignored by those wanting a quick fix.” I think of her dad toppling into the fireplace.

“There’s a lot of shallowness and emptiness in modern life,” she goes on. “Yoga is your way out of it

Rod Stewart and Rachel Hunter's son joins Queenstown hockey side

The son of rocker Rod Stewart and Kiwi supermodel Rachel Hunter has signed with the Queenstown Stampede ice hockey team for the 2019 season.

Liam Stewart, 24, is expected to arrive at the South Island lake resort within the next fortnight.

British-born Stewart, a forward, holds a New Zealand passport through his mother, and will use it to play as a "local" in the New Zealand Ice Hockey League.

SkyCity Stampede manager Niel Frear said securing Stewart had been the work of team member Mike McRae. "I actually don't really know how we did it.

"Mike's been working on it for a while ... We talked to [Stewart] about the opportunity to come back to New Zealand and play and I guess it just fitted in with his personal preferences, so he's just going to come to Queenstown and see how he goes."

Stewart spent four years with Washington's Spokane Chiefs in the US Western Hockey League, and a season with the Quad City Mallards and Alaska Aces.

On his move to Britain, he played a season for Coventry Blaze and most recently Surrey's Guildford Flames in the Elite Ice Hockey League.

He also took to the ice for Great Britain at the world championships (Division 1B) in 2017, scoring twice to help it win gold.

Last year, he was to have played for the Sheffield Steelers but sustained a concussion in mid-January and his symptoms returned mid-year, halting the deal.

"As far as we understand he's healthy and he's coming at us ready to play," Frear said. "It's going to be huge."

CELTIC-daft Rod Stewart was all smiles as he posed with Hoops-clad women to celebrate his team's eighth league title in a row.

The veteran rocker took to social media to share his "celebrations" after Neil Lennon's men clinched the title on Saturday.

And fans were quick to praise the star after he shared the pic on Instagram.

Standing in front of a huge Celtic flag, Rod was flanked by six beauties all wearing Hoops kits.

He said: "We are all smiles in Hamburg during the first week of our summer tour celebrating @CelticFC’s 8 in a row.

"#CelticFC #8InARow #Bhoys #BlondesHaveMoreFun"

The pic proved popular with Rod's fans - racking up over 17,400 likes in a few hours.

On the day of Billy McNeill’s funeral Rod Steward paid a special tribute to Celtic’s greatest ever team while on tour in Berlin.

The audience would have anticipated some references to the singer’s footballing affection and were greeted by a backdrop completely devoted to the Lisbon Lions.

Rod Stewart sells his mansion where Celtic players trained to Premier League star

West Ham United forward Andy Carroll and his fiancee Billi Mucklow have bought the house for £4.1million

Sir Rod Stewart has sold his mansion to a Premier League footballer after a three-year search for a buyer.

The rock star put the six-bedroom Wood House property in Essex on the market back in 2016 for £7.5million.

The Celtic-mad singer, who has had Celtic players use his football pitch, failed to find a buyer which resulted in him dropping the asking price by millions.

In March this year, the Daily Record told how the Celtic-daft star took a £3million hit on the mansion after reducing the asking price to £4.725m.

The six-bedroom mansion in Essex also boasts a football pitch and a swimming pool

The six-bedroom manor home has a boating lake, tennis courts, a swimming pool and huge gardens.

The grade-II listed property also has a full-sized football pitch, which players from Celtic, Newcastle United and Liverpool have trained on.

Rod Stewart rocks Southend's Cliffs Pavilion

ROCKSTAR Rod Stewart performed at a Southend theatre and lauded the praise onto his fans.

Sir Rod treated the town to some of his classics as part of his warm-up shows before his worldwide tour which begins in Berlin tomorrow.

He took to the stage at Cliffs Pavilion and stayed at the Seven Hotel in Southend.

Javed Rashid, 65, director of Seven Hotels, said: “It was very good, a great success.

“Rod was an excellent man, he stayed for dinner at the hotel with his wife and both were very nice.”

The star tweeted last night after his performance: “I’ve been lucky enough to play most of the major venues in the world- Madison Square Garden, the O2- but it was a total great experience the energy, intimacy and sheer excitement of playing Southend on Sea.”

“What a night – one I’ll never forget.”

Fans who attended the gig also tweeted: “Last night was one of my best ever nights with you Sir Rodders”.

Another fan tweeted: “I’ve seen you perform in arenas but last night was the best, thank you.”

Stewart is visiting countries including Germany, Switzerland, Ireland, France, Poland, Portugal, Austria, Spain and the United States, as part of his tour.

He is also performing in cities across the UK, showcasing his talent in Leeds, Glasgow, Belfast, Manchester, Birmingham, Brighton, Newcastle, Sheffield, Bolton, Aberdeen, Bristol, Nottingham, York, Southampton, Liverpool, Milton Keynes, Ipswich and Wolverhampton.