BESIDES his flamboyant attire, Gucci loafers and spiky blond locks, Rod Stewart wears another thing rather well.
His fame. Most superstars encounter choppy waters.
For some, it’s a case of stormy seas.
But for Sir Roderick David Stewart, navigating life in the dazzling glare of publicity seems, erm, plain Sailing.
As he celebrates his 80th birthday today with his brood on a superyacht (what else?), Rod’s status as a national treasure has never been in doubt.
When he occupies the Sunday teatime “legends slot” at Glastonbury in June, it is guaranteed to be the summer’s biggest singalong. (Sorry Noel and Liam).
We all know the inimitable rasp and we all know the hits . . . Maggie May, Sailing, Da Ya Think I’m Sexy?, You Wear It Well, Tonight’s The Night (Gonna be Alright), I Don’t Want To Talk About It and the rest.
But the great thing about Rod is that he DOES want to talk about it . . . usually with a mischievous twinkle in his eye.
I vividly remember a recent interview when he strolled into a swish London hotel suite, dapper as ever, the day after Stormy Daniels made her cringe-inducing comment about Donald Trump’s manhood.
“Simon, how you bloody well been?” he cried.
“Nothing like a penis that looks like a mushroom is there?!”
Humour aside, Rod is also a man of huge passions for — in no particular order — family and friends, music, Celtic FC, model trains, fashion and a nice glass of vintage red.
Rod Stewart performs Maggie May at Top of the Pops 1971
Woe betide anyone who upsets his “forever” partner, third wife Penny Lancaster, also known as Loose Woman, Special Constable and Lady Stewart.
‘I feel blessed many times over’
Wasn’t it jaw-dropping when Rod gave MasterChef’s Gregg Wallace both barrels?
“You humiliated my wife when she was on the show, but you had that bit cut out didn’t you?” he fumed.
“You’re a tubby, bald-headed, ill-mannered bully.
“Karma got ya. Sir Rod Stewart.”
In our various encounters over the years, Rod has been mindful to express his devotion to Penny, mother of their two boys, Alastair and Aiden.
After a string of relationships with beautiful, usually blonde women including Swedish pin-up Britt Ekland, Penny’s the one who finally tamed the hellraising rock star.
Penny’s a great mum – the whole package.
We never go to bed without kissing each other good night. It’s just wonderfulRod
“Well, she’s a British girl, the first one I’ve married,” he told me, before listing the mothers of five of his eight children.
“Alana (his first wife) and Kelly (Emberg, his formerpartner) are Americans and Rachel (Hunter, his second wife) is a New Zealander, so maybe that’s the key.”
Rod proceeded to give a touching, unguarded tribute: “Penny’s an Essex girl and she’s proud of it.
“Apart from the visuals of Penny, she’s tough but not too tough and she doesn’t take any nonsense from me.
“She’s also a great mum — the whole package as far as I’m concerned.
“We hug every time we have to go away from each other and we always have a cuddle at night even if we’re not having sex.
“And we never go to bed without kissing each other good night.
“It’s just wonderful.
“I feel blessed many times over.”
On another occasion, Rod swelled with pride when he talked of Penny’s “super brave” work as a special constable, patrolling the City of London.
“Oh man, she’s saved lives, talking people out of jumping off the bridges,” he said.
“Just the other day, she stopped a guy in a Lamborghini with blacked-out windows, Saudi Arabian plates and the wrong licence.
“She had the car towed away, no messing.”
On one rowdy Friday night, Rod even ventured down to Liverpool Street Station, in the heart of Penny’s beat, to check she was safe.
“I took my Rolls-Royce Phantom, as big as they come, white on white,” he said, referring to his limo’s exterior paintwork and matching leather upholstery.
“The people were good as gold though.
“They looked at the car and saw me in the back.
“One bloke said, ‘You all right, Rod, mate?’.”
If the Stewarts are the picture of domestic bliss these days, it is a far cry from Rod’s self-confessed roller-coaster ride through previous relationships.
He opened up about it in 2018 when talking about his song Look In Her Eyes, the opening track on his No1 album Blood Red Roses.
It’s set in a New York nightclub and tells of “Johnny from Brooklyn” hooking up with “Marion from Queens”.
Rod said: “The song starts with a line of people outside the club.
“The girls are all done up — and the boys are giving it all that.
“I used to love that!
“In the old days, we didn’t have girl friends who we didn’t try to s**g, right?” he continued.
“I never had a girl friend I didn’t have sex with, or at least try to!
Rod then revealed a regret that runs as deep as the “first cut” in the Cat Stevens song he still loves to sing live.
“I haven’t treated women badly but I’m not proud of the way I broke up relationships,” he confessed.
“I was a real coward.
“It wasn’t like Phil Collins.
“I didn’t send a fax but I left a lot of broken hearts.
“I’ve apologised or at least tried to since.”
It was only when supermodel Rachel Hunter, mother of his dancer daughter Renee and ice hockey star son Liam, turned the tables and walked out on Rod that he understood how devastating it could feel.
“When Rachel left me, I didn’t have the tools to cope with a break-up,” he sighed.
“I went to pieces.
“It was terrible.
“If ever karma got me back, it was then.”
Time, they say, is a great healer and it was good to see pictures of Liam and bride Nicole getting hitched in Croatia last May with Rod, Penny and Rachel united for the happy occasion, wreathed in smiles.
Another theme that comes shining through in Rod’s company is abiding love for his late parents, Scottish dad Bob and English mum Elsie.
The final song on his 2021 album Tears Of Hercules, Touchline, is one of the most raw and personal things he has ever done, his husky, yearning vocals a masterclass.
‘My dad taught me to respect women’
It revisits his dad’s funeral, “a sad but humorous affair” at which his mum, who was suffering from memory loss, thought her husband had just gone down the betting shop.
Rod said: “We had to tell her, ‘He’s up the front in the box, Mum’.
“When those lyrics fell down on paper, I had to ask myself, ‘Is this cringeworthy? To mention your mum? And memory loss? How do you manage to get that in a song?’
“When the words are staring back, you think, ‘You ain’t going to get away with that’.
“But God gave me a voice to make things sound convincing.”
Touchline refers to “plumber by trade” Bob and begins with, “There he’d stand every Saturday afternoon, rain pouring down that well-worn face”, followed by, “he’d watch his sons play the game he loved”.
Rod said his dad wanted nothing more than for him and his two brothers to succeed in life — and on the football pitch.
“He was born in Leith and came down to live in London,” says the son who literally picked up the ball, ran with it and has never looked back.
“What did he teach me?” mused Rod, repeating a question I’d put to him.
“He always said, ‘Look after your money because you’ll go through it quick’.
“I did lose it quick when I was in The Faces — so obviously I didn’t learn anything from him when it came to finances!”
On a more serious note, he added: “My dad taught me to respect women, which hopefully I’ve done.
“He also said, ‘Get yourself a left foot’, because I couldn’t kick with my left foot.”
We now know that football has run in Rod’s veins ever since his boyhood in Highgate, North London.
A lifelong superfan of both Celtic and the Scottish national team, he posted a picture this week of his extended family in green and white Hoops shirts with the caption, “Early birthday celebrations”.
Rod once told me: “I wasn’t born in Scotland but, because of my dad, there’s a lot of Scottish blood in me, oozing to get out.
“Football is one way I get it out.”
When we met in 2015, Rod revealed that his own playing days were over.
“I’ve only recently given it up,” he said.
“I was still playing in the over-50s league when I was 68.
“Some of the other players were pretty nifty and their tackles were starting to hurt.
“I’d be in Los Angeles on Sunday morning and doing Vegas in the evening — I’d limp on to the stage.
“Words can’t describe how much I miss it.”
Since then, after years chiefly based at his LA pile, Rod has made the UK his home again.
Back here, at least he’s been able to enjoy kickabouts with sons Alastair and Aiden and run an under-tens “Young Hoops” team.
He’s also been indulging in his other great hobby — his massive model train layout based on New York and Chicago and the golden age of railways.
Rod shipped it through the Panama Canal in three giant containers, all the way to a purpose-built outbuilding at his mansion near Harlow in Essex.
“Every man should have a hobby like this,” enthused Rod.
“I might spend eight hours a day on it.
“I’m absolutely addicted.
“You’ve probably seen pictures with all the skyscrapers — I build all those.”
There’s so much more one could say about Rod Stewart’s life less ordinary but it is worth noting he has long championed servicemen and women on both sides of the Atlantic.
For years, he attended The Sun’s Military Awards — known as The Millies — honouring extreme bravery during gruelling tours of Afghanistan.
He was always prepared to put a comforting arm around those with life-changing injuries and I’ll never forget the sight of Rod and Penny leading a chorus of Sailing with a group of winners in 2016.
‘I was over the moon with knighthood’
It was in the same year that he became a knight of the realm, even if the honour arrived a full 18 years after his old mucker — and occasional rival — Elton John got his.
“I’m absolutely over the moon with it,” he told me just after Prince William had dubbed him at Buckingham Palace.
“It’s wonderful but I don’t insist on anybody calling me Sir Rod.”
Last but definitely not least, let’s reflect on Rod’s epic music career, which took off in the Sixties when he was known as “Rod The Mod”, singing with the likes of Long John Baldry and Jeff Beck.
After his riotous stint in The Faces with Ronnie Wood and Co, Rod became a solo superstar in the Seventies — and has remained on top ever since.
The Pope’s got a pretty good job but he doesn’t get to get up there and wiggle his hips. And I look after my voice... it’s the crown jewels
Rod
He still gets a thrill out of singing and THAT voice is in great shape, even if it requires a strict regime to keep it that way.
“It’s the crown jewels, mate,” Rod informed me proudly.
“I refuse to sing even one song unless I warm up properly.”
Only last year, he scored a big hit album, Swing Fever, with fellow model train fanatic Jools Holland, celebrating the Big Band era.
“I’m lucky,” he said.
“I can’t imagine anybody else in my department — won’t name any names — singing these songs with such conviction.”
As for performing live, he had this to say, again with that roguish look on his face.
“The Pope’s got a pretty good job but he doesn’t get to get up there and wiggle his hips.”
Amen to that — happy 80th, Sir Rod, mate!
