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Rock legend Rod Stewart on recording some oldies-but-goodies
It’s a rare and beautiful thing when two passions, shared by two people, come together so happily, and when the results produce two kinds of fun. Take Rod Stewart, rock star legend and model train enthusiast; and Jools Holland, big-band leader and model train enthusiast. It turns out Stewart called Holland a while back to talk trains, and maybe arrange a playdate.
“We were very aware of each other’s love of model railroads,” said Stewart. “When we meet up with each other to talk about music, it’s always, trains first. So, what’s happening with your layout? I’m building this… And then we get down to the music.”
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It also turned out that when they finally got to the music, they were, yes, on the same track.
The two decided to get together to make an album of old swing-era jazz classics from the 1930s and ’40s: The old rocker meets the oldies-but-goodies. And they shot this little teaser video at a London train station (naturally):
Rod Stewart and Jools Holland perform “Almost Like Being in Love”:
“The connection between ’50s rock ‘n’ roll and swing is very, very close; they merge into each other,” Stewart said. “There’s a couple of tracks on the album – tracks! – very close to rock ‘n’ roll. In fact, they are rock ‘n’ roll.”
And he should know. Since his breakthrough hit, “Maggie May,” in 1971, Rod Stewart has sold more than 120 million records, in a career that has spanned six decades and is still going. He’s not only a survivor from the age of rock, he’s a knight of the realm – Sir Rod.
That distinctive look and sound somehow hasn’t grown old, or too old. The spiky hair, the raspy “I’ve been out all night” voice, they were choices he made, choices he worked on: “I wanted to sound like Sam Cooke and all the great, great R&B singers, and this is how it came out,” he said. “If it wasn’t for Sam Cooke, there wouldn’t be a Rod Stewart, maybe.”
So, he worked on that raspy, hoarse voice? “I didn’t try to make it really raspy – that’s just the way it came out. It’s something to do with my nose and my throat, and it’s just a big accident. In fact, you know, I’ve got a broken nose here that I did when I was 19, when I was playing football. And recently a doctor said, ‘If we straighten this out, let me give you a nice straight nose, you know, you may lose your voice.’ ‘Leave that alone, mate! I’ll do with a bent nose.'”
The point was to not look and sound like everybody else.
Rod Stewart sings “Sailing,” from 1975:
Yet the Rod Stewart act that now seems so iconic was not, in the beginning, an easy sell: “Oh, blimey, yeah, yeah. The first time I went to a record company it was Decca Records way back, and I was 19. And they said you’re far too rough, and you look really odd – I had the hair and the nose. They were all after pretty boys.”
But he was the antithesis of “pretty boy rockers.” “Yeah, well, look at his face. What else could I have been but a rock singer?”
A rock singer who, for decades, led a legendary rock ‘n’ roll life. It may be eight children from five different mothers later, and he may be 79 years old, but don’t ask him if he’s slowing down. “No, I’m not winding down!” he said.
Is he speeding up? “No, I’m not speeding up. I mean, I’ve got 60-odd concerts this year. It’s not time for the pipe and slipper club yet, you know?”
Phillips said, “Everybody seems to hit a point where they say, ‘All right, enough’s enough, it’s been fun.'”
“No. Not at all,” Stewart replied. “It’s a drug. It’s addictive in a way to get up and sing in front of, you know, 5, 10, 20 thousand people every night, send them all home happy, smiling. It’s wonderful. What a job! I don’t want to give it up!”
Not give it up, but mellow out, maybe – swinging with the times.
Rod Stewart and Jools Holland perform “Pennies From Heaven”:
Asked how life has changed for him, he replied, “Well, I’ve been happily married now for… how many years? Since 2007. I got married, I’ve been happily married, I’ve got a wonderful woman, wonderful children. So, I’ve slowed down in that respect, if you know what I mean!”
Stewart now lives on his English country estate with his family, his Ferrari and his Lamborghini (not exactly slowing down).
He showed off his Ferrari, which he said he paid £4.5 million for: “People might think it’s mad spending that kind of money on a car, but it’s a great investment,” he said. “They’re actually going now for seven or eight million. … It’s like buying a house that moves!”
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“When you buy a car, it’s like buying a house,” Phillips said. “When the rest of us buy a car, it’s like buying a car.”
“I’ve been very lucky,” Stewart replied. “But then, I’ve got an amazing talent and you haven’t!” Touché.
An amazing talent that’s still rolling along – like his trains.
You can stream the album “Swing Fever” by Rod Stewart with Jools Holland by clicking on the embed below (Free Spotify registration required to hear the tracks in full):
For more info:
Story produced by Mikaela Bufano. Editor: Steven Tyler.
It was hard to miss the massive American flag towering over the Butler Farm Show ground on July 13 as it waved over the rally site where former President Donald Trump was set to speak, just days before a crucial running mate selection and the Republican National Convention.
On July 13, the two of us, who had been tag-teaming coverage of Trump’s third run for president for over a year, went to what we thought would be a typical Trump rally in an open field in a Pittsburgh suburb, a crucial electoral area in a crucial battleground state. It ended with a gunman trying to take Trump’s life, and the death of a fireman, Corey Comparatore.
We stood front and center in the press area at 6 p.m. and Trump took the stage (an hour late, as can be the case) and knew right away that something wasn’t right when what sounded like firecrackers went off to our left. That’s where shooter Thomas Crooks had climbed up onto an unprotected building just outside of the security perimeter and fired multiple shots.
A hydraulic lift that held up a massive stack of speakers was struck, sending smoke shooting out and the speakers slowly fell towards the ground, and as we took cover (ground twice), all we could think was to pull out our phones and get to work. Olivia recorded the sounds of panicked journalists and attendees alike huddled along the press riser and bicycle racks separating us, the shrieks of scared children, and, realized only upon listening many times since, the sound of those around Corey Comperatore yelling for assistance.
Jake spoke with emergency room Dr. James Sweetland, who ran to help Comperatore, and said that he heard the gunshots and went to assist, finding Comperatore “jammed between the benches” before attempting to save his life.
We both stood in shock as the crowd turned on us in the moments after Trump’s motorcade sped out of Butler, with one man yelling “This is your fault!”
What was to be a typical Trump rally wasn’t so typical anymore.
Eighty-four days later Trump returned, and so did the two of us, taking the same route from downtown Pittsburgh, parking in the same location, and enduring a similar heat with no shade in the press pen alongside fellow reporters who, just like us and the former president, chose to return and confront our trauma.
The stage was set up in the same location, with that same American flag looming over Trump and the crowd behind him on that day.
But for everything that was the same that day, there were striking differences. The building where the gunman had climbed up, crawled across, and ultimately fired fatal shots, was completely obstructed from the view of the crowd by tractor trailers. Several teams of snipers were stationed throughout the rally site. It was perhaps the largest crowd we have seen thus far at a Trump rally.
And we are not the same people. Witnessing the events of July 13 took away our feeling of safety while doing our jobs, and the effects of that continue to impact us. There was a moment of shock at one point, when the speaker on stage paused as the crowd shouted “medic” for a woman who fainted. We were frozen in fear hearing the same words that were shouted in the seconds after Trump’s assassination attempt, as people were shouting for a medic to take care of Comperatore.
But like July 13, we had to go to work. Like those in the crowd of tens of thousands that chose to return, there was a sense of unfinished business on this fairground. We had continued on to Milwaukeee and the Republican National Convention to cover Trump’s first public appearance since Butler, but we knew that we had to come back here, no matter how painful it was to land back in Pittsburgh, head north on Route 79 and pull off at the Butler Farm Show, and finish the job: for the two of us, for CBS News, for the country.
Unlike other speakers on the stage Saturday who championed Trump’s words of “fight, fight, fight,” Sweetland went out of his way to mention he is a former Democrat and pleaded with the crowd to reach out and find five Democrats with whom they could find commonality.
“Democrats are like teenagers,” Sweetland said. “You think they aren’t listening, but they are.”
Eight-four days later, the entire race has changed, and so have we.
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