Rod Stewart

About Rod Stewart

Rod Stewart started singing in the early 1960s London folk scene before realizing his raspy voice was better suited to blues and rock. He bounced between bands like Long John Baldry's Hoochie Coochie Men and Steampacket before joining the Jeff Beck Group in 1967, where his voice became impossible to ignore. Those two albums with Beck—Truth and Beck-Ola—showed what he could do when paired with serious guitar work.

In 1969, he joined the Faces while simultaneously launching a solo career, which sounds exhausting but somehow worked. The Faces were a proper rock band, loose and boozy, while his solo records leaned more introspective. Every Picture Tells a Story in 1971 made him unavoidable. "Maggie May" hit number one on both sides of the Atlantic, and suddenly this guy with the spiked hair and the torn voice was everywhere. The album had "Mandolin Wind" and the title track too, songs that proved he could handle both rowdy rock and genuine emotion without getting schmaltzy about it.

Never a Dull Moment followed in 1972 and kept the momentum going with "You Wear It Well." He was doing this thing where he'd mix originals with carefully chosen covers—Sam Cooke, Dylan, the Temptations—and make them sound like they'd always been his. The Faces broke up in 1975, and Stewart's solo career shifted. Atlantic Crossing started his move toward more polished, transatlantic pop-rock. A Night on the Town gave him another massive hit with "Tonight's the Night," though by now the sharp edges were smoothing out.

The late seventies and eighties saw him lean into straight-up pop. "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy" in 1978 alienated some of his rock fans but sold millions. He kept cranking out albums, some forgettable, some with decent moments. The nineties brought the Great American Songbook series starting in 2002, which was either a classy move or a safe bet depending on your perspective. Either way, it introduced him to a whole new audience who maybe didn't know about the Faces.

He's never really stopped. There have been more rock albums, more standards albums, tours that fill arenas. His voice has held up remarkably well considering how hard he used it in the early years. He got inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice, once as a solo artist and once with the Faces.

At this point, Rod Stewart has been famous longer than most people have been alive. He's sold over 100 million records, married three times, had eight kids, and somehow maintained that same haircut for fifty years. He's a fixture, the kind of artist who exists beyond trends or critical opinion.

His shows are packed with singalongs. People come knowing every word to every song. There's a looseness to them, like he's genuinely enjoying himself on stage, and that translates to the crowd. Expect the hits, expect audience participation, expect an older demographic that actually knows how to move.

Known for Maggie May, Tonight's the Night (Gonna Be Alright), Sailing, Stay With Me, Infatuation

See Rod Stewart Live