BIOGRAPHY ROD STEWART / BIOGRAFIE / BIOGRAPHY | STORYTELLER: ... it's all about Rod

Before Roderick David ‘Rod’ Stewart became a star with cosy hits such as ‘Sailing’ and ‘Have I Told You Lately’, he made quite a name for himself with his band ‘Faces’. Stewart lived the life of a rock star: ‘It was all about getting laid and drinking, nothing more. Sometimes we even said to ourselves, ‘Fuck the gig! Smashing up hotel rooms included, of course. At some point on a US tour, the band were banned from the hotel chain they checked into in every city - understandable! But instead of booking a new hotel, the band pretended to be the then not-so-well-known ‘Fleetwood Mac’ and moved into their rooms under a false name.

Eight children from five women

Things then became a little quieter on the solo circuit. But what remained were Stewart's momentous women's stories. It is somewhat telling that the Wikipedia entry in English presents his relationships and children in a table to make it clearer, as Rod has eight children with five different women. His first daughter Sarah was born in 1963, her mother is the painter Susannah Boffey. However, the girl was brought up by adoptive parents. Stewart's first marriage was to Alana Hamilton, which produced the children Kimberly (*1979) and Sean (*1980). After the marriage ended, he had a liaison with model Kelly Emberg, and daughter Ruby was born in 1987. Stewart entered the harbour of marriage for the second time with model Rachel Hunter, who gave birth to daughter Renee in 1992 and son Liam in 1994. He has been married to his current wife Penny Lancaster since 2007, perhaps it will be his last marriage, who knows. Penny made him the father of children Alastair (*2005) and Aiden (*2011).

Blow of fate

Today it actually looks as if Rod has calmed down a little, which certainly has something to do with the thyroid cancer he discovered in 1999. A shock for the musician! Especially as the operation threatened to jeopardise his unmistakably raspy voice. After the operation, Rod had to spend a long time learning to sing again and took quite a while to fully recover. Since then, he has been an active supporter of the ‘City of Hope Foundation’, which campaigns for cancer research.

Music was just plan B

But originally, music was just the famous plan B for Rod Stewart. His real passion was football, but in the end it wasn't enough for a professional career. It's a good thing that he discovered his passion for music as a teenager, when his father gave him a guitar for his 14th birthday. ‘Around the same time, I heard Bob Dylan's debut album for the first time. It totally blew me away and inspired me to learn the guitar. I was soon able to memorise all the Dylan songs and accompany myself on the guitar.’ The foundation was laid, the rest is history. Today, Rod Stewart is one of the most successful British singers of all time, having sold more than 150 million records.

Fatherly joys and a love of football

Of course, you could rest on your laurels, but Rod Stewart is far from being an old man. In September 2018, at the age of 73, he released his 30th studio album ‘Blood Red Roses’. But these days, it seems, his priorities are different than they used to be, namely his family. When he can spend time playing football with his children, he sounds like the happiest man in the world. ‘I have four sons, and the two youngest are only seven and twelve. I had a football pitch built for them at our house. I use every opportunity there to teach them the art of the game and also a few tricks that I still have. These are the things that keep me going. I could spend all day playing, watching and chatting about football.’ But despite his family, Rod Stewart doesn't miss out on music either: in 2021, he released a new studio album, ‘’The Tears of Hercules‘’. In 2024, the current album ‘Swing Fever’ was released together with Jools Holland's Rhythm And Blues Orchestra, which reached number one in the UK album charts. It was the first number one for Jools (Julian Miles) Holland.

Text: gala.de