Rod Stewart: "You’ve got flair or you haven’t..."

In this extract from Uncut's November 2015 issue [Take 222], Jaan Uhelszki visits Rod Stewart at home in Beverly Hills...

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From Uncut’s November 2015 issue [Take 222]. Jaan Uhelszki visits ROD STEWART at home in Beverly Hills…

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Rod Stewart was never, it seems, a natural songwriter. “I was too busy,” he says, “having a good time.” In autumn 2015, the good times continue unabated for British rock’s most storied playboy. On the eve of a new album and that long-awaited Faces reunion, Rod The Mod opens up his LA mansion to Uncut and, uncharacteristically, reveals all. About Jeff Beck, Britt Ekland and the rock giant who looks “a bit too much like Bin Laden”. About cancer, the old bandmate who drank too much, and the correct way to tie a scarf. And about why The Faces couldn’t reform ’til now: “Mac was a bit of a fly in the ointment…”

YOU kNOW YOU’RE getting close to Rod Stewart’s house when your ears pop. For the past four decades, Stewart has lived on one of the highest points of Beverly Hills, in an exclusive enclave called Beverly Park. Accessible only through two guarded checkpoints, the estate is dominated by sprawling gated properties, with fine views out across the city itself. Once you’ve cleared security, however, it’s no small task finding your destination. There are no street names or pavements; nor is there anyone about to ask. Fortunately, Stewart’s house is instantly recognisable thanks to a soccer pitch visible over a rambling fence. The gates, too, are a giveaway: they are emblazoned with the four-leaf clover symbol of his beloved Celtic football team.

Stewart, his wife Penny Lancaster and their two children live in a large Italianate mansion painted the colour of a Tuscan sunset. Across the circular driveway is a well-appointed guest house where three of Stewart’s older children live. There is also a six-car garage with an array of expensive automobiles – mostly Italian. Stewart still takes his cars out almost daily. “I love to drive,” he explains. “It clears my head and I get my best ideas then. The one thing I don’t do anymore is drive at night, because I like to have a drink of wine every night.” Few celebrities, it seems, live so grandly or unapologetically. “Yeah, largely and hugely,” Stewart laughs. “All this and I still got all me hair.”

Stewart has invited Uncut to his home ostensibly to talk about his new studio album, Another Country. There is also a 5CD set due which collects the run of albums he made between 1969’s An Old Raincoat Won’t Ever Let You Down to Smiler in 1974. Critically, though, Stewart’s old group, the Faces, are returning to active service. Not only has a boxset just been released of all their studio albums – 1970-1975: You Can Make Me Dance, Sing Or Anything – but they also performed live on September 5 during a 2015 Prostate Cancer Uk charity event, Rock’n’Horsepower, at Kenney Jones’ polo club in Surrey. Stewart first reunited to play with the surviving Faces – Ron Wood and Jones – at his 70th birthday party; it seems they had such a good time, they decided to do it again. If Stewart had his way, though, he would also reactivate another of his old groups: “We could have a Faces and a Jeff Beck Band reunion all on one bill,” he beams.

Inside of Stewart’s home, the walls are decorated with an enviable collection of Pre-Raphaelite paintings. But Stewart steers me to a large oil painting over the fireplace: ‘An Elegant Woman’ by French artist Hippolyte-casimir Gourse. It depicts a rather plain Victorian woman in a long black dress and black shoes, wearing a large feathered hat and reclining on a divan. “Don’t you think that one looks like me?” he asks. “You don’t have to answer; I know it does. It looks just like me when I was 18.” This large painting is given pride of place above the mantle, along with a copy of Daniel Wolff’s biography of Sam Cooke, two dozen painted metal soldiers of the Scottish regiments in battle formation, small miniatures of Celtic players in their green and white shirts, and two small Scottish Lion Rampant flags. “This is my altar, don’t you think?” he asks proudly. Photographs are dotted elsewhere around the room: of him and his children, with Penny, and an especially striking one of his father in a tux. “Aye, that’s my dad. That’s Bob Stewart there, looking very Scottish,” Stewart says.

What was the occasion?

“He was going down the betting shop. I think it was his 70th or 75th birthday.”

Seventy doesn’t look like 70 anymore. “No it doesn’t,” admits Stewart. “I try not to let it.”

A two-hour conversation with Rod Stewart is wide-ranging and digressive. It takes in his early bands and solo work, drinking, his controversial migration to Los Angeles, the Great American Songbook albums, and his return to songwriting. As well, of course, as the Faces reunion. But we begin by talking about clothes. Today, Stewart is wearing surprisingly understated attire – jeans and a denim shirt.

UNCUT: Was wardrobe always a consideration for you? Even when you wore those satin pants and crop-tops?

ROD STEWART: I don’t think I was ever a regular dresser. First of all, you’ve got to be passionate about it, and I always have been. I would consider myself a pretty good dresser before “Maggie May”, before I had any money. So you either can do it or you can’t; you’ve really got that flair or you haven’t.

FIND THE FULL INTERVIEW FROM UNCUT NOVEMBER 2015/TAKE 222 IN THE ARCHIVE

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