Rod Stewart was born the working-class son of a
Scottish plumber in North London. Despite some early close shaves with a number
of diverse career paths, ranging from gravedigging to professional football, it
was music that captured his heart – and he never looked back.
Rod started out in the early 1960s, playing the clubs
on London’s R&B scene, before his distinctively raspy voice caught the ear
of the iconic front man Long John Baldry, who approached him while busking one
night on a railway platform. Stints with pioneering acts like the Hoochie
Coochie Men, Steampacket, and the Jeff Beck Group soon followed, paving the way
into a raucous five years with the Faces, the rock star’s rock band, whose
offstage antics with alcohol, wrecked hotel rooms and groupies have become the
stuff of legend. And during all this, he found a spare moment to write ‘Maggie
May’, among a few others, and launch a solo career that has seen him sell an
estimated 200 million records, be inducted into the Hall of Fame twice, and
play the world’s largest ever concert. Not bad, as he says, for a guy with a
frog in his throat.
And then, there is his not-so-private life: marriages,
divorces and affairs with some of the world’s most beautiful women – Bond
girls, movie stars and supermodels – and a brush with cancer which very nearly
saw it all slip away.
Rod’s has been an incredible life, and here for the first time, he tells the whole thing, leaving no knickers under the
bed. A rollicking rock ’n’ roll adventure that is at times deeply moving, this
is the remarkable journey of a guy with one hell of a voice – and one hell of a
head of hair.
ROD STEWART was born in 1945 in North London. He is a
two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, Grammy Living Legend, and in 2007 was
bestowed the prestigious CBE (Commander of the British Empire). He has garnered
an estimated 200 million in album and single sales with hit songs including:
‘Maggie May’, ‘Tonight’s the Night’, ‘Sailing’, ‘Baby Jane’, ‘Hot Legs’, ‘Da Ya
Think I’m Sexy?’, ‘Young Turks’, ‘Rhythm of My Heart’, ‘Stay With Me’,
‘Mandolin Wind’, ‘You Wear It Well’, and many more.
He lives with his wife, Penny Lancaster, and their
children in Beverly Hills, California and Epping, Essex.
Rod: The Autobiography
RRP: $37.99
Front cover photograph by Penny Lancaster
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