Currently touring Australia for a round of A Day on the Green performances with Cyndi Lauper and Jon Stevens, Rod Stewart has hinted that he may be retiring old song favourites such as ‘Maggie May’, ‘Da Ya Think I’m Sexy?’, ‘Tonight’s the Night’ and more, meaning this could be the last chance Australian fans will get to hear them live.
“I’m not retiring, I just want to move on to something else,” he told ABC Melbourne’s Ali Moore earlier this week. “I’ve made a swing album with Jools Holland, which is going to be released in October, and it’s just to get away from what I’ve been doing most of my adult life, being rock’n’roll. I still love it, but I want to change the direction.”
The move harks back to the 2000s, when Stewart released four albums based on the Great Amercian Songbook as well as Soulbook, an LP made up of soul and Motown covers.
When asked why his feelings on the matter differ from that of say, Mick Jagger – who seems as comfortable as ever pacing the stage singing Stones classics – Stewart didn’t hold back.
“Never say never,” he began, “but for the time being I just want to rest them for a little while. And I’ve got the ability to change, certain people haven’t. I want to sing jazz. I want to sing some of the Great American Songbook and prove there’s more arrows in my belt than there are in other people’s (laughs).
“It just was a wonderful era of music and also the songs have lived with us forever. You know, even my wife who’s much younger than I, knows all the songs I’ve recorded for this album. And I just think it could well be very refreshing. It’s very uplifting and every song is up tempo.”
Stewart also revealed there was a time when he thought his famous voice had left him back in 2000 when he was being treated for thyroid cancer.
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“It just disappeared completely,” he noted, “and I was extremely worried. I didn’t know what I was going to do. I thought I might become a landscape gardener at one point. But it just disappeared for about three months and I just had to be patient with it. Started singing a little bit, then a little bit more than then next day then a little bit more then it came back. So I’m very lucky. Very, very lucky.”
It’s not only his own health that he’s concerned about. Stewart has addressed an ongoing crisis in the U.K. healthcare system, recently paying for a day’s worth of MRI scans for patients at his local NHS hospital in order to help cut waiting lists.
“Some of it’s had to do with COVID, some has to do with the war and I think a lot of it has to do with bad management over the last 12 years,” he told ABC.
“So what I did is, I went to have my annual checkup and I was apologising because I was late. They said, ‘no need to apologise, we’ve got nobody coming in today’. And this is a private business. Then I saw on the television the next day that people are queuing up for scans and some people are dying because they can’t get scans and then go to hospital.
“So I stepped to the fore, and I arranged for 30 to 40 scans in a mobile unit around where I live and I’d like to do that all over Great Britain. That’s what I’m gonna do. As Churchill said, one must do one’s bit.”
Rod Stewart 2023 Australian Tour
With Special Guests Cyndi Lauper & Jon Stevens
For more information visit livenation.com.au or adayonthegreen.com.au
Tuesday, March 14th
Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne, VIC
Wednesday, March 15th
Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne, VIC
Saturday, March 18th (A Day on the Green)
Mt Duneed Estate, Geelong, VIC
Tuesday, March 21st
AEC Arena, Adelaide, SA
Saturday, March 25th (A Day on the Green)
Sirromet Wines, Mount Cotton, QLD
Sunday, March 26th (A Day on the Green)
Sirromet Wines, Mount Cotton, QLD
Wednesday, March 29th
Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney, NSW
Saturday, April 1st
Roche Estate, Hunter Valley, NSW
Sunday, April 2nd (A Day on the Green)
Centennial Vineyards, Bowral, NSW
