A DAY AT THE STUDIO, A HIGHT ON THE TOWN

"I though everybody in rock 'n' roll had illegitimate children."

Rod Stewart has three non-originals on Footloose and Fancy Free, his third post-Faces album: "If Loving You Is Wrong I Don't Want To Be Right," "You Really Got a Hold on Me" and 'You Keep Me Hanging On." The last title could apply to Rod and CREEM's cat-and-mousing over this interview. We first met at Cherokee Studios in West Hollywood, where Rod had agreed to answer a few questions in the course of the session. When we sat down to talk Rod, obviously restless, asked, "Why are we doing this now? They need me out there. Let's get together next week."

When we arrived at his house in Bel Air for a full-scale chat, Rod—who'd been recording all night—had gone back to bed. Subsequent stumbling blocks involved Rod's football engagements, his struggle to write lyrics, a trip to New York, photo and recording sessions, and preparations for his first American tour, starting in October, with his new band: Carmine Appice, John Jarvis, Gary Grainger, Billy Peek, Jim Cregan and Phil Chen.

On the eve of the deadline, Rod'announced that he couldn't do anything for a couple of weeks. But, since he'd cancelled the evening's recording session due to a heavy cold, we could find him at the Cock 'n' Bull on Sunset Blvd. in an hour. Over drinks in the restaurant's back room, we conversed long enough to fill a 60-minute cassette.

How did you get this band together?

It was more luck than judgement, it really was. In fact there was one guy that joined the band because I was worried about the others' drinking habits. They didn't drink enough for me, and I decided that Jim Cregan should join. I approached him from Cockney Rebel, 'cause I went to see them down at the Roxy and they were really good. I was really impressed by Jim's drinking habits, that's the only reason he joined the band. He turned out also to be a very good guitar player. It's a really odd collection of guys. I mean they're so good. You'll see. They'll be the best band you've ever seen. Phil Chen was originally gonna join the Faces, and if he had joined the Faces, we'd have still been together, which would have been shit. He's a good bass player, and we never had a good bass player in the Faces.

Is that why you broke up?

No, we broke up because it was the end of the line, as simple as that. I think it was the best thing that's ever happened in my life, to get away from them. This band is everything the Faces were pretending to be. It's a crime to compare them to the Faces, they're so much better.

How was it working with the Muscle Shoals musicians and all those studio players?

There's no spark at Muscle Shoals, unless you want to turn out disco records. They can make those standing on their heads, but they can't play rock 'n' roll. This band's really good at it.

Atlantic Crossing was criticized for being sterile session playing.

Yeah, it was. A Night on the Town was a little improvement...But this album is lying very much on the rock 'n' roll side.

What was your approach going into this one?

Just go in and make a load of tunes. Make them better than the last lot. It's that easy, you know. It's not really that much thought goes into it, not for me anyway. I just go in and open me mouth and the band play and if it works it works.

Are you involved with the whole track, or do you concentrate on vocals?

No, I see it right through. Tom doesn't really produce that much. I've got Andy Johns engineering. He's at last got the sound I wanted down on record. It's just bigger than ever before, and he's got my voice bigger as well. It's like the last two albums had a blanket over them. Now the blanket's been taken away and the sound's coming out.

What's the hardest thing about writing?

Making the words rhyme. You always get stuck with the same fucking words... It's really difficult to come up with new words. That's what annoys me about it. It's the most frustrating side of this business. Because I'm not a lyricist, I'm not a songwriter. I do alright by it. I've written some good songs. It's really painful. I sit for fucking weeks—kick things, I kick the dog—because I can't think of the words.

Do you want to prove yourself as a songwriter?

No, I don't really. If someone could take the burden away from me—I mean, Elton's OK, he's got Bernie Taupin. He can sit on his ass all day and just go in and...That's what I'd love to do. I'd love to have a lyricist. But then people turn around and say they love my lyrics because they don't rhyme sometimes, I make incredible words rhyme with each other.

"There's only two things In my life I regret, that album cover (A Night On The Town), and not being born in Scotland."

Do melodies come pretty easy?

Yeah, I think at this late stage of the game I've found out how to write songs. You have to have a melody before you have anything else...I hum it, and if I can remember it the next day, 24 hours later, I think it must be good and I put it onto a tape. That's how nearly all the songs on this album have come about.

Do you have an idea of the feel you're after when you go in?

That's dictated by the way I sing. I do a guide vocal for them and the boys just fit around me. Steve Cropper told me Otis Redding used to do it like that. That's the way it should be done.

What's the hardest thing about recording?

I think I now feel a bigger responsibility to make a better album than the last one. The more records you sell the more you're under pressure. You're not, really—you could just say, "Oh, fuck it, just put.another album out." And a lot of bands do. I sell a lot of albums. There's a sense of responsibility and that probably turns into hard work. Weight on my shoulders.

I've got to tell you, there's one fucking brilliant track on the album.. It's called "I Was Only Joking." It's my whole life story. I mean, I've never owned up on record before. It just sums up my character. It's just an incredible set lyrics...I've always hidden behind things, you know. I've never really put meself on the line. I've i never wanted to. I don't think you should on record, but this one—I just couldn't avoid it. It just all came out.

"Every Picture" was—

Oh, it's ten times better than that. I don't know, it's a very confusing song, really. People listen to it and understand what I'm saying, but every time I sing the chorus, "I was only joking"—I suppose I would lose a lot of credibility really, because it makes it look like everything I've done I was only pissing about, and that's not the case.

Has the new band changed your style on stage at all?

Oh yeah. 'Cause with the Faces I used to think I had to be there all the time. If I walked off the stage, I thought it would fall flat, and people used to tell me it did sometimes. But with this band I can go and have a meal and come back. They carry the show on their own.

You sound down on the Faces.

Well, they're fucking down on me. I'm not down on Woody. They don't like me and I don't like them. Me and Woody are as close as that.

You took a lot of criticism for moving to Los Angeles and living the Hollywood life.

I love Hollywood, I love it. Bollocks,

I don't care what they say. For me this is the rock 'n' roll city of the world. Where else could you lay your hands on such incredible musicians? And every radio in the house is tuned in to a different station. You can't do that in England or Munich or fucking St. Tropez, can you? There's two songs on the album, "Hot Legs" and "You're Insane," I know I couldn't have written anywhere else in world but L.A. They're just sort of madness. And I couldn't have written "Georgie" if I hadn't spent seven or eight weeks in New York. I could not have written those songs if I'd been in Britain...

I think that album cover is—I don't know how I got roped into wearing that stupid boater on the front of A Night on the Town. Two or three people said I looked like Des O'Connor—he's a sort of middle-ofthe-road 40-year-old. There's only two things in my life I regret, that album cover and not being born in Scotland. When we played Australia and Great Britain we had these beautiful gold tickets with a fist going through the boater. I was so ashamed of it. It just isn't me. It might be Bryan Ferry, but it isn't me.

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Aren't you afraid of losing your working-class aura?

You can never lose it. As I've always said, a leopard can never change its spots. You never lose it.

You don't think that living in Bel Air and moving in this social circle will—

I'm not, though, I'm fucking not! I never go out. Everybody thinks I knock about with all the bloody film stars in Hollywood. I don't even know any of them. I never go out anywhere. That's another myth.

Are you sensitive to criticism like that?

I think so, yeah. I like to think of meself as fairly committed to what I'm doing. I know I am. That's what I live for. I said this ten years ago: there's only two things I can do, play football—and I can't play that too well— and make music, and that I'm getting better at.

How do you compare your current stuff to early things like Gasoline Alley?

Gasoline Alley had a lovely naivete about it. Some of the lyrics are so much fun on that one. We've been in the national press in England recently because they just found out I have an illegitimate child. She's 14 years of age...Oh yeah, it's true. Everybody else around me's denied it. If they'd have listened to one song on Gasoline Alley, they'd have known it was true. I sing about it in the "Lament." It was nothing I ever kept quiet about. If anybody asked me, I'd always tell them. Me dad never knew. Now he knows. As he once said, "I wish I'd have kept it in me trousers." Good old English expression—keep it in your trousers. That will be my life story when I write my book—I Wish I'd Have Kept It In My Trousers.

Ten years ago that would have been the ruination of one's career, if they found out you had an illegitimate child...The only one who knew about it, funny, was Mick's lady at the time, Chrissie Shrimpton. And me and the mother. It's so funny. It was a "Has He Or Hasn't He" story. It was huge in the Daily Mirror. I can't believe sometimes that they're that interested. I thought everybody in rock 'n' roll had illegitimate children.

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How do you feel about this celebrity status that comes with success?

I think it's all part and parcel. You really can't get away from it. I don't give a shit, I must admit. I go along with Lou Reed, -who came out with that great statement, he really doesn't care, and I must admit I don't care. The only thing I worry about is me dad. If I upset me dad, then I'm really in trouble. I don't give a shit about what people think about me, but if I upset* me mum or me dad—it seems really strange, doesn't it? A hardened rock 'n' roller still worries about what his dad thinks of him. But me dad's nearer to me than anything. I still worry about that side of it. In fact, since it was in the papers, I haven't spoken to him for three weeks. .1 daren't phone up.

Do you ever feel like a commodity ?

Nah. The only time I felt like a commodity was when Warner Brothers and Mercury were fighting over who owned my contract...I got over it. I don't think there's anything in the world that can set me back.

How's your relation with the business side of things?

Very good. Having so much Scottish blood in me, I think that's probably what's taking care of it...I spend nearly everything I have and I try to spend on other people. That's one of the great things. Money does buy you freedom, there's no doubt about it. It can't buy you anything else, but it does buy you freedom.

Do you have any long-term career goals?

Well, I've never had a driving ambition to go from what I'm doing now into films like nearly everybody else seems to be doing. I think I've got so much to give of meself into rock 'n' roll. But—Elton and I are supposed to be doings a film next September, about two tax exiles who keep running around the world in 747 jets. We've both given an OK on it, and it looks like we're gonna do it.

We had this great big meeting in New York, everybody's sitting there, "Yeah, it's gonna be great!" Then Elton came up and said, "There's one thing we've overlooked." And I said, "Yeah, neither one of us can act." He said, "Oh, don't worry about little things like that." I mean, I've got thousands of offers to do films, but this is the only one I'm really impressed with. We both can't act. It'll be a giggle. It's all very much up in the air, but it'll be fun.

Will you take acting lessons?

Bollocks, none of that. Either I can do it or I can't. No one taught me to sing or write music. It's either there or it's not...The soundtrack will be all new stuff, one side of his and one side of mine. You know, we had a running war, the two of us, where we were both slagging each other off in the national papers in England. We're probably closer now than we've ever been. Other than that I have no interest—I don't know, everybody keeps saying you should do a nice show on Broadway. Like Bette Midler does all the time. What should you do when you do a show on Broadway?

Tell jokes?

Yeah, you tell jokes. Shit. I'll give it up before I have to do that. I'll give it up.

Do you think ahead to the time you'll give it up?

Yeah, who doesn't? It's like an old shirt or an old coat that you've got, and one day you'll put it on and it won't fit. Then you'll know you shouldn't wear it anymore.

Do you think about what you'll do?

No. I never have done all through me life. I just plowed me way through.

What made you want to get into rock 'n' roll in the first place?

There was really no motive at the time. That's what's so beautiful about British rock 'n' roll. None of them knew what they were doing. No one had their eyes on making a million dollars at the time. That wasn't the goal. It was just you wanted to show your mates at school perhaps that you were a little bit better. You didn't want to do it being a chartered accountant or becoming a bank clerk sitting behind a desk. You wanted to do it in a flash way. That was the motive.

What's the goal now?

The goal now is to try and make the perfect fucking record, the perfect album. I know I'm going to be doing the perfect concerts on this tour...It's not a matter of precision, it's—Britt once said to me the only way to write songs is to be totally honest. Stop trying to be flashy and beating around the bush. Be honest. She played me a couple of Lennon songs. The words were really sort of dumb. But they're honest, and he sings them honest..."I Was Only Joking" is as near as I've ever got to that. I don't know, it all sort of makes sense now, these last two years. Try to say what you feel this year, on one particular piece of vinyl.

What are your thoughts on touring America? It's been a long time.

It has, that's why it's a nice big challenge. I live on big challenges. I really love doing the Garden and places like that. I think I'm sort of made for it. But what I would like to do is three nights at the Garden and then play the Bottom Line.

Is that possible?

Of course it's possible. I'm the fucking boss now, I'll do what I want to bleeding well do. In fact I am going to do it. I'm stating it here, that's what I'm going to do...Can you imagine that? It's been so long since I've played a very small place, walking through the crowd to get up on the stage and play.

What do you think of rock 'n' roll's current condition?

I'm alright, fuck the others. That's a fair statement. I'm doing what I know, what I started out doing...As I said, if you're suddenly embarrassed to do what you're doing in front of an audience, then you shouldn't be doing it. I think there are—no, I mustn't be bitchy...There are certain sort of Overweight popstars that I've seen at like Anaheim Stadium. And there are also people who are supposed to be fresh that play guitars and blow down pipes, and I think they're really fucking rubbish. I can't bear any artist that's got no spine, that can't talk for himself. This particular person's really spineless. It's got nothing to do with years or anything, it's an attitude.

How would you describe your attitude?

It's very headstrong. I go into everything with blinkers on, just go and give it a try. I think once you start to hesitate— that's the key. Once you start to hesitate about things and think, "Oh, I shouldn't do it," that's when you're maybe in trouble. Once the audience know you're hesitating, like—"Oh, I really can t jump over the piano tonight cause I might have drunk too much last night and me gut's hanging over, I won't try it."

But that day's going to come,-right?

If it does, it does, then I'll disappear. As long as I've got enough air in me lungs to sing I will. I feel more vital now than ever. It's just oozing out of me, this incredible vitality, which has come only in the last two years. I'm sure it's got something to do with living here.

What do you do here? Who are your friends?

I tell you, I don't go out anywhere. I play football twice a week. The only people I would really trust in this whole business, the only friends I think I've got that you would know of, is Elton, Ronnie Wood and probably Gary Glitter. Woody I don't see much of, Elton I don't see much, Gary rarely comes to these shores. They're the only three people I would talk to, if I had a problem. Britt's got loads of mates, but they're all full of shit.

How is life with Britt?

Up and down like a pea on a drum. Up and down like a bride's nightie.