Rod Stewart Medleys Live
Roderick David "Rod" Stewart, CBE (born 10 January 1945) is a British singer and songwriter born and raised in London, England and currently residing in Epping. He is of Scottish and English lineage.
With his distinctive raspy tenor voice, Stewart came to prominence in the late 1960s and early '70s with The Jeff Beck Group and then Faces. He launched his solo career in 1969 with his debut album An Old Raincoat Won't Ever Let You Down (US: The Rod Stewart Album). His work with The Jeff Beck Group and The Faces proved to be influential on the formation of the heavy metal and punk rock genres, respectively.[1][2] Both bands were also pioneers of blues-rock.
With his career in its fifth decade, Stewart has achieved numerous solo hit singles worldwide, most notably in the UK, where he has garnered six consecutive number one albums and his tally of 62 hit singles include 31 that reached the top 10, six of which gained the number one position. He has also had 16 top ten singles in the USA, with four of these reaching number one. His most-known solo hit singles are "Maggie May", "You Wear It Well", "Sailing", "Tonight's the Night (Gonna Be Alright)", "I Don't Want to Talk About It", "Hot Legs", "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?", "Downtown Train", "Some Guys Have All the Luck", "Young Turks", "This Old Heart of Mine", "Forever Young", "My Heart Can't Tell You No" and "Rhythm of My Heart." He was voted at #33 in the poll of "Q Magazine top 100 Greatest Singers of all time".[3]
[edit] Personal life
In 1999, Stewart was diagnosed with thyroid cancer, for which he underwent surgery in July 2000. Besides being a major health scare, the resulting surgery also threatened his famous voice, and he had to re-learn how to sing.[37] Since then he has been active in raising funds for The City of Hope Foundation charity to find cures for all forms of cancer, especially those affecting children.[38]
Stewart has remained physically active in recent years, playing in a senior soccer league in Palos Verdes, California and still kicking balls into the audience during concerts. When discussing the rock 'n' roll excesses he has been through in his career, he maintains that his love of playing football has been his saviour. As a fan, he is a well-known supporter of Celtic F.C., which he mentions in his hit "You're in my Heart", and the Scotland national team. Rod is one of only two people to have a seat for life at Celtic Park, the other one being the comedian Billy Connolly. Stewart also follows Manchester United as his English side, and he explains his love affair with both Celtic and Man United in Frank Worall's book Celtic United. He explains the meaning behind the line " You're Celtic, United, but baby I've decided You're the best team I've ever seen." In appearance, Stewart still maintains his trademark rooster-style haircut.
Stewart is also a keen model railway enthusiast, having a 23 x 124-foot HO scale layout in his California home, model after the New York Central and the Pennsylvania Railroads during the 1940s, which has now made the pages of the December 2007 issue of Model Railroader Magazine. In the article he said that he would rather be in a model railroading magazine than a music magazine, and his passion for the hobby has been blamed for contributing to the end of his second marriage.[39] He has a layout based on Britain's East Coast Main Line at his UK home, located in Essex on part of the Copped Hall estate.[40]
A keen car enthusiast, particularly for Ferrari, he owns one of the 400 Enzo Ferrari. In 1982, Stewart was car-jacked in Los Angeles while he was standing next to his $50,000 Porsche, which was parked on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood.[citation needed]
On 11 October 2005, Stewart received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7093 Hollywood Blvd. On 18 April and 19 April 2006 Stewart was the guest artist and celebrity vocal coach on American Idol, leading the remaining seven finalists in singing entries from the Great American Songbook
