Rolling Stone #211: Rod Stewart

Rod Stewart Puts on a Happy Face

Los Angeles – Rod Stewart stood on the lawn of his Bel-Air mansion, disgusted and scowling into the afternoon sun. “I know what you’re gonna ask me and I’ll tell you the answers right now.” He closed his eyes and recited the newest details of his career, as if for the millionth time. “My new album is nearly finished. I haven’t got a name for it. I haven’t got a band I doubt if I’ll be touring again. I don’t feel like it. I haven’t used anybody from the last album, except for Steve Cropper. He did one track in Muscle Shoals. I used Tom Dowd again as producer because I think he’s good. He did a good job on the last one and a better job on this one, especially with the rock & roll. The rock & roll tracks on the last album were useless. Trying to get Muscle Shoals to play rock & roll is useless. That’s it.”

Two weeks later, speaking from Miami, where he was finally recording the vocals on A Night on the Town, Stewart sounded happier as he explained his recent problem. “We put down 15 backing tracks at Cherokee Studios in Los Angeles and then got around to my singing. I couldn’t sing. I just couldn’t hit a note. The reason, if you ask me, is the fucking smog. It cuts the shit out of your voice.

“So I went to Caribou Studios [in Colorado] to put down the vocals. Nice place, but I couldn’t sing there either. At 9000 feet above sea level, you’re lucky if you can walk and still breathe.”

Matters improved when producer Dowd decided to use Miami’s Criteria Sound Studios. “We’re really blazing now,” gushed Stewart. “This album is going to be great. Wait and see. There’s a lot of my writing on it, stuff I’m really proud of.” He gave no song titles, explaining that the final tracks had yet to be picked.

Rod went on to scoff at notions that he was bitter over the breakup of the Faces. “I’m a lot happier on me own,” he said. “And there’s no hard feelings over Woody [Ron Wood]. Good luck to him. We’d been together too long as it was. I just hope he gets what’s coming to him, because he’s a fine guitar player. I’m not pissed at the Stones, either. Mick is still a close friend. I’ve been looking after his brother all last week. I might even have Chris [Jagger] singing on the album. But all’s fair in love and war. If Mick wanted Woody, all right. I’m gonna have to break up a few bands to get who I want. I just hope the Stones does Woody more good than they did for Mick Taylor.

“I talked to Woody the other night. I feel kind of sorry for him. He’s sitting around in Nassau getting fat and bored. That’s what happens when you become a Rolling Stone.” Stewart laughed heartily.

Rod would not name any of the players he is now considering for his new band. “Kenny Jones is the only definite member now. He was the only professional in the Faces. Beyond that, it would be unfair to release any names to the newspapers. I want to go back to England and do the choosing in person. It’s not even something I’ll do over the phone. They’re nearly all London guys, though one’s from Los Angeles and another from Cincinnati. There are no tour plans either, not even that fucking Wembley date I was supposed to be doing this June. That’s always been a load of rubbish. I’ll tour when my band’s ready and not a second before. If it takes me two years, I’ll wait two years.

“The thing is, now I can have a band that’s exactly what I want it to be. Doesn’t have to a set load of musicians onstage, like the Faces. Now I can have who I want. Bowie’s done that so well. I loved his show in L.A.”

Finally, Stewart claimed to be on good terms with most of the former Faces – even though he was the one to break up the band last November. “They’re all my friends,” he said. “Even Mac [Ian Mclagen]. I mean I was getting a lot of aggravation from Mac in the end, but I’ll be getting aggravation from Mac as long as I’ve got a hole in me ass.”

Courtesy of Rolling Stone #211 – Cameron Crowe – April 22, 1976