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Agence France-Presse

Singer Rod Stewart, who helped British rock conquer the world with a string of megahits, turns 80 on January 10 – with no plans to slow down.
Stewart, with his distinctive spiky blond hair and raspy voice, dominated pop charts during the 1970s and 1980s with hits like “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy?” and “Young Turks”, notching up more than 120 million record sales worldwide.
He also made headlines for a prolific love life that included relationships with a string of models and actresses including Britt Ekland.
Despite his age, Stewart has no plans to retire.


“I love what I do, and I do what I love. I’m fit, have a full head of hair and can run 100 metres (330 feet) in 18 seconds at the jolly old age of 79,” he wrote last year.
The star will play the legends slot at the UK’s Glastonbury music festival this summer.
Although his forthcoming European and North American tour dates will be his last large-scale project, he plans to concentrate on more intimate venues in the future.
He will start a new residency in Las Vegas from March to June.


A tour is also slated for 2026 for Swing Fever, the album he released last year with pianist and ex-Squeeze band member Jools Holland.
Stewart has also made headlines for his passion for model railways and his battle with potholes that have prevented him from driving his Ferrari near his home in eastern England.
The singer, who was knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 2016, has been married three times and has fathered eight children. His third wife is model and television personality Penny Lancaster.


Stewart’s story began in north London on 10 January 1945, when Roderick Stewart was born into a middle-class family.
After a “fantastically happy childhood”, he developed a love of music when his father bought him a guitar in 1959, and he formed a skiffle band with school friends a year later.
He joined the band Dimensions in 1963 as a harmonica player, exploring his love of folk, blues and soul music while learning from other artists such as Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger in London’s blossoming rhythm and blues scene.

Stewart’s career took off in 1967 when he joined the renowned guitarist Jeff Beck’s eponymous new band, which also included future Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood, allowing him to develop his raw and soulful vocal style and stagecraft while exposing him to a US audience.
He and Wood took up the offer to join mod pioneers Small Faces following the departure of their singer Steve Marriott in 1969 – the band soon changing its name to The Faces – shortly before Stewart released his debut solo album.
It was his 1971 third solo release, Every Picture Tells a Story, that confirmed him as one of the world’s most successful artists, reaching number one in Britain, Australia and the US, where it went platinum.
The album helped define Stewart’s rock/folk sound, featuring heartfelt lyrics and heavy use of unusual instruments such as the mandolin, particularly prominent on the album’s stand-out hit “Maggie May”.
“I just love stories with a beginning, middle and end,” he once said.


Focusing on his solo career after 1975, Stewart’s “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy?” released in 1978 was not to everyone’s taste.
“Once the most compassionate presence in music, he has become a bilious self-parody – and sells more records than ever,” Rolling Stone magazine said in 1980.
Never one to be cowed by the critics, Stewart defended this phase, telling an interviewer that audiences “absolutely love it, so I had the last laugh”.


Richard Houghton, author of the book Tell Everyone – A People’s History of the Faces, said that Stewart had “possibly the most distinctive voice in rock music”.
The singer successfully combined writing classic songs of his own, such as “Maggie May” or “You Wear It Well”, with taking other people’s songs – from Bob Dylan to Tom Waits – and making them his own.
More recently, there had been four albums of the “classic songs of the 1930s from his Great American Songbook catalogue”.
Houghton said audiences could expect to see plenty more of Stewart.
“He’s like any entertainer. He loves the spotlight. He’s not going to sit at home watching the television when somewhere around the world there’s a crowd wanting to hear him sing ‘Mandolin Wind’ or ‘First Cut Is The Deepest’ one more time.
“Rod will keep singing until the day he drops,” he added.


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British rock singer Rod Stewart celebrates his 80th birthday on January 10, 2025. Photo: AFP

British singer Rod Stewart performs on stage in A Coruna, Galicia, Spain, in December 2024. The singer celebrates his 80th birthday in January 2025. Photo: EPA-EFE

Rod Stewart, pictured onstage in Spain in 2024, has no intention of stopping singing. Photo: EPA-EFE

Stewart performs at Queen Elizabeth’s platinum jubilee celebrations in 2022. Photo: AFP

Rod Stewart has eight children, seven of them pictured above, by five different women. Photo: @penny.lancaster/Instagram

Stewart with model Penny Lancaster after their marriage announcement in 2005. Photo: AP

Rod Stewart on stage in 1976. Photo: Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis

Rod Stewart in concert with the Faces at the Hong Kong Football Club Stadium in 1974. Photo: SCMP

Stewart and the Faces perform at the Hong Kong Football Club Stadium in 1981. Photo: SCMP

Stewart with his girlfriend, Swedish model Britt Ekland, in 1977. Photo: AP

Stewart with first wife, Alana (right), and their daughter Kimberly. Photo: @thekimberlystewart/Instagram

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Culture

As rocker with the distinctive raspy voice turns 80, he can look ahead to upcoming tour dates and reflect on a near-60-year music career


As rocker with the distinctive raspy voice turns 80, he can look ahead to upcoming tour dates and reflect on a near-60-year music career.


Fame and celebrity

Britain