Early Life
Roderick David Stewart was born in London on January 10, 1945, and he literally came into the world with a bang. Stewart was born in the late stages of World War II, and just minutes before he arrived, a German V-2 rocket scored a direct hit on the Highgate Police Station that was located just down the street from Stewart’s hospital.
Stewart was born into a nationally-mixed family, as his father and four siblings are all Scottish, while he and his mother are English. Stewart grew up loving music, women and sports. In fact, his musical career was not his first pursuit, and Stewart only turned to music as a “fall-back” after his initial aspirations ended.
As Stewart reached his teen-age years, he pursued his first love, which he now calls his second love - football, or soccer, as it’s known in the United States. Stewart had trials with two famous football clubs, Celtic and Brentford, but soon realized he’d never quite make it in the top professional league. As a result, Stewart, whose musical skills were still very raw, had to take a job as a grave digger.
Musical Beginnings
Stewart certainly did not want to pursue a career in manual labor, so he began to explore his musical options. He began by touring with folk singer Wizz Jones in the early 1960’s, but that was not a successful run. In fact, he was kicked out of Spain during this tour for vagrancy.
Stewart then moved from band to band, including a failed stint as the first lead singer of the group that would ultimately become known as The Kinks, but again, he failed to succeed in any of these ventures. After a few more years of bouncing around, Stewart finally found a suitable band in the Jeff Beck Group, which he joined in 1968. The Jeff Beck Group released two albums, and both were successful, but the band broke up in 1969. After a few more short stints with unsuccessful bands, Stewart made a career choice - it was time to go solo.
Musical Success
This decision turned out to be a good one, as Stewart finally began to gain notice for his efforts. Although his initial album releases were not wildly successful, his live act gained notice, and Rod Stewart tickets became quite popular in the UK. The stage was set for Stewart to hit the big time.
That’s exactly what happened when Stewart released Every Picture Tells a Story in 1971. The album rose to the top of several charts and contained the legendary single “Maggie May,” among other hits. Including this release, Stewart has released 10 albums that reached number one on the charts in either the US, the UK or both. It’s estimated that he has sold over 200 million copies of his records, and he remains an icon to this day.
Stewart spends his present days doing several things, but he’s never lost his live touch. Rod Stewart tickets are still guaranteed to provide you with a night to remember, and you’ll never regret seeing this legend live.
