Summary
'ridiculously funny and astonishingly candid, Rod Stewart's memoir is the rock autobiography of the decade' Daily Mail
Rod Stewart was born the working-class son of a Scottish plumber in North London. Despite some early close shaves with a number of diverse career paths, ranging from gravedigging to professional football, it was music that truly captured his heart - and he never looked back.
Rod started out in the early 1960s, playing the clubs on London's R&B scene, before his distinctively raspy voice caught the ear of the iconic front man Long John Baldry, who approached him while busking one night on a railway platform. Stints with pioneering acts like the Hoochie Coochie Men, Steampacket, and the Jeff Beck Group soon followed, paving the way into a raucous five years with the Faces, the rock star's rock band, whose offstage antics with alcohol, wrecked hotel rooms and groupies have become the stuff of legend.
And during all this, he found a spare moment to write 'Maggie May', among a few others, and launch a solo career that has seen him sell an estimated 200 million records, be inducted into the Hall of Fame twice, and play the world's largest ever concert. Not bad, as he says, for a guy with a frog in his throat.
And then, there is his not-so-private life- marriages, divorces and affairs with some of the world's most beautiful women - Bond girls, movie stars and supermodels - and a brush with cancer which very nearly saw it all slip away.
Rod's is an incredible life, and here, thrillingly and for the first time, he tells the whole thing, leaving no knickers under the bed. A rollicking rock 'n' roll adventure that is at times deeply moving, this is the remarkable journey of a guy with one hell of a voice - and one hell of a head of hair.
Roderick David "Rod" Stewart, born January 10, 1945, is a British rock singer-songwriter. Born and raised in London, he is of English and Scottish ancestry. Stewart is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, having sold over 100 million records worldwide. In 2008, Billboard magazine ranked him the 17th most successful artist on the "Billboard Hot 100 All-Time Top Artists".
Stewart was born in Highgate, North London; he left school at age 15 and worked briefly as a silk screen printer. Encouraged by his father, his ambition was to become a professional footballer. Guitarist Jeff Beck recruited Stewart for his new post-Yardbirds group in February 1967, and so Stewart joined the Jeff Beck Group as vocalist and occasional songwriter.This would become the big break of his early career. Stewart's 1971 solo album Every Picture Tells a Story made him a household name with the hits "Reason to Believe" and "Maggie May".
In July 2007, Stewart was given his CBE for "services to music" at Buckingham Palace. The CBE refers to "The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire" and it is given to members of the populous who have made a significant achievement for the United Kingdom.
In 2015, Stewart's autobiography (which was published in 2012) made the New York Times bestseller list; it was entitled simply: Rod, The Autobiography.
(Bowker Author Biography)
