- Title: USA: ROD STEWART PREPARES TO RELEASE NEW ALBUM OF JAZZ STANDARDS
- Date: 10th September 2002
- Summary: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (SEPTEMBER 10, 2002) (REUTERS) SOUNDBITE (English) ROD STEWART SAYING: "I actually enjoyed the period I was married. I don't want to talk too much about this, but I was in that marriage for the long term. As it happens, it didn't work out -- wasn't her fault, wasn't my fault. But being single ... I'm not really single at the moment.
- Embargoed: 25th September 2002 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA AND NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES AND VARIOUS FILM LOCATIONS
- Country: USA
- Reuters ID: LVA1OEZXUM1J1ELNX9S1GFLX0BUA
- Story Text: Rock n' roll icon Rod Stewart is hitting a lighter note as he prepares for the release of a album of his favorite jazz recordings, titled "It Had To Be You ... The Great American Songbook." The music legend talked with Reuters about the album, his famous sense of style, and even his love life.
Rock n' Roll Hall of Famer Rod Stewart has taken a musical turn with his latest recording of American standards.
Stewart will release "It Had To Be You ... The Great American Songbook" in U.S. stores on October 22.
Baring his trademark vocals, Stewart has dipped into the historic annals of America's most celebrated songs and revitalized them to create a wonderful modern-day album.
Songs include the 1930s standard "These Foolish Things," the 1924 classic "It Had to Be You," the 1938 classic "You Go To My Head," "They Can't Take That Away From Me," written by George and Ira Gershwin in 1938, "The Way You Look Tonight,"
"The Very Thought of You," "For All We Know," "Where or When,"
"Moonglow," "Every Time We Say Goodbye," and many more.
Stewart's first release on J Records, the music legend convinced fellow industry big wig Clive Davis, Chairman and CEO of the label, that the album would be magical.
"This is a hard sell. This is not a walk in the park, selling this album. It's a rock 'n roll singer that's in the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame to suddenly do an album like this, there are a lot of people who are going to look at me as a traitor, but my reply would be, all this music is connected, if it wasn't for jazz, we wouldn't have rock 'n roll, so there's a lineage going all the way through it," Stewart explained.
Davis and Stewart compiled these musical gems for "The Great American Songbook," which they hope will appeal to a wide-ranging, multi-generational audience.
"They're just brilliant songs and they're full of emotion.
They're wonderful to sing. If you're any sort of a singer and you can sing in tune, and there ain't many of us left, you got to attempt to do these songs, even if you don't release them on record, which was honestly the way I started about doing this, it was just a labor of love. Me and Richard Perry started laying down a few tracks and just messing with it and all of a sudden I'm sitting here being interviewed by you and the albums coming out for worldwide release. They're just great tracks, great songs," Stewart told Reuters.
These classics came a few decades before Stewart hit the music scene in the early 1970s. He quickly established himself as a sex symbol and rock star with a string of hits that has carried him through to present. Almost as popular as his music has been Stewart's "look." The tight pants, tall hair, and low-cut shirts have always been part of his style.
"Are you sure you want to use that word, 'style?' Some people would call it 'extremely bad taste.' Even before I came into music, I always fancied myself as a bit of a niffy dresser, you know, so it's not something that come to me when I started getting famous and making money, I've always ...
when I had no money, I always wanted to put together a nice outfit to impress the girls. And nothing's changed, really, except I can afford a more elaborate wardrobe nowadays,"
Stewart laughed.
And what about the hair? "It used to be huge. I have trouble pushing it down. You can see, I push it down, it comes straight back up. It's been standing up for fifty odd years now, bless it," Stewart said.
He's managed to keep his hair through two divorces, most recently from model Rachel Hunter.
"I actually enjoyed the period I was married. I don't want to talk too much about this, but I was in that marriage for the long term. As it happens, it didn't work out -- wasn't her fault, wasn't my fault. But being single ... I'm not really single at the moment. In other words, I'm not hitting the bars and going mad -- at this moment in time. All right?" Stewart said.
When asked about Hunter's much-publicised romance with British pop star Robbie Williams, Stewart said he just wants her to be happy.
"There's a lot of water gone under the bridge since we broke up. It would have been tough in the first six months, but she didn't put herself about or anything. But no, I want her to be happy and I'm sure she wants the same for me,"
Stewart said.
But Stewart says his attempts at marriage are over. He says he's content dating current girlfriend Penny Lancaster.
In fact, he's been so busy having fun and focusing on his love life, he's had little time to work. Stewart says putting pen to paper is what's on his agenda now.
"Ronny Wood and I started making an album and it's called 'You Strum and I'll Sing.' We've actually got the title track finished and mixed, so that's one track we've done. I imagine when he's finished his tour with the Stones and I've finished promotion on this album, we may get together and finish it off. By that time, we'll be in wheelchairs and we'll be ninety-eight because it's taken us four years to get to one song. But it is a good song though, trust me," Stewart said.
So while fans await that release, they can check out "The Great American Songbook" on store shelves October 22.
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