Over the past few years, Glastonbury’s Legends slot – a Sunday afternoon Pyramid Stage performance from a much-loved heritage act – has become a bigger and bigger deal. Shania Twain did it this year; Dolly Parton, Kylie Minogue and Diana Ross are among those who’ve tackled it before. What they all have in common is that they unite the generations: younger people love them, even if it’s in a knowing, partially ironic way, as do the older folk who grew up on their music.
Is this the case with Rod Stewart? The 79-year-old soft rocker has just been announced as 2025’s Legends slot performer, and though his music is, like his predecessors, old and commercially successful, he doesn’t quite have their modern-day resonance. Which is not to do him down – maybe the fault lies in us ignorant under-60s. Because the more you learn about Rod Stewart, the more gripping he is. So here’s what you need to know about him when you’re at Glasto next year, or indeed, making small talk with your grandparents this Christmas.
He’s got amazing hair
This is the first thing that strikes you about Mr Stewart from a position of total ignorance. It is, truly, like nothing else: a mullet-esque thing of wonder that looks like a dyed blonde hedgehog. It’s changed a bit over the years – more mullet-y in the past, wispier now – but it’s aways been majestic. In 2021, Stewart revealed his two-minute grooming routine to The Guardian: “Get the hairdryer, put a bit of product in it [the hair, surely, not the hairdryer], dry it upside down to make it all stand up, then put a bit of wax on […] making it stand up using sugar and water.” Maybe we’ll see Stewart hairdos clash with not-that-dissimilar Oasis ones next year.
He’s also got very individual style
No one has ever told this man about quiet luxury. Stewart can be relied upon to maximise the number of clashing patterned fabrics on his person, with leopard print and wide, coloured stripes particular favourites. Take, for example, an Instagram video of his from the summer: sitting on a yacht, he’s dressed in matching striped, black-and-white blazer, shorts and dress shoes, with a white shirt with black polka dots topping it off. Would I wear it? No. Would we recommend you wear it? No. But it’s good that such outfits exist.
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He’s still incredibly popular
Since he began his career in the 1960s, Stewart has had six UK number one singles and sold at least 120 million records worldwide – and he keeps doing numbers. Three of his last five albums have gone number one in the UK, including Swing Fever, a big band-flavoured collab with Jools Holland released only this February. There is, clearly, still a small army of Rod Stewart ultras out there: one fan club is named Smiler, after a 1974 album of his. Anyone who can come up with a better name – The Hot Rods? The Stew-hearts? – please write in.
His songs… kinda slap?
Among his best-known hits is “Sailing” – the chorus begins, “I am sailing, I am sailing” – which was a single from the 1975 album Atlantic Crossing (a theme is emerging here). The ballad has sold more than a million copies in the UK, and got an extra puff of wind in its sails when it was the soundtrack to a 1976 documentary about the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal.
The first of what can reliably be judged the big two Stewart songs, with more than 300 million Spotify streams each, is “Maggie May”. This folky, 1971 ditty simultaneously topped the charts in Australia, Canada, the US and the UK, the latter two for five weeks each. As Stewart later attested, it’s about the thirty-something woman he lost his virginity to aged 16, with lyrics that really emphasise this point: “It’s late September and I really should be back at school… The morning sun when it’s in your face / Really shows your age.” Then there’s a long mandolin outro to soothe your slightly troubled conscience.