Rod Stewart: Still the same after all these years

To paraphrase the song (Every Picture Tells a Story) that catapulted him to stardom in 1971, every selection in Rod Stewart’s latest album, Still The Same...Great Rock Classics of Our Time (released by SonyBMG), tells not just one but several stories (as you will see by and by), all of which point to Stewart’s being, undeniably, "one of the greatest and most distinctive rock voices in history."

Produced by John Shanks (2005 Producer of the Year Grammy awardee) and Clive Davis, Stewart’s new album is described as "a strong and passionate return to form" as Stewart takes ownership of the selected tracks by the best songwriters of music history, including Bob Dylan (If Not For You), Bob Seger (Still The Same), John Fogerty (Have You Ever Seen The Rain) and Bonnie Tyler (It’s a Heartache and Fooled Around and Fell in Love, a 1976 hit of Elvin Bishop).

Stewart recently talked about the album (and a few other things) to SonyBMG which has released the transcript to Funfare for exclusive use. Here are some choice cuts:

It’s only been a year since your last album (Great American Songbook). Is Still The Same... a way to get out of child-care responsibilities?

"No, it’s not. Neither is it a way of getting out of a recording contract. It’s because these two albums have always been projects as opposed to sitting down writing songs. They’ve been a lot easier to record. For Still The Same..., the songs were there so it took us five months or less than that to record the whole album."

Who came up with the idea of the album? Was it you or Clive Davis?

"Yeah, he came up with the idea. We had a meeting at the turn of the year and I went in there expecting to do a soul album because I’ve always wanted to record some of the real obscure soul songs from way back. I think we’ve talked about this the last time we spoke. ‘No,’ said Clive, ‘we’re going to do a ’70s to ’80s songbook album.’"

Do you remember listening to the original songs?

"Let me explain why we did this album. And as far as I can remember this discussion we had, we said the songs are gonna need maybe a revisit. I think that’s the word – revisit. Is it a rock ‘n roll classic album? No, it’s not because we haven’t done Stairway to Heaven or Alright Now or Brown Sugar. You can’t cover those songs. So it’s the fine line, you know."

Did you help choose the songs for the album?

"Yeah. I would say half of ‘em on the album were my ideas. It’s not necessarily all of Clive’s ideas. He has a great backroom staff there so it’s 50-50. We had songs I would say totaling around 50 when we started. Then we narrowed it down to 28 and then we recorded 22 of them."

Do you have a personal connection to Fooled Around and Fell in Love?

"Well, I wouldn’t shag a million birds but I mean I’ve had my fair share. It was a good record when it came out. Once again, it was a great song to record. A lovely song to sing live. It’s gonna be in the upcoming repertoire. Even Elvin Bishop, I think, wrote it. That was in the ’70s, right? Yeah."

Talking about It’s a Heartache, have you met Bonnie Tyler?

"I’ve met Bonnie on a couple of occasions but I’ve always wanted to get my teeth into this one. It’s such a great song to sing. I think it could even be the show opener on the upcoming tour."

Why did you choose Cat Steven’s Father & Son?

"I can’t say that I chose that song. I thought that was one of Clive’s backroom lads. But I’ve got three sons; one is 26, one is 12 and the third is not even a year old. So I’ve had my runnings with my eldest son and the lyrics actually ring very, very true. A hard song to sing though, believe it or not. You know, I don’t think Cat is a technically great singer but he’s got a lot of soul in that voice. But it was hard to sing. I put a key change where he sings the boy’s part in a falsetto. I had to do it in a key change because I couldn’t get up there. Probably, I could have done it 25 years ago."

And It’s Not For You. Who would you rather be stuck in an elevator with, Bob Dylan or Olivia Newton-John?

"Well, I know Olivia better than I know Bob. I’ve done more Bob Dylan songs than probably anybody. I’m a great admirer as anybody knows. And this is Clive’s idea."

What about Crazy Love? It has been covered many times.

"I didn’t know that it had been recorded a lot. It’s just another song that I’ve always wanted to do. It’s my fiancée’s favorite song on the album and we had big fights to keep this one on the album. It’s a lovely song. It’s simple and it fits in with everything else. It’s very important that when we pick all these tracks they’ve got to blend together."

Why does the song Have You Ever Seen the Rain mean so much to you?

"I love John Fogerty. I love his voice as I do with Bob Seger’s Still The Voice. I think we all share the same sort of rough quality. He has written some fantastic songs, he really has. I never dreamed this would be a single but it seems to be doing amazingly well in America when it comes to airplay, so once again that will be in the songlist of the upcoming artists."

When are you going on the album tour?

"Next year. I’m coming to Britain next year in the summer. And I start in America in January. I can’t wait. I’m 61 and I can’t wait to go out and tour. I’ll be 62 by the time we start."

How do you maintain your status after all these years?

"I’ve always given great consideration to what songs I sing. And I think this is such a turnabout from Great American Songbook. I think that’s why you gotta take chances. And this is yet another gamble. This could fall flat on its face because these are great songs recorded by great singers so why should Rod Stewart do it? Hopefully because I brought something else to the songs. But why the longevity? I don’t know. I mean, it’s...uh...I’m very thankful."

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