Sir Rod Stewart teases new music in a different genre
He would be up for collaborating with newer artists
Last updated 1st Jul 2025
Sir Rod Stewart joined Ken Bruce on Greatest Hits Radio, for a chat ahead of his recent performance at Glastonbury, in the Legends Slot. This is the first time the singer has performed at the iconic festival since 2002, and he told Ken how he was going to struggle to fit all the songs he wanted into his set.
The 'Maggie May' singer also opened up about some his earliest influences, and how receiving a guitar started his interest in folk music. And if that wasn't enough he teased some new music in a very different genre from his previous work, following the release of his swing album with Jools Holland, and previous albums in the soul and rock 'n' roll genres.
Rod Stewart's musical influences
When asked about his earliest influences, Sir Rod told Ken: "Probably Al Jolson, my family used to play a lot of Al Jolson, you know... I'm showing my age, but after that, I got into folk music.
"Because my dad bought me a guitar, I didn't want a guitar, I wanted something from my model railroad, but he said he bought me a guitar. No idea why. So, I started playing it and then got into folk music, you know, Ramblin Jack Elliott, Bob Dylan's first album, which was sensational, and I had started listening to Sam Cooke, Otis Redding and Muddy Waters and all the great Black singers."
The singer then told Ken how his flexible voice has allowed him to release music in many different genres.
He said: "As I tried to explain when I did this album with Jools Holland, the swing album, you know, swing and rock 'n' roll, it's like aligned together, you know, one came out of the other, rock 'n' roll came out of swing music.
"I've got a very flexible voice I can do folk stuff, I can do country, I can do all... I did the Great American Songbook, they've sold 40 million copies. Then I did the swing album, I could do rock 'n' roll, then I made a soul album, so the good Lord gave me a flexible voice!"
New music
Teasing some new music, Rod then added: "Well, then, yeah, we're talking about doing a country album."
While he didn't reveal more about the new music, he also said he would "love to" work with some newer artists, but he'd leave it up to the record label to arrange.
If Rod did release a country album, this wouldn't be the first country release for the singer, whose record 'Another Country' was released back in 2015. The album reached Number 2 in the UK on release.
Glastonbury 2025
Over the last weekend in June, Sir Rod performed at Glastonbury for the second time ever, his first being in 2002. The singer admitted he can't remember much about his first performance, but he was looking forward to this year's festival, despite not knowing what he was going to wear, or which songs he would perform.
"You could say treat it like any other gig," he explained. "Which is like saying, 'it's only the FA Cup Final, treat it like any other match'. You can't... It's Glastonbury, it's known throughout the world.
"You want to put on the best show you can, the only sad side of it is that I've only got an hour and a quarter. Well I've got an hour and a half now, I had to beg for another 15 minutes, but you know, I usually do two hours at least. I can't cram all the songs in!"
Rod gave a stellar performance at Glastonbury, performing hit after hit. He also welcomed Mick Hucknall, Ronnie Wood and Lulu on to the stage.
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