I suppose, I mean it wouldn’t be for me to judge, but I imagine if people stop buying tickets for concerts and don’t buy records anymore maybe that’s a sign. That’s why I learned how to play guitar, because I wanted to sing the songs.ĪP: Is there an end in sight, do you see a point where you would retire?STEWART: Not really. You know, the likes of Woody Guthrie and Ramblin’ Jack Elliott and Bob Dylan. You know, not so much country music, but folk music. You know, there will come a time.ĪP: What is it about that music?STEWART: Once again. The record company would like me to do it. And I went off and made another solo album, but yeah, it’s in the pipeline. Any truth to that?STEWART: I plan on doing it. I feel absolutely privileged to be doing what I’m doing.ĪP: There was talk a few years ago about a country record. I’m not frightened of dying, but I’m just enjoying myself so much. You do think about that as you get older, but not in a morbid way. Do you have any worries about staying healthy?STEWART: I’m not obsessed by it. You know, men are notorious for not wanting to go to the doctors. So I do work at it, and I think that helps a lot. I’m mad about nutrition, watching my weight and everything. I’ve always played soccer, and I still do. But I’ve made a promise to myself since I was really young. My thoughts at the moment are with our king who’s got some sort of cancer. (Laughs)ĪP: Did your health scare a few years back change anything?STEWART: It’s all part of getting older. But we did have some magical appeal to women.
I didn’t think any of us were good looking, quite honestly. No, with the Faces, without a doubt because it was a good-looking-band, the Faces.
The joy of this album, obviously, is I didn’t write any of the songs, I had a burning ambition to sing them and I picked the right guy.ĪP: Over the years, you’ve garnered a large female audience, when did you realize that was happening?STEWART: Probably right after “Maggie May,” I think. I didn’t want to sit in a room and write lyrics and it’s always been a bit of like pulling teeth for me. I wanted to go out and enjoy myself alone. In fact, when I was in the Faces, they used to lock me in a hotel room with a bottle of wine and say, “You’re not coming out ‘till it’s finished.” Because I was notorious. We had 18 people crammed in there, so all the solos were played live.ĪP: Was it freeing to perform songs from an era where songwriters were a separate entity?STEWART: I’ve always found songwriting a bit of an agony, really. The whole thing was recorded live in Jools’ studio, which is not a big studio. It was pure pleasure and I think that comes across when you listen to it. We didn’t have any arguments or fights or anything like that. And one thing I said to Jools was, I’m not going to do any slow songs, I want all upbeat, happy (claps his hands) which we need in these grim times that we live in.ĪP: What was it like doing this record?STEWART: I love the whole process of doing live shows. I did “The Great American Songbook,” so for me this was a natural progression. Both of us (Holland) were brought up on this music. Stewart was recently in New York, and before heading off to a downtown pub to watch his beloved Celtic soccer team take on rivals Hibernian, he took some time to chat with The Associated Press about making music, maintaining his health and whether there’s retirement in his future.ĪP: What was the appeal of going back to these tunes?STEWART: They make you tap your feet. Stewart, who has written his share of hits, was happy to concentrate on crooning. So bands always kept doing it,” Holland said. I think everybody thought they could write songs after that.