Rod Stewart says he'll be once again slipping off his rock n' roll shoes for something mellower, according to Ultimate Classic Rock. During a recent chat with BBC TV, Rod — who'll soon be hitting the road in the UK with Boy George & Culture Club — explained, “I'm not retiring, but I want to move on to. . . I had great success with The Great American Songbook, all-American standards, and I've just done a swing album with Jools Holland, which is going to come out next year, so I want to go in that direction. I just want to leave all the rock n' roll stuff behind — for a while, maybe.”
This isn't the first time Rod has talked about shifting gears musically. Last year he revealed to Forbes: “I don't want to be singing 'Hot Legs' when I'm 80. I'm not retiring, but this will be the last time we do these songs in America. I just want to make a clean sweep. I want to go on tour with a big band and just play this stuff that I love. It's a different entity to rock n' roll, although that's where it all came from.”
Some time back, Rod Stewart told us that his Great American Songbook series inspired him most of all: “I've done rock n' roll, and I still love it, but, I mean, this is a challenge. These songs are not easy to sing, and anybody that's — any singer that fancies themself, takes them seriously as a singer. . . They're not easy to sing, 'cause they've been sung by some of the greatest singers that have ever lived.”
