Rod Stewart tour stop at Leeds First Direct Arena: 'I don’t want to be singing Hot Legs when I’m 84'

The veteran musician, 77, will kick off his next UK and Ireland arena tour later this month, where he will perform an array of his classics from across his catalogue, with some venues hearing them for the last time.

“It’s a very exciting show, very high energy. I have to have a rest every now and then,” he tells me, playfully.

“That is not true… What I do is I go off and change costumes because I get so sweaty, but reviewers have said: ‘Oh poor Rod, he had to go off and have a rest.’

“It’s not true! I change outfits. I’m as fit as I’ve ever been!”

The singer is touring cities across the UK, and stops off in Leeds, West Yorkshire, next month.

With his distinctive raspy singing voice, iconic blond spiky hairstyle and commanding stage presence, Sir Rod has entertained countless fans across the world and become one of the best-selling artists with hits like Maggie May, Da Ya Think I’m Sexy? and Baby Jane.

The north London-born singer says he still loves performing after all these years but feels this will be his last time singing some of his best-known material on tour.

“I can’t imagine I’m going to play in certain cities again doing these songs,” he says.

“So the end of next year I’m going to stop. I’m not retiring – let me underline that, I’m not retiring.

“I’ve made an album with Jools Holland of swing music and I would like to move on to that and the Great American Songbook.

“I’ve got a few English gigs next year outdoors, and that’ll be it for these songs. But I’m not retiring, I hate that word.”

I point out that I don’t think he could ever retire given his lively nature – even after years on the road.

“No, I couldn’t, I’ve got too many children,” jokes father-of-eight Sir Rod with a booming chuckle.

After he reveals this next step in his career, I tentatively ask a question, the answer to which may be dreaded by Sir Rod’s fans: will this be his final tour?

“No, of course not,” he reassures, “I hope to be with Jools Holland and his big band. We’ve made this wonderful swing album.

“We don’t know when it’s coming out, it’s nearly finished, and I’d like to do that because it’s different.

“I want to have a big orchestra and do all these classic wonderful songs from the 1940s and I think there’s a big audience for it.

“I sold 37 million copies of the Great American Songbook, so there’s an audience.”

Best known as a solo artist, Sir Rod spent his early career fronting a host of bands.

Most famous among these were The Faces, but he also performed with Long John Baldry and his Hoochie Coochie Men, Steampacket and the Jeff Beck Group.

He went on to enjoy vast success, producing more than 30 studio albums, with just as many tours to boot – including a Las Vegas residency at Caesars Palace which has been running since 2011.

As he reminisces, Sir Rod remembers highlights including performing for the royal family on a number of occasions, most recently during the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, and the personal connection he has formed with his songs during that time.

“They’re all my favourites because I know what they mean to people and you get somewhat of a different reaction every night,” he says.

“I mean, when I do Tonight’s The Night in Las Vegas it might have a different connotation in Belfast.

“So it’s different every night and they’re all my favourites because all my songs I’ve written, they’re like my babies.

“I brought them up, I reared them and then I gave them to the world.”

Following years of building this relationship with tracks which have elevated him to become a household name across the world, he admits it is hard to let them go.

“Of course it will be, but I’ve got to move on, I don’t want to be singing Hot Legs when I’m 84,” he says.

“I said that when I was in my 30s about my 60s, and I’m still singing it.”

When I ask if he will come back to eat his words in a decade’s time, he offers: “Well you take me up on it, alright? Make sure you call me and say: ‘You mugged me off there.’”

Sir Rod was made a knight in 2016 for his services to music and charity.

He recently made headlines after revealing he is supporting a family of seven Ukrainian refugees by renting them a home and paying their bills.

Sir Rod says he broke his usual stance of not discussing his charitable work as he wanted to inspire others to help those in the war-torn country.

His upcoming tour will also pay tribute to Ukraine as he will dedicate his 1991 hit Rhythm Of My Heart, which he described as an “anti-war song”, to the country along with waving Ukrainian flags and projecting an image of President Volodymyr Zelensky on the big screen.

After the war broke out, Sir Rod says his family hired three trucks filled with supplies and had them driven to the border of Ukraine, before using the same vehicles to transport a group of refugees to safety in Berlin.

Sir Rod says sincerely: “I’m a knight, I’ve got to do something and I hope other people follow.

“My charitable work in the future will be quiet but I just wanted somebody else to pick up the flag and maybe rent a house for someone.”

– Sir Rod’s tour visits the First Direct Arena in Leeds on Tuesday, December 13.