Rod Stewart blasts Glastonbury set critics and makes huge pledge to fans
Rod Stewart also admitted he doesn’t remember recording many of his oldest hits and can’t recall his last Glastonbury slot in 2002.
Rod Stewart has promised to entertain with a hit-packed set at Glastonbury but insists his tea time slot will not be “pipe and slippers”.
The 80-year old rocker also admitted he doesn’t remember recording many of his oldest hits and can’t recall the last time he played the legendary festival in 2002.
Sir Rod said: "I don't remember a thing. I do so many concerts, they all blend into one."
He added: I just wish they wouldn't call it the tea time slot.
"That sounds like pipe and slippers, doesn't it?
"You know, it's wonderful. I’ll be in good voice. I'll enjoy myself. I don't care anymore what the critics think.
"I'm there to entertain my people."
Sir Rod also revealed the secret to his spike-topped hairstyle before he could afford one.
“I used to use sugared hot water, before the days of hair lacquer. And I couldn't afford hair lacquer, anyway,” he said.
He's also persuaded organisers to extend his set, securing an hour-and-a-half slot after initially being offered 75 minutes.
He added: “Usually I do well over two hours so there's still a load of songs we won't be able to do.
"But we've been working at it. I'm not gonna make any announcements between songs. I'll do one number, shout 'next', and go straight into the next one.
"I'm going to get in as many songs I can."
Sir Rod will select from from early hits with the Faces such as Stay With Me and Ooh La La, to his solo breakthrough with Maggie May, the slick pop of Do Ya Think I'm Sexy and his reinvention as a crooner on songs like Downtown Train and Have I Told You Lately.
Recalling his early years, when he was championed by blues musician Long John Baldry, Rod said: “I wanted to always sound like Sam Cooke and Otis Redding, so that's the way I went. I suppose I was trying to be different from anybody else."
One of his youngest fans likely to catch his Glastonbury set, which is likely to feature his old Faces pal Ronnie Wood, is his youngest son, Aidan, 14.
"He's gone back and listened to everything I've done, bless him," Rod said. "He knows songs that I don't even remember recording.”
His Glastonbury appearance will coincide with the release of his 20th greatest hits album.
Sir Rod, who performed with the Jeff Beck Group and the Faces, before going solo, admits he was so drunk he used to forget the words to his own songs.
In the US, the group received a 40-year ban from the Holiday Inn hotel chain after racking up an £8,000 bill for trashing their rooms.
"We only did it because the Holiday Inns would treat us so badly, like we were the scum of the earth," he said. “So we'd get our own back by smashing the hotels up.
“One time we actually got a couple of spoons and chiselled through the walls to one another's rooms. But we used to book in as Fleetwood Mac, so they'd get the blame."
He also says he only “dabbled” in drugs at a time when many rock stars were getting high.
"I never was a really druggy person, because I played football all the time and I had to be match fit," he said.
"I would use the word dabble. I've dabbled in drugs, but not anymore."