Entertainment

Rod Stewart: More chance of Scottish World Cup win than Elton John collaboration

The pair have enjoyed a friendly rivalry since the 70s but tensions increased in 2018.
The pair have enjoyed a friendly rivalry since the 70s but tensions increased in 2018.

Sir Rod Stewart has said there is more chance of Scotland winning the World Cup than him collaborating with Sir Elton John despite the end of their three-year spat.

The veteran rocker said the pair “still adore each other” but no longer talk.

The duo became embroiled in an argument in 2018 over comments Sir Rod made about his contemporary’s mammoth farewell tour, called the Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour.

The Lockdown Sessions
Sir Elton John (Matt Crossick/PA)

Sir Rod, 76, said the tour “stinks of grabbing money”.

Sir Elton, 74, replied in his memoir Me, saying he would not accept a lecture on the “feral spirit of rock and roll from someone who’d spent most of the last decade crooning his way through the Great American Songbook and Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas”.

The pair reportedly called time on their quarrel, but Sir Rod said the chances of a collaboration remained low.

He told the PA news agency: “No chance. Scotland have got more chance of winning the World Cup than that ever happening. No, we don’t talk at all now. If we talk, we do it through the press.

“I will say something and the press will pick up on it. He will say something and the press will pick up on it. But I don’t even think I have got his mobile number any more.”

Reflecting on their decades-long friendly rivalry, which began in the 70s, he added: “It went on for years and years and years. I think we still adore each other. I think we have just grown apart like lovers do sometimes.

“He has got his two boys and he doesn’t drink any more. That was almost like a bond in the old days. Not the two kids but (the drinking).

“He is living a clean life now. As I am, somewhat. I still like my drink every night.”

Sir Rod admitted his 1978 disco hit Da Ya Think I’m Sexy did not emerge from a true love of the genre, which was finding commercial success at the time.

He told PA: “I jumped on the bandwagon. So did the Stones. The Bee Gees started it off. We all jumped on the bandwagon, to be frank with you.

“But the audience love that song. For a while, it became tedious. When it was a hit, it was great to sing. And then since 1979 into the 80s, I was getting fed up with it.

“Now, I absolutely love it. It’s so joyous. I play it and a lot of people who weren’t even born when it was a big hit just love the song. It’s never off the radio.”

The album The Tears Of Hercules by Sir Rod Stewart is out now.