Sir Rod Stewart “begged” for a longer set at Glastonbury and is concerned he won’t fit in all his fans’ favourite songs during his Legends slot.
Sir Rod Stewart “begged” for a longer set at Glastonbury.
The 80-year-old singer will play the coveted Legends slot at the festival in Worthy Farm, Somerset, South West England, later this month and he is finding it “difficult” to put his set list together because he won’t be on stage for as long as he’d like to be, which he fears will mean fans are left disappointed.
He told the new issue of Radio Times magazine: “It’s difficult because they only gave me an hour-and-a-quarter slot. So I begged them: can I do another 15 minutes? Because usually I play for two hours.
“It means that there’s a lot of songs that people love that I won’t be able to play – and I’ve got three guests coming on.”
The Maggie May hitmaker clarified his guests are all singers, though he wouldn’t say who, as well as his Faces bandmate Ronnie Wood.
Despite his set list struggles, Rod has promised his performance will be “special”.
He said: “But I’m really looking forward to it. And it is a different gig. It’s like when you’re playing a cup final: you’re trying to treat it like another game. But, of course, it’s not. It’s special.
“It’ll be glamorous, it’ll be sexy. Not me – I’m talking about the other members of the group! And we’ve got a little orchestra coming on to play with us. And we may have some bagpipes…”
And though Rod admitted he will be losing money by playing Glastonbury, he insisted it “doesn’t matter”.
He said: “It was about eight months ago when I was asked to do it, maybe a little longer.
“But it didn’t fit with my schedule because I’ve got to bring everybody back from America..
“[With shipping and staging] it’s going to cost me £300,000 to do it and they only pay you about 120,000 quid. So, it’s going to cost me.”
The You Wear It Well singer loves the afterparties he throws following a gig.
He said: “All the girls come, we all get showered, all the girls are dancing.
“We put music on and we’re all having a laugh. It’s so much more fun than it was in the old days with just the guys.”
Read the full interview with Rod in the latest issue of Radio Times magazine or visit https://www.radiotimes.com/audio/rod-stewart-glastonbury/
Sir Rod Stewart wanted long Glastonbury set
