WE’RE JUST LIKE ANYBODY ELSE

He’s having the chef and Ferrari shipped to his Florida home, and his Christmas album will be on all day. But there’ll still be church, turkey and all the trimmings, Rod Stewart tells Richard Barber...

Rod Stewart and I are sitting on comfortable cream armchairs in the gym on his sprawling estate in Essex. It stands beside the main house at the top of a long driveway that sweeps up from the wrought-iron gates, and was a cowshed, choked in weeds, before it was fitted out with state-of-the-art equipment. Rod, now 74, has just been put through his paces by his personal trainer.

He’s still in his tracksuit sipping a glass of water. With Christmas looming, he tells me he loves to follow all the festive traditions. ‘We all go to church on Christmas morning. Not that we ever go during the rest of the year, but I like to on the day itself,’ he says. ‘Then it’s home to play football with the boys on the lawn. I like to wait until 6pm for the main meal, otherwise you’ve had a few glasses of wine and then you’re asleep. We always have turkey and all the trimmings. We’re just like anybody else.’

Well, not quite. For a start there are three homes to choose from. ‘We take it in turns,’ he says. ‘Sometimes we’re here in Essex. Sometimes we’re at our home in Beverly Hills. But this year it will be in Palm Beach, Florida.’ And who does the cooking? ‘Either my chef from here in Essex, or the one in Los Angeles. This year, it’s the one from the UK. It’s a big operation getting all the available Stewarts together. The Ferrari has to be driven from LA to Florida on a trailer so it’s there for me to use.’ But Rod makes no apologies. ‘I earned it,’ he smiles. ‘I’ll spend it.’

After his current tour finishes on 20 December he’s off to Florida with his wife Penny Lancaster and their sons, Alastair, 14, and eightyear-old Aiden. They’ll be joined this year by Rod’s daughter Kimberly and son Sean, from his first marriage to Alana Hamilton, and Kimberly’s daughter Delilah, by the actor Benicio del Toro. He’ll watch his favourite seasonal films. ‘The one I like best is The Polar Express, with Tom Hanks, about the young boy going to the North Pole to meet Santa Claus. That always gets me in the mood. We open our presents before we eat. I don’t know how anyone finds something to give me. I’ve got everything. It used to be paintbrushes for my model railroad. Now I tell them to give the money to charity.’

And what about his gift to Penny? ‘I’ve got it already,’ he says. ‘I know she’ll really love it. She also likes a bit of jewellery but I could pick something and it might not be her style.’ There are always alternatives. ‘Last year I bought her a white Bentley.’ Does he have any idea what Penny’s going to buy him this year? ‘No. But she’s always great. She plans it months in advance. A few years ago she had a beautiful rowing boat built which we put on our lake in the other house in Essex before we moved here. I named it Celtic Pride.’ He pauses and looks around the gym with its Celtic FC scarves and signed players’ shirts adorning the walls. ‘You’d never guess which football club I support, would you?’ he

Rod and Penny with their children Alastair and Aiden says with a chuckle.

Penny also takes charge of the Christmas music, so what will be playing in the Stewart household? ‘Me,’ he says, with a grin. ‘Penny insists on it. But it must be my Christmas album. Nothing else all day, although she might occasionally allow something of mine from the Great American Songbook.’

She’ll have more choice this year, as Rod’s just released his new album You’re In My Heart, a combination of his vocals from his greatest hits, with fresh orchestrations by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. ‘I can’t take any credit,’ he says. ‘The record label came up with the idea. I didn’t have to lift a finger. They just took my vocal tracks and then, under producer Trevor Horn’s guidance, accompanied them with all these lush strings. I couldn’t imagine them on a track like Maggie May or Tonight’s The Night, but it works beautifully.’

It’s clear he dotes on Penny, and after a somewhat hectic love life that’s given him eight children, he’s more settled today than he’s ever been. ‘Penny’s great,’ he says. ‘She’s very grounded, but I don’t want to say normal because she’s extraordinary. She keeps the family together. When she first came into my life, the older kids were very suspicious. “Another bird trying to get her hands on Dad’s money. Less for us.” That sort of thing. But she won them all over. And now they all look

‘I used to get paintbrushes for my model railroad as presents’