Hot Rod A Resurgent Rod Stewart On World Tour With New Album And New Interest In Making Music

With the release of Rod Stewart’s album “A Spanner In The Works” this Tuesday, Warner Bros. hopes to continue the upward swing the artist’s career has experienced in the ‘90s.

“In the last five years, we’ve certainly proven that Rod Stewart fans can come out of the closet. It’s OK to love Rod Stewart,” says Arnold Stiefel, who manages Stewart.

“Rod is selling more records than he’s ever sold before, both here and around the world,” says Jeff Gold, Warner Bros. executive vice president.

Both Gold and Stiefel attribute much of the resurgence to Stewart’s 1993 double-platinum album, “Unplugged … And Seated,” which, with the focus firmly on the songs, reminded listeners of Stewart’s threedecade-long stretch as one of rock’s greatest interpreters of song. Worldwide, the album has sold more than 6 million copies, according to the label.

Ironically, “Unplugged … ” was an album Stewart was reluctant to make. “All these songs had been recorded before way back when, and I didn’t see any point in doing them again,” he says. “They were mostly acoustic songs (to begin with). They were ‘unplugged’ when they were originally recorded. But I understand now why the album was so successful. There was a magic captured on it.”

“A Spanner In The Works,” which takes its name from a British saying that is roughly equivalent to ‘a fly in the ointment,’ continues to capitalize on that magic, which Stewart feels is simply the sound of an artist falling back in love with his craft.

“I didn’t put my heart and soul into some of the albums I made in the mid-‘80s. I put myself in the hands of a producer and just sang the songs,” says Stewart. “I’d sort of fallen out of love with what I was doing.”

As a “matter of pride,” Stewart was able to turn himself around and focus more on his recordings. For “Spanner,” that attention to detail meant adding the Tom Petty-penned “Leave Virginia Alone,” the first single, after the album had already been mastered and was about to be manufactured.

“It was for Tom Petty’s album, and he took it off because it was too close lyrically to something that was a hit beforehand, and his managers couldn’t persuade him to put it on the album,” says Stewart. “So his manager, who’s a friend of my manager, said, ‘Would Rod listen to the song?”’

When asked if he’s a Petty fan, Stewart says, “Not really. I must admit, no, I’m not. I don’t mean that to sound disparaging. He’s a very good performer, though.”

Although pleased with it now, Stewart says he didn’t like the song when he first heard it. “It absolutely went by me. It took me two or three good listens. I had to be persuaded to do it, in other words. But now I’m glad we did it.”

If “Leave Virginia Alone” is the album cut originally farthest from Stewart’s heart, the song closest to him is “Muddy, Sam & Otis,” a loving homage to his musical heroes, Muddy Waters, Sam Cooke, and Otis Redding and the influence they had on him as he was growing up in England.

Despite his love for R&B music (evident through past hits like “The Motown Song” and “This Old Heart Of Mine”), Stewart thinks his voice is best suited for folk-leaning material, which is one reason he’s had such success with his covers of Bob Dylan material, dating all the way back to “Only A Hobo,” featured on 1970’s “Gasoline Alley” album. On “Spanner,” Stewart performs a tender version of Dylan’s “Sweetheart Like You.”

“Bob’s songs are based in folk music, and I’ve always had a love of folk music. I think my voice lends itself more to folk music than it does to rhythm and blues. Of course, it goes without saying that he’s the finest lyricist - in my book anyway. But I don’t think Bob makes a great deal of his songs sometimes. That’s why I like doing Tom Waits songs. I can hear that the song could be sung better.”

Stewart’s version of Waits’ “Downtown Train” went to No. 3 on Billboard’s Hot 100 Singles chart in 1989. On “Spanner,” he covers Waits’ “Hang On St. Christopher.”

Stewart will be on a world tour when the album comes out and will be unavailable to push “Spanner” here until the tour reaches the United States in August.