Rod Stewart admitted that his wife, Penny Lancaster, is insisting that he cut down on alcohol as he prepares for his final major concert tour. At 81, the singer continues to drink wine with dinner and sometimes reaches for an apple martini.
“I wish I could cut down on the drinking, but I love wine with dinner. I can’t drink water with a nice meal,” Stewart told The Sun. According to him, his wife often reminds him: “You need to cut down, darling.” The singer says he usually has two glasses, but admits that sometimes he can drink considerably more apple martinis.
Rod Stewart recalls that singers in the past would go on stage without any special preparation. In his late 20s and during his 30s, he did not warm up his voice and, as he puts it, musicians “drank whatever they wanted, took drugs and went out to sing.”
Today, his approach is different. Before a concert, he works out for about an hour and warms up his voice, while he always goes on stage sober. After the third song, he allows himself a rum and Coke. The singer cycles three times a week and swims regularly. He links swimming to advice from Frank Sinatra, who encouraged him to practise holding his breath underwater so that he could sing with greater confidence.
The 81-year-old singer says he can no longer jump around on stage as he used to, but believes that vocally, he is in the best shape of his life. He wears white gloves when he goes outside because he is “completely obsessed” with the danger of catching a cold or flu.
The rock star also recalls a concert in Utah, where he had to sing at around 4,300 feet above sea level. After suffering from bronchitis, he began the show with three fast songs but suddenly ran out of breath.
“I managed to get through the concert, but it was painful,” Rod Stewart said.
In recent months, he has cancelled other appearances as well. Some concerts on the One Last Time tour were called off because of an acute upper respiratory tract infection, laryngitis and vocal strain. Stewart subsequently pulled out of more concerts because he was undergoing a procedure to have a coronary stent inserted. The Associated Press reported that doctors had assessed his recovery as good and recommended that he rest for four weeks before returning to the stage.
The new tour, The Final Encore, has been billed as Rod Stewart’s final major rock tour after more than six decades on stage. The European leg begins in Dublin on April 23, 2027, travels through the United Kingdom and other European countries, and ends in Hanover on July 24.
“The time has come to say goodbye to life on the road. After more than six decades, The Final Encore will certainly be my final tour,” Stewart said when the concerts were announced. He clarified that he is not retiring from music, but is bringing his extended tours to an end.
The Los Angeles Times also described the tour as the singer’s final one, noting that he will continue to perform individual shows without announcing the end of his music career.