“The quintessential voice”: Elton John on why Rod Stewart is the best rock vocalist he’s ever heard
No rock and roll band is going to get anywhere without a star frontman at the front of the stage. Although many artists have been able to get to where they are by being absolute monsters on their instruments, there’s a certain level of showmanship that separates the great players from those who are simply willing to play the bare minimum and never look up from their shoes whenever they are onstage. Elton John might know a thing or two about being extravagant onstage, but in terms of raw vocal ability, he still felt this singer absolutely knocked him out.
When John was still finding his feet, though, being a vocalist never seemed to be in the cards for him. He always fashioned himself as a songwriter before anything else, but since he and Bernie Taupin didn’t get that much traction in the early days, he became the superstar frontman almost by default when making his classic records.
Once he started to get huge, though, he started to become the leader of a club that he never officially joined. Despite being known as a glam-rock icon, John was more focused on the singer-songwriter style of music, only to be lumped in with artists like David Bowie and T Rex when albums like Madman Across the Water and Goodbye Yellow Brick Road began climbing up the charts.
John was always influenced by composers who were more rootsy. If you go back and listen to some of his first major successes, ‘The Ballad of A Well-Known Gun’ could have easily been recorded by Bob Dylan, and listening to how he structured his ballads, there are hints of everyone from James Taylor to Carole King in his delivery. If there was one British rocker who felt the same way about music at the time, though, it was Rod Stewart.
Despite making waves in The Faces and crafting the best bluesy rock and roll out at the time, Stewart was also moving towards singer-songwriter when John was coming up. Every Picture Tells a Story may have had the catchy single in ‘Maggie May’, but listening to Stewart’s sandpaper voice on the rest of the record, he seems far more interested in making tunes that have acoustic instruments and caters to the same audience Cat Stevens had.
Even with a more subdued approach, John still considered Stewart to be on the higher tier of singing icons, saying, “To me, he’s got the quintessential voice of rock and roll and ballads. He’s just got a marvellous rasp. I mean, bar none, he’s the best singer that I’ve ever heard in rock and roll.”
And while some people still remember the dark ages when ‘Do Ya Think I’m Sexy’ was still storming the charts, Stewart hasn’t lost an ounce of shine on his pipes, either. Compared to how he sang back in the day, hearing modern takes on ‘Maggie May’ or hearing him sing ‘Stay With Me’ is a good reminder of what good singing sounds like if someone takes care of their instrument.
While John and Stewart have also thrown their fair share of potshots at each other throughout history, there’s no discounting taste when it comes to both of their voices. They may have had to work around parts of their range as they’ve aged, but Stewart has remained professional and has been more than idea to give everyone that signature rasp whenever he plays.
