“Just petrified”: Why playing in The Jeff Beck Group scared Rod Stewart
When a singer has been performing as long as Rod Stewart, there’s a certain point where nothing really phases them. They might have the odd foul-up onstage or forget the lyrics from time to time, but it’s easy for anyone with that much stage experience to either recover quite nicely or laugh it off like it’s nothing before going into the next song. But Stewart had a long way to go before he settled into his stage shoes, and that meant going through a few harrowing performances as well.
Then again, Stewart didn’t necessarily need to be one of the most dynamic performers of his time if he didn’t want to. His raspy voice was more than enough to carry an entire show, and even when working with The Faces, hearing him belt out ‘Stay With Me’ turned every single massive show they played into a smoky club from the minute that the first verse came in.
If anything, his bluesy side was what gave him a bit more respect than usual. Even if those first few shows may have been hard for him to take in all the time, looking back on him singing a folksy tune or the nastiest riffs known to man was always going to be more respectable than seeing him writhing around on the floor in the video to ‘Do Ya Think I’m Sexy.’
However, there was a lot more to Stewart than simply playing rock and roll, and Jeff Beck had seen something in him when he picked him to be the frontman during the Truth era of The Jeff Beck Group. While Stewart was more than happy to play tunes alongside Beck and Ronnie Wood, this turned into the most unintentionally nerve-racking experience of his life.
Because if you think about it, this should really be the easiest gig in the world. Someone of Beck’s calibre has the power to command an entire crowd with his guitar playing, so having someone sing the tunes might as well be window dressing. If you know anything about the clientele of those blues shows, though, it doesn’t take people long to start airing their disapproval.
And since Beck was already garnering attention as the greatest guitarist alive at the time, Stewart figured that he would prepare for the worst and hope for the best during his first gigs with the group, saying, “I was just petrified. I did the first song sitting behind the amps. [Then] I looked over the top of the amps, and the crowd was going wild. They loved it. I was like, ‘Oh, I like this. I’ll go out in front now.’”
Stewart could still sing his heart out next to Beck, but by the time he got comfortable onstage, he was starting to get more comfortable making something of his own. He could have easily sung blues songs until the sun burned out of the sky, but no amount of shows singing ‘You Shook Me’ would make up for the rush he got when ‘Maggie May’ became a hit later on.
But Stewart’s initial reluctance to even get onstage is a lesson that every musician can take a lesson from. Almost anyone who gets up on a stage is prone to have nerves minutes before a show, but once you start having faith in your own musical voice, there’s no limit to what you can do afterwards.
