“Pissed some off”: Rod Stewart reveals the song that broke up The Faces
Some bands are never meant to go the distance like they should. It’s always a shame to see a band of musical brothers and sisters part ways, but sometimes it comes down to a bunch of artists that wanted completely different things out of each other than what their bandmates could give them. It’s important to stretch out beyond what everyone else is capable of, but Rod Stewart knew when he saw the writing on the wall when working with his most famous bandmates.
Granted, Stewart always seemed like somewhat of a free agent throughout his first years in the public eye. The world had been introduced to him in The Faces, but anyone who was even mildly aware of Jeff Beck had seen what he could do with a blues rock format, so when he finally struck out on his own, it was a no-brainer for him to keep that signature rasp in his voice on hits like ‘Maggie May’.
Then again, being a free agent can always be a double-edged sword in the music industry. It might be nice to be able to work with whomever you want to and try making a name on your own, but without a real home to come back to, there’s no way to absorb any failure amongst your bandmates.
And for Stewart, it was never the plan for him to play musical leap frog with every act he worked with. No one would have shaken a stick at the idea of singing with Jeff Beck playing guitar in a band, but The Faces always felt like home to him in those early days. So when people started looking at him like the go-to mouthpiece of the band, it wasn’t shocking that his bandmates would be a little bit upset.
Although Stewart had signed his first record deal officially as a solo artist, he made it crystal clear that he was going to be treated like a full band member whenever he showed up to rehearsal. When his solo career started taking off with ‘Maggie May’, though, there was a different feeling in the air whenever he walked into that practice room and heard his bandmates getting defensive about their parts.
“That was probably what started the break-up of The Faces. ‘Maggie May’ became a hit, and then of course it became ‘Rod Stewart And The Faces’, which pissed some of ‘em off.”
rod stewart
According to Stewart, that first success as a solo artist may as well have been the death knell for his time in the group, saying, “That was probably what started the break-up of The Faces, yeah. When I joined the band I’d just signed a solo deal with Mercury, which I made the band fully aware of. And they were perfectly OK with that. Until ‘Maggie May’ became a hit, and then of course it became ‘Rod Stewart And The Faces’, which pissed some of ‘em off.”
Even if Stewart was perfectly happy in the group, there was no reason for him to take his foot off the gas then. Ooh La La may go down as one of the best records the band ever made, but did it really matter once Stewart already had albums like Never A Dull Moment under his belt?
But for all of the regret that Stewart might have for leaving his bandmates in the dirt, it wasn’t a matter of him deliberately trying to cut himself free from The Faces. He could have happily kept up that same camaraderie that he had at the beginning of his career, but had he kept going, he was in real danger of becoming an also-ran in rock history. Granted, he may have been able to save himself from something like ‘Do Ya Think I’m Sexy’ later on in his career, but you have to take what you can get.
