Rod Stewart

Rod Stewart is a rock 'n' roll icon.

That can't be disputed. He started in the early 1960s, has sold 100 million records, was inducted into the UK and US Music Halls of Fame has 8 children by 5 different mothers and has been married 3 times - all supermodels.

Actually, he may be best described as Rock Royalty.

The Queen also knighted him in 2016 for all the tax dollars he's contributed to the British Treasury over the past 55 years.

He was the first rocker to perform at Toronto's Skydome (Roger's Centre) and continues to fill the place whenever he feels like getting back on the road.

His Warner Music record company president assured me he'd be happy to pose for one of my Special Olympic fundraising portraits on his next visit to Toronto.

Once his performance date was confirmed, tickets sold out in a day. I had to think of a photo setting for his picture and I wouldn't have the luxury of time. His portrait must be shot just minutes before he walked on stage.

His other passion, besides singing and getting married, is soccer.

I had a brain-wave -- maybe a brain cramp. I'll have this mega-star climb into his team soccer uniform so I could take his picture while 40,000 fans in the next room waiting for his show to start.

I arranged through Adidas to get the uni and a bunch of soccer balls and explained to his manager about the photo set-up while we were waiting for Rod to arrive.

The manager was a very accommodating guy but when I mentioned the thing about the uniform he got very red. He started laughing so hard there was no sound coming out of him.

I didn't know if he thought the timing was funny or it was a picture of his boss in soccer shorts. When he finally caught his breath ... he said if I could make that happen he'd buy a picture himself.

It was 15 minutes to showtime and my photo subject wasn't even in the building.

We had our spot picked out for the shot. The lighting was perfect. The camera was loaded and I could hear the skirl of bagpipes playing on the floor of Skydome - a nod to Rod's Scottish roots.

The fans amused themselves by smacking an over-sized soccer ball to each other from row to row while waiting for the show to begin.

That day, in the Toronto Star entertainment section the writer speculated on Stewart's popularity (for his age) and his ability to be able to work his way through his song catalogue.

Just then, a huge limo pulled into the passage-way through the back door. The star bounced out of the back seat and somehow, out of the fifty-odd people in his entourage, he knew I was the "picture guy". He very politely apologized for his lateness and, although he was game, said there wouldn't be time for him to change for the soccer uniform picture.

Plan "B" was to have him stand against a chain link fence ...

"that sounds easy enough, mate."

The guy knows how to pose.

I wanted a this-is-my-soceer ball-and-I-dare-you-to-take-if-from-me, look.

In just two tries we were done and after a "thanks mate" he was off through the curtain to the thunderous roar of the crowd. It sounded like a Blue Jay had just hit a grand-slam.

It all happened so quickly.

But, I did have a lingering remembrance of Rod Stewart. When he got out of the limo and we were face-to-face, the smell of hard liquor on his breath almost took mine away. And, it wasn't a glass-of-wine breath ... it was more like Jack-Daniels-all-day breath.

Hard-drinking and rock 'n' rock has somehow become synonymous. He's been a star for decades, maybe he thought he couldn't perform without it.

He hit the stage running, wearing the same clothes in this picture, performed every one of his hits over 90 minutes and never left the spotlight until his final curtain call.

The next day in the Toronto Star's entertainment section, the heading read ...

"Rod Stewart is Back!"

Ps ... it was very nice of Rod Stewart to help Special Olympics Canada. Like every celebrity, he must be asked to perform things for charity every day. 50 copies of his autographed portrait were sold at events across Canada for several years -- no way of knowing how many dollars were raised -- it was thousands. His manager called me a few weeks after our Toronto meeting to tell me Rod's wife, supermodel, Rachel Hunter, had agreed to show up at a birthday party in Texas for a fan who was willing to pay her $50,000 for her time. The Texan said, "if you bring your husband along, I'll pay him $50,000 as well." The manager started doing that crazy laugh again and said, "Rod told me to tell the guy to go to hell."

That's as super-star-rock-icon as it gets.