Sir Rod Stewart has finally put to rest the lingering whispers concerning The Faces’ breakup, revealing the actual reasons behind their 1975 split. Formed in London in 1969, the rock band incorporated talents such as Rod, Ronnie Lane (Ronnie L), Ian McLagan, Ronnie Wood (Ronnie W), and Kenney Jones.
The group consisted of previous members from other bands, with Ronnie L, Ian, and Kenney transitioning from Small Faces while Sir Rod and Ronnie W left the Jeff Beck Group together.
Rod, who is now 80, has been repeatedly held responsible for The Faces’ dissolution due to his burgeoning solo career. However, on Zoe Ball’s BBC Radio 2 show, he set the record straight, stating that it wasn’t actually the case.
Reflecting on past times with Ronnie W and Kenney, Rod fondly remarked: “We don’t talk about the old times very much, I mean there’s only three of us left, obviously that’s without Mac and Ronnie.”
He expressed a deep nostalgia for those times, saying: “But they were wonderful those days. That was a band I would’ve stayed in for the rest of my life.”, reports Edinburgh Live.
Addressing the misconceptions about leaving the band, Rod explained: “People think I left but I didn’t, you know, Ronnie joined the [Rolling] Stones and so the whole thing floundered.
“Ronnie Lane had already left because he wasn’t happy, so once we lost Ronnie Lane, we lost the soul of the band really.”
The surviving band members remain creatively active, currently collaborating on both an album and a documentary. And Sir Rod was joined on stage by Ronnie Wood at Glastonbury Festival.
Updating supporters on his current endeavours, Rod let slip: “Yeah we’ve been filming it [the documentary] for some time, we’re trying to finish off an album and it’s all down to me again, because I’ve got to get the lyrics finished.
“I’ve been working so bl***y hard, I’ve got two albums on the go, two documentaries.
“I’m supposed to be doing a book about my model railway, which I’ve just dropped because I ain’t got the time, but yeah, there is a documentary.
“We’ve got a considerable amount of film and some really old stuff. Apparently Kodak gave all of The Faces cameras way back [then and said] ‘Shoot what you want’ and Kenney has still got it all.
“So, it’s going to go way back. I don’t know when it’s going to be finished, the album is down to me, I need to finish the lyrics off.”
Glastonbury viewers all said the same thing mere minutes into Rod Stewart’s performance. The 80-year-old played the legends slot at the Pyramid Stage for the last day of the Worthy Farm festival. The singer was joined on stage by several back-up singers and a band as he entertained the crowd with some of his classic hits. Prior to Glastonbury, Rod was faced with a series of setbacks.
The star was forced to cancel a string of concerts in the US in the first week of June as he recovered from flu. He previously said he intended to stop playing “large-scale world tours” at the end of 2025 and instead perform at more intimate venues.
But viewers all agreed: ““Massive crowd for Rod fair play”, whereas another added: “Bigger turnout for Rod than Neil Young last night.”