Rod Stewart may be reaching the end of the road as far as extensive world tours and his Caesars Palace residency, but he’s hardly done performing. Once he’s wrapped his 2025 One Last Time dates, Stewart will likely indulge his interest in swing music with select live dates in the U.K. The Scottish singer will keep up with Glasgow’s Celtic Football Club as much as he can and relax at his local pub, then he’ll get the singing itch again that’s best scratched in Vegas.
Stewart’s run at Caesars was supposed to end last year, but he added an encore set of dates that extended his residency through his 80th birthday. He wasn’t ready to let go of performing at the Colosseum or its martini-fueled after-parties. Stewart, whose Wolfie’s Whisky distillery bottles Scotch on the banks of Loch Lomond, still likes to hoist a few when he’s not training to beat world sprinting records for his age group.
And he still relishes life as much as he did when he fronted good-time rock band Faces, or was first grabbed by the music of Muddy Waters and Sam Cooke as a budding vocalist. The former had grit and gravitas, while the latter’s versatility enabled him to appeal to wide and diverse audiences. Stewart borrowed from both and became a dynamic stage persona whose passionate voice lent itself well to a variety of musical styles.
Stewart paid homage to Cooke and Waters at the most recent shows of his Colosseum residency, respectively, with covers of “Having a Party” and Waters’ “Rollin’ and Tumblin’.” He applied his signature rasp to renditions of Bonnie Tyler’s “It’s a Heartache” and Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Have You Ever Seen the Rain” before venturing into more audience-familiar territory with Cat Stevens’ “The First Cut Is the Deepest” and Crazy Horse’s “I Don’t Want to Talk About It.”
There are plenty of hits. Stewart opened shows with “Infatuation” and delivered ’70s classic “Maggie May” and ’80s classic “Young Turks,” but much of his sets were devoted to songs he breathed new life into. Van Morrison certainly doesn’t mind royalties Stewart’s recording of “Have I Told You Lately” garnered, and Tom Waits gets points every time “Downtown Train” plays through the Colosseum’s sound system.
History will depict Stewart as one of the rock era’s great song interpreters, along with contemporaries such as the late Joe Cocker and retired Linda Ronstadt. Stewart is as effervescent as ever, but he knows everyone’s time on the third planet from the sun is limited. As long as his body and voice hold out, he’ll keep taking the stage.
Meanwhile, Stewart, who will play the “teatime legend” slot at this summer’s Glastonbury Festival, will continue to enjoy a life filled with making headlines for meeting superfans who have followed him for seven decades, boosting Celtic F.C. and making time for swing with collaborator Jools Holland. His days of large-scale touring may come to an end, but he’s not quite ready to stop playing Faces songs live, at least in Las Vegas.
Caesars Palace. ticketmaster.com
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