Rock 'n' roll never forgets, Pt. 9 -- Rod Stewart

If you work in the media long enough, you're sure to make a few enemies.

As a columnist for The Spectrum & Daily News in St. George, Utah, I had plenty of detractors. They would revile me regularly in letters to the editor, leave nasty messages on my voice mail, send vicious e-mails and even make threats against my well being. I was warned that they would run me out of town and worse.

The first time I was threatened? Rod Stewart, who didn't particularly like a review I had given one of his concerts.

It was a particularly bad show. Stewart was in, for him at the time, a particularly drunken state, gave a sloppy performance and had spent most of the night on the stage at The Forum in Los Angeles posing. He was touring behind a string of two hugely successful albums -- "A Night on the Town" and "Foot Loose & Fancy Free." He was as hot as you can get in the music business and was fodder for the tabloids and gossip columnists with his on-again-off-again romance with Britt Ekland.

I had been a longtime fan, particularly of his early work with Jeff Beck, Faces and his first few solo albums. He had a way of re-inventing solid, old R&B songs -- particularly his remakes of Sam Cooke's catalog -- and put on an energetic, fun show. The Faces lineup that backed him was outstanding.

I liked Rod. We actually hung together once before he became the epitome of a rock star at a birthday party for the late Keith Moon, drummer for The Who.

The party was in a private meeting room at the Beverly Wilshire hotel in Beverly Hills. John Lennon and Mick Jagger paid for it, I was told, but because of the predicted craziness of putting Moonie, Stewart, Harry Nilsson and a host of other assorted lunatics together in one place, they decided it was better to stay home that night.

It was a boys' night out -- no women -- with lots of drinking. Lots of drinking. The Remy was flowing like water and it was being guzzled, not sipped in a gentleman-like fashion.

Somewhere early in the morning Stewart, Nilsson, Moonie and some of their English cohorts started singing British drinking songs, which was interesting because Moon couldn't carry a tune in a bucket. But, could that man ever play drums.

But what I remember most about that fuzzy night was a magician they hired who was walking around doing close-up magic. He was incredible. He would roll up his sleeve, put one hand in front of you and make things appear and disappear. If you needed a light for your smoke, he would snap his fingers and a flame would come out of his index finger. It was pretty cool.

Stewart, I believe, was in the studio at that time recording "A Night on the Town," which would launch him into a totally new level of popularity.

But, when I saw him at The Forum, the show did not live up to all the hype. In fact, Air Supply was the opening act and was so bad that Stewart's roadies unplugged the band's power source in the middle of a song when they refused to get off stage.

I remember sitting next to a PR friend at the show and talking about what was going on. She said: "Doesn't matter...Rod Stewart is the reason they invented vibrators...He's soooo sexy!"

Still, the show sucked and in my review, I said so.

Two days later, I hear from a publicist pal who told me Stewart was livid, that he wanted to sue me and another guy in Cincinnati who had also given him a bad review. I informed the friend that as a public figure, performing in concert, he was open to fair and honest criticism, but to go ahead and take his best shot. A day later I got a call from the same person, saying Stewart was still pissed and wanted to kick my ass. Again, I said, "Tell him to take his best shot." I didn't get any more phone calls about my review.

But, a couple of years later, I was doing some PR work for The Shefrin Company, a classy Beverly Hills firm that handled a wide variety of clients, including Dick Clark, whose company produced a number of TV specials, including the American Music Awards.

Stewart was up for an AMA, which he won, and was at the show. At the after-party, he and his new squeeze, Alana Hamilton, had their own, very visible table, complete with a boatload of Pouilly-Fuisse, a pretty good French wine that was introduced to the rock 'n' roll scene by, as I recall, Irving Azoff, who managed the Eagles.

My job that night? Keep people away from his table. Now, usually, award show after-parties are where musicians get together and catch up. Because they are on the road so much, they don't often get the opportunity to sit down, face-to-face. There were some cool people there that night, including John Mellencamp, Heart, Diana Ross, Donna Summer, Brian May from Queen, even Michael Jackson. Stewart, however, spent the evening at his table, ignoring his peers and hanging with Alana and his buddy Dudley Moore,who was squiring Susan Anton at the time. Luckily, they decided to go to their own after-party before too long and I was relieved of my duty.

Stewart has gone on to reinvent himself a couple of times since then. He was criticized heavily, at one point, for performing in South Africa because of its apartheid policies. He was sued for copyright infringement for his "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?" single. As part of the settlement, he donated his royalties from the song to UNICEF. His single, "Forever Young," got him into a beef with Bob Dylan, becauase he "unconsciously" wrote a song with the same title and storyline as Dylan. The two agreed to share royalties.

On a much more serious note, Stewart is a cancer survivor, having overcome thyroid cancer in 2000. You have to admire his grit. And, as a result of his experience, he has become a generous donor and supporter of The City of Hope Foundation, which funds research to find cures for all strains of the disease, particularly those that strike children.

He has donated numerous items for auction to help raise funds and has become a spokesman for the organization.

So, despite the, shall we say, personal misunderstandings, I have to raise a glass of Remy and toast Stewart for his efforts in behalf of The City of Hope.

And, for some really great music over the years.