While many artists ended up making albums during the COVID-19 lockdown just to have something to do, Rod Stewart says his new album, The Tears of Hercules was something he’d planned to do anyway, and the events of the past year and a half didn’t impact it at all.
“I was always going to [make the album]. I actually started before the pandemic, but it did give me a lot more time,” he tells ABC Audio. “I must admit, it gave me a lot more time to do everything! It didn’t in any way…what’s the word?…send the album in any particular direction.”
“I had a few tears, but I had my kids here to cheer me up,” Rod adds. “Otherwise, I sailed through it pretty easily. I’m lucky: I have a lovely big house and swimming pool and football pitch…I’ve got everything here, so we didn’t go out much. The pubs were closed. That made me sad!”
The Tears of Hercules is Rod’s fourth album of original songs in eight years, but it does include a few covers: the 1967 Soul Brothers Six classic “Some Kind of Wonderful,” which he says he’s “always wanted to do;” a Johnny Cash song, “These Are My People,” which he’s “turned into a tribute to the Scottish nation,” and the title track.
It was written by Marc Jacobs, who wrote Rod’s smash “Rhythm of My Heart,” and Rod says of the unusual title, “It grabs your attention straightaway.”
“I can mean so many things, but to me, it simply means — especially in this day and age — [that] a grown man can and should be able to cry if you wish to,” he explains. “You know, the pandemic, or illness, or whatever it is, you’ve got to let those tears flow. It’s healthy!”
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