Rod Stewart - Rocks and Rolls with Wolfie’s Scotch
Rod the Mod. His uniquely raspy voice has rocked us since he 1970s, wailing and crooning songs that have moved men’s and women’s feet and hearts like few other music artists. The rascally singer’s distinctive vocals carried him to lead singer success and rock star excess.
From his start as a folk music singer-songwriter, Stewart tore through hit after hit with a sound that blended pop, rock, soul, R&B, and disco. Later in his career he turned his voice to The Great American Songbook, in all selling over 120 million records. Deservedly, he’s in our hearts as one of the most famous and acclaimed musicians to rock our world.
Many rock icons are known for a bit of debauchery, and Stewart and his Faces bandmate and soul brother from another mother, Ronnie Wood, made for one of the most notable hard-partier tandems back in the day. But the gentlemanly Rod was always beneath the surface, and he was knighted by Prince William at Buckingham Palace in 2016 for his work in music and philanthropy, making him Sir Roderick Stewart.
Everyone knows that knights enjoy a good libation. Stewart recently teamed up with co-founder and CEO Duncan Frew and Loch Lomond Distillery to launch Wolfie’s Scotch. The whisky is inspired by Stewart's Scottish heritage, and the name is a call back to Rod’s 1991 Vagabond Heart album. The lyrics to the opening track “Rhythm of My Heart” are stamped on the base of the bottle.
We sat down recently and chatted about Stewart’s new venture and how he and Duncan are rocking Wolfie’s Scotch.
Randy Mastronicola: Thank you both Sir Rod and Duncan for taking the time to meet. I know you’re excited about launching Wolfie’s.
Sir Rod Stewart: Yes, mate. Thank you.
Duncan Frew: We've just launched in California, literally last week. I'm here to oversee the opening of California.
Sir Rod, all of us at our magazine are jazzed that you’re gracing our cover.
Rod: Well, thank you.
You must be pleased that your Scotch has gained traction so quickly.
Rod: Yes, we certainly are, especially because of the big one coming up in Scotland. What is it? Duncan, you explain it because you're Scottish. [laughs]
Duncan: Yes. Keepers of the Quaich. It’s basically the Oscars for the Scottish Whisky Association. Rod has been asked to be an honorary Keeper of the Quaich and he’ll be sitting at the top table with every lord and sir in in Scotland.
Rod: Not bad for an Englishman—who loves Scotland, by the way.
Duncan: That's an exclusive because no one else knows about it just yet.
I’ll keep it under my hat. Rod, your connection to your Scottish heritage, has that always been there for you or is it something that happened later in life?
Rod: No, it came to me when I was about 12. I went to see Scotland play England, and I wondered why my brothers and my dad were walking around with Scottish flags and wearing tartan scarves. It was Wembley Stadium, and Scotland lost, 1-0. I wondered why they were so depressed about it. A couple of years later, the penny dropped because my brother Bob—he's gone now—he had loads of pictures of Scottish footballers, cut out papers, in his bedroom up on the walls. Yes, the penny dropped. I’m very proud of our Scottish heritage.
I get it. Your connection to Wolfie’s and I’d imagine your connection to Duncan. What was the initial inspiration to collaborate and build on the spirit of Scotland? How’d you meet?
Rod: I met him in a gay club called Club Winkle.
[laughter]
Did you now?
Rod: Yes, he was in a gay club in Glasgow.
I’ve been to Glasgow. He looked familiar to me as well.
Duncan: I had a top hat on as well.
[laughter]
Rod: We met through…
Was there a hole in the bathroom stall?
Rod: Oh, you dirty bastard.
[laughter]
Rod: We met through a good friend of ours called Johnny Mac, who's a fine Glaswegian musician, also a great Celtic supporter, as are the two of us. Johnny said, "I got a mate of mine who's desperate to throw millions of dollars at a whisky company if you get involved." I said, "I'm your man." It's really music and Celtic that brought us together. We had a football club. You don't know that, do you?
Your passion for football is legendary.
Rod: When we first met, it was love of football and probably drinking too much that brought us together, slightly drinking. [laughs]
Duncan: Slightly. When we started it, it was relatively straightforward. We knew what we wanted. Then Rod, every week or two, we'd talk about the brand as it developed: the bottle shape, the name for the brand, etc. We had numerous tastings, and Rod was sent bottles if he was traveling. I think a lot of other brands out there, there's a celebrity attached to it, maybe getting a fee or a royalty. This has been made by both of us and our families.
Rod: Our wives have been a huge part in it.
Consumers are savvy. They know when the back story resonates, and they know when it's just slapping a pretty face like Rod's on the brand.
Rod: My pretty face is not on there, let me tell you, mate. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have won so many bloody awards. [laughs] That means more to me than anything.
It’s cool you guys have caught fire in a short amount of time and have received accolades.
Duncan: Rod's in charge of the camera, the look. We knew the brand would look great. Obviously, Rod's connection gave us that image of awareness. To win things like blind taste tests, where nobody has any idea of the name or Rod's involvement, that's huge. We've also received design awards. It's so different from any Scotch on the market, which is intentional. We love Scotland, and we love Scotch. We just wanted to add a big splash of rock and roll on top of it.
The bottle art is cool. It's got that rascally vibe, so you want it to pop on the shelves. The liquid has to match it, of course. Rod, in terms of crafting a great spirit and creating a great song or an entertainment project, is there a correlation?
Rod: I think with music, there’s a lot of hit-and-miss. “Maggie May,” for instance, nearly didn't make the album Every Picture Tells a Story in 1971. It was only because we were a track spare that it got put on the album. Then a disk jockey in Cleveland decided to turn it over and play it. I don't know. It's just a simple twist of fate. I believe with whisky, you can't gamble. It's got to be good. As you said earlier, we can't just make a shit whisky and put my ugly face on the front. This has got to be good. The punters know.
Absolutely.
Duncan: I think, Randy, a lot of people were saying just call it Rod Stewart Whisky or call it Maggie May Whisky and put a crap label on the bottle. This bottle is probably one of the most expensive bottles to make it on the market. I think the beauty of it is you're not working with one of the big boys to make it. It's not mass-produced. Even this to some extent, a lot of this is still hand-bottled. It's made with love. Loch Lomond has been a great partner for that.
Sure.
Duncan: There's this very subtle Rod's signature at the bottom, and there are a couple of other Easter eggs. It had to stand on its own: a brand. Obviously, Rod’s fans are going to buy it, but if there was going to be longevity—we were both in agreement that if this was going to be just a smash and grab, we'd have called it Maggie May Whisky. Rod has said before that this will outlive both of us, so it had to be done in the right way.
You don’t want to set yourselves up for a crash and burn. People figure it out. Talk to me a little bit about when you guys can get together. Wolfie’s is your cocktail or sipper?
Rod: For me, it's a cocktail. I must be honest with you, I got very drunk when I was 15 on whisky and hadn’t tasted it again for a long time. Now, I love it in a martini. I drink it every night after every show. Not before a show because of my voice.
Duncan: Every time after show, the biggest thing is we'll serve cocktails. There'll be a guy or a girl there who says, ‘We wouldn't try Scotch whisky,’ and we give them an appletini. The first thing they say is, "Well, that's really nice." I think that's what we are trying to do is, we're never gonna compete with an 18-year-old malt. It's never going to happen.
Yes, of course.
Duncan: We try and convert the younger audience that maybe wouldn't—are scared to try Scotch—and do it in a different way. Even in our home or my hometown of Glasgow and Rhodes, surrogate hometown of Glasgow, there's a really good bar that did a rockstar old fashioned and a rockstar martini.
Really high-end places. They said it was the number-one-selling cocktail for girls because they'd put cream on top the way it's served. It's almost breaking the barrier down of a lot of people being intimidated by Scotch.
Make it fun and sexy.
Duncan: That's the aim.
Some spirits connoisseurs get pretty intense about it all. To get away from that is really refreshing. It's a good strategy.
Duncan: Yes, it's one we're having a lot of fun with. We’ll have dinner with some of our friends or Rod's oldest friends—I've joined the fold slightly—we've managed to convert them as well. The manager of a restaurant came over and two of them, Eddie and Annie, were saying, "Have you heard of Wolfie's? You should stock it," before we could get a chance.
Rod: I think when you're a small fry like we are at the moment, you have to do everything you possibly can. Everything you can with taste, fun.
Duncan: Someone said to me, "What's the best way to drink it?" I think we said whichever way you want. Whichever way. At the end of the day, we're Scottish whisky, but just enjoy it. Turn the music on, have a drink, remember your mom or dad, kiss your wife, whatever it is, just have a laugh, and enjoy yourself.
Rod, I have to go here. Can you give me one rock and roll drinking anecdote? The more debauched the better.
Rod: There’s a lot of this stuff in my book. It's the one I'm very, not only proud of but also terribly ashamed of. When I was with the Faces in the early '70s, Polaroid cameras came out, the ones where they slide out in the end?
Sure.
Rod: Of course, me and Woody [Ronnie Wood] being the rascals that we are, after a show we'd have a few girls up in a room. Of course, we'd take pictures in various stages of undress of these girls. We'd have a fair good old collection. Maybe nude, totally nude, all that. We were young, and the girls didn't mind. Until I did an interview the next day, and I thought the interview was finished, with one of the English newspapers. I said, "Hello, mate. Have a look at these pictures here." I was only in me twenties. He went, "Oh, that's fantastic." Lo and behold, when the interview came out, the headline was “Polaroid Kid Rod.”
[laughter]
Rod: Oh, gosh. I didn't go out to see me mom and dad for two weeks. That was all down to having too much to drink.
Your Scottish father might not have appreciated this, but you’re a son and rock star. It was a different time.
Rod: True. Oh, no. He wouldn't talk to me for hours.
My sense is you cleaned that story up a little. Okay. You guys are proud of your liquid. Upcoming plans for consumer engagement?
Duncan: Yes. Wolfie's has been on the road with Rod since launch, and there’s a lot more coming up.
Indulge me. If you went back in time and you wanted to share your Scotch with someone, who might it be? I'll throw some names at you for both of you. You can pick one, or you can throw out your own person. Winston Churchill, Queen Victoria, Humphrey Bogart, Mark Twain–real whisky people. Your call.
Rod: William Wallace.
Nice. Duncan?
Duncan: There was a footballer, George Best, who Rod actually knew. He would've been one of the best soccer players of all time in the world if not for alcohol. A top five player in the world. That's a bit of a problem with Scotland and Ireland. There aren’t many famous people without a drinking problem.
Do either of you enjoy cigars? I guess Rod, maybe not because you’re a singer.
Rod: No. I've never smoked.
Duncan: I used to steal my dad's cigars when I was 12, but I got violently ill, but now I love a cigar. We’ll go out drinking and smoke some cigars. We can do it together.
I would love to do that.
Duncan: Great.