The extraordinary life and career of music legend Rod Stewart, in his own words for the first time. With his soulful and singular voice, narrative songwriting, and passionate live performances Rod Stewart has paved one of the most iconic and successful music careers of all time. He was the charismatic lead singer for the trailblazing rock and roll bands The Jeff Beck Group and The Faces, and as a solo artist, the author of such beloved songs as "Maggie May," "Tonight’s the Night," "Hot Legs," "Da Ya Think I’m Sexy?," "Young Turks," "Forever Young," and "You Wear It Well." Now after more than five decades in the spotlight, he is finally ready to take a candid and romping look back at his life both on and off the stage. From his humble British roots to his hell-raising years on tour with his bandmates, not forgetting his great loves (including three marriages and eight children) and decades touring the world, Rod delivers a riveting ride through one of rock's most remarkable lives.

Many have long found it difficult to take Rod Stewart seriously. However, once we get past the awkward stuff—leopard-skin leggings, bum-wiggling stage schticks, and a hairstyle unseemly for a man of his age—there remains the undeniable fact that the "Caledonian Cockney" is responsible for some of the greatest recordings ever made. Again and again, the combination of his heartwracked songs and gravelly, sensitive vocal delivery have conjured sonic magic. The bulk of Stewart's classic recordings were made in the 1970s. His string of albums for the Mercury label across the first half of that decade sent critics into raptures. His 1971 album Every Picture Tells a Story is considered by some of them to literally be the best album of all time. Said semi-decade also saw Stewart front the Faces, whose often likeably ramshackle albums gave his fans a double dose of their idol each year. On top of this are solo-Stewart classics that are neglected because he released them after a point where his increasingly outlandish image caused some of his original fans to disdain to any longer take him seriously. They include the splendid 1976 LP A Night on the Town and his peerless confessional love songs of 1977 "You're in My Heart (The Final Acclaim)" and "I Was Only Joking." All of this and more is the subject of Rod Stewart: The Classic Years. Sean Egan has interviewed at length many of Stewart's colleagues, collaborators, and cohabitees from the period, including musicians Micky Waller, Pete Sears, Ray Jackson, Ian McLagan, Kenney Jones, and Jim Cregan, recording engineer Mike Bobak, manager Billy Gaff, and Stewart's then-girlfriend and muse Dee Harrington. The result is a striking and evocative portrait of the most fecund and vital stage in the life and career of one of popular music's most important artists.

- First trade paper edition in the U.S. - Rod Stewart has sold 70 million records worldwide. - Stewart's album, It Had to be You... The Great American Songbook, composed of American pop standards reached #4 on the Billboard charts and sold more than a million copies by 2003. The follow-up, As Time Goes By... The Great American Songbook, Vol. 2 was released in October of 2003 and entered the Billboard chart at No. 2 It has sold four million copies so far. - Stewart toured the US through the summer of 2004. - Includes a discography and index

(Piano/Vocal/Guitar Artist Songbook). 16 of the biggest hits from the long career of this British artist: Da Ya Think I'm Sexy * Downtown Train * Forever Young * Have I Told You Lately * Maggie May * Reason to Believe * Tonight's the Night (Gonna Be Alright) * and more.

Carmine Appice has enjoyed a jaw-dropping rock-and-roll life—and now he is telling his scarcely believable story. Appice ran with teenage gangs in Brooklyn before becoming a global rock star in the Summer of Love, managed by the Mob. He hung with Hendrix, unwittingly paid for an unknown Led Zeppelin to support him on tour, taught John Bonham to play drums (and helped Fred Astaire too), and took part in Zeppelin's infamous deflowering of a groupie with a mud shark. After enrolling in Rod Stewart's infamous Sex Police, he hung out with Kojak, accidentally shared a house with Prince, was blood brothers with Ozzy Osbourne and was fired by Sharon. He formed an all-blond hair-metal band, jammed with John McEnroe and Steven Seagal, got married five times, slept with 4,500 groupies—and, along the way, became a rock legend by single-handedly reinventing hard rock and heavy metal drumming. His memoir, Stick It!, is one of the most extraordinary and outrageous rock-and-roll books of the early twenty-first century.

"Authentic transcriptions with notes and tablature"--Cover.