Rock’s greatest frontmen usually spark debate: Freddie Mercury with his operatic firepower, Bob Dylan with his poetic rasp, Elvis Presley with a swagger that launched a cultural revolution. But for Rod Stewart—a rock titan in his own right—none of them held a candle to one voice in particular.
That voice belonged to a soul singer whose raw emotion left Stewart utterly floored.
Long before disco beats and platinum records, Stewart cut his teeth in gritty blues bars with The Faces, growling out rock anthems with unmatched conviction. But beneath his rooster-haired bravado was a deep reverence for the heart and vulnerability of soul music.
“I’ve chased that feeling my whole life,” Stewart once confessed. “Little Richard, The Temptations—they were electric. But nothing hit me like [him].”
The moment that changed everything came in 1966. A single take. A stripped-down groove. And a voice soaked in heartbreak. Stewart was transfixed. That recording didn’t just impress him—it set a new standard. To him, it wasn’t just another ballad. It was the performance.
Years later, Stewart still couldn’t shake it. Speaking from the stage of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, he didn’t mince words: “I can’t imagine anything more to tell you about the brilliant [singer]. That performance is one of the best I’ve ever heard—and I’m sure you have, too.”
For a man whose own voice became a defining sound of the ’70s, it speaks volumes that Stewart puts this soul legend in a league of his own.
