A six-decade career built on knowing exactly when to become someone else.
At a glance
- Known for
- Maggie May, the Faces, five Great American Songbook albums, and a 13-year Vegas residency
- Before fame
- Busked with a harmonica on the streets of London in 1962
- Off-screen
- Spent 23 years building a 1,500-square-foot model railway in his LA attic
Rise to Fame
The biggest hit of his career was supposed to be a B-side. Maggie May got pressed as the flip of Reason to Believe in 1971, but radio DJs kept playing the wrong side. It topped charts in both the UK and the US for five weeks each and turned him from a journeyman blues singer into a star at 26.
Before that, he'd been cycling through other people's bands for nearly a decade. Jeff Beck recruited him as a vocalist in 1967, and by 1969 he was in the Faces while running a solo career simultaneously. Nobody noticed the hedge until Every Picture Tells a Story hit #1 in four countries. He left the Faces by 1975. The solo career didn't need them.
In the Spotlight
He sold his entire catalog to Irving Azoff's Iconic Artists Group for reportedly close to $100 million: publishing, recorded music, and name and likeness rights. He launched a farewell tour called One Last Time, extended it, and went back to Caesars Palace for encore residency shows. The retirement keeps getting longer.
Flying his band in from America for the Glastonbury Sunday Legends slot cost him £300,000. The festival paid him £120,000. He didn't care. The catalog sale already paid him out. He's performing for the applause, not the check.
Side Notes
Grand Street and Three Rivers City is a 1,500-square-foot replica of a 1940s American city in his Los Angeles attic. He started it in 1993 and spent 23 years on it. On tour, he'd book two hotel rooms so one could be devoted entirely to painting and assembling miniature buildings. He told a reporter that being featured in a model railroad magazine meant more to him than any music publication.
Meeting Jock Stein at 28 was enough to flip his allegiance from Hibernian (his father's club) to Celtic. The devotion cost him a knee replacement and an ankle fusion from decades of playing. He filmed himself filling potholes near his Essex home because his Ferrari couldn't get through. Essex County Council issued a public warning: residents can't take road repairs into their own hands.