Rod Stewart Recalls Christmas Gift Exchange with Elton John That Made Him Feel ‘Stingy’
Rod Stewart and Elton John still might be in a tiff, but when they were on speaking terms, they would exchange Christmas gifts. Stewart recalled one year where he was really upstaged by John and made him feel “stingy.”
Stewart said in an interview with The Guardian, “We used to live 20 minutes from each other in Berkshire, so for Christmas I bought him a pop-up fridge from Harrods. You pressed a button and there’d be steam and lights and a bottle of champagne. It cost me £600; a lot of money in the ’70s.”
Stewart continued, “We swapped presents and he said: ‘Oh very nice, dear, thank you.’ He gave me a Rembrandt painting! I’ve never felt so stingy.”
He added, “He’s eternally the most generous person I’ve ever known. I’m not sure what the best one I’ve done on ‘her’ is … he’s usually got one over on me. I can’t bear it. We communicate through the press now, but we love each other. That’s what counts.”
Rod and Elton's spat dates back to a March 2018 appearance on Watch What Happens Lie with Andy Cohen where Rod said of Elton’s retirement tour, “I did email her [Elton] and said, ‘What, again dear?’ And, I didn’t hear anything back. But talking about the retirement, I think I’ve never spoken about retirement, and if I do retire, I won’t make an announcement. I’ll just fade away. This whole big deal, ‘Oh, I’m going to retire!’, it stinks of selling tickets.”
Sir Elton would touch on the comments paperback edition of his memoir, Me, writing, “I certainly didn’t feel like I needed a lecture on the feral spirit of rock and roll from someone who’d spent most of the last decade crooning his way through the Great American Songbook and Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas. What’s more, I thought he had a f—ing cheek, complaining about me promoting a tour while he was sat on a TV show promoting his own tour.”
Perhaps there will be a Christmas miracle and these two legends will kiss and make up. Crazier things have happened!
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