Sir Rod Stewart is bringing his favourite hobby to Glastonbury 2025 (Picture: Dave Benett/Getty Images)
Model railway enthusiast Sir Rod Stewart wants to bring his favourite hobby to Glastonbury 2025. Yes, you read that correctly.
The 79-year-old rocker is the first confirmed act for the major UK festival and will play the Legends slot on the Pyramid Stage on Sunday afternoon. But talent isn’t the only thing he’ll be bringing to Worthy Farm.
According to fellow model railway lover and musical collaborator Jools Holland, the Forever Young hitmaker has grand plans to not only take one of his stations with him but maybe even make a bespoke Glastonbury model.
‘He can’t bring the whole set because it’s enormous. But whenever he’s on tour, he’ll have a station building which he will take with him to a hotel,’ Jools told The Daily Mirror.
Before adding: ‘He could create his own little railway that goes around Glastonbury – a little ride-on thing that went up to the Healing Fields, around the jazz tent and back to the Pyramid Stage.’
The Maggie Mae singer has been open about his love for all things model railways for at least a decade, revealing in a 2015 interview that he’ll even get a hotel room ‘cleared out’ for him to store the stations he brings along.
When he’s not rocking out on stage, he’s building model railways (Picture: Railway Modeller/Solent News)
The Glastonbury headliner has had this hobby for decades (Picture: Railway Modeller/Solent News)
His dedication to the craft dates way back. In 2019, Rod unveiled an impressive railway he had been working on for 26 years, meaning it can be traced all the way to 1994 at least.
In a recent exclusive with Railway Modeller, he revealed his latest achievement, a model of “Grand Street & Three Rivers Railroad” reminiscent of 1940s America, which spans 27 feet by 62 feet.
‘When I walk into my workshop, it’s like entering the gates of heaven. It’s the greatest hobby in the world,’ he told the magazine.
He added: ‘It’s just ahhh… this is my time. I would say I spend, on average, four or five hours a day if I can. Even if there are twenty minutes I go over to my workshop.
“In twenty minutes I can get quite a lot done. And it’s really taken over my life somewhat. In a wonderful way. There was a time I hid away from it.’
All together he has 900 feet worth of track which he transported 5,000 miles from Los Angeles to his Essex home with plans to further expand.
But the rock legend has not always been as loud and proud about his hobby, as he explained.
‘Because I thought railway modelling and rock ‘n’ roll don’t go together and I was sort of embarrassed. But I’m not anymore, I’m proud of it. I mean obviously music is my main life’s work, but this is definitely second.’
He could even build a Glastonbury-inspired railway to the festival (Picture: Railway Modeller/Solent News)
In his Glastonbury announcement, he said he was ‘proud and ready’ to take the Legends slot (Picture: AP/ Invision)
His model railway is not his only contribution to Glastonbury, with the British singer also paying an eye-watering sum out of pocket to bring his vocals to the main stage.
‘It’s going to cost me a fortune to do it – $300,000,’ he told host Alan Brazil on the talkSPORT breakfast show.
Sir Rod continued: I’ve got to bring all my band back from America, of course, Glastonbury don’t pay for that.
‘But I don’t care if it cost me $1million, I would have done it. This is a great honour. It really is the greatest honour.’
In his announcement, he said he was ‘proud and ready’ to take up the mantle previously held by the likes of Shania Twain, Dolly Parton and Kylie Minogue.
Meanwhile, Glastonbury festival organiser Emily Eavis said: ‘Bringing Sir Rod Stewart back for the Sunday afternoon slot on the Pyramid stage is everything we could wish for.
‘What a way to bow out with the final legend slot before we take a fallow year. We cannot wait!’
His Glastonbury appearance comes as he confirmed the end of ‘large-scale world tours’, instead opting for ‘smaller venues and more intimacy’.
The singer recently made headlines after calling out former Masterchef host Gregg Wallace for the treatment of his wife Penny Lancaster on the Celebrity version of the show a few years ago.
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