“Give Farage a chance!” Rod Stewart shouted — and in an instant, Glastonbury flipped from nostalgia to firestorm. In a jaw-dropping, unscripted interview, the 80-year-old rock icon didn’t just warm up for his set — he lit the political fuse. No handlers. No rehearsals. Just Rod, staring straight at the camera, daring the public to flinch. What followed wasn’t just opinion — it was a grenade lobbed into Britain’s cultural heart. All week, the headlines spun. The internet hissed with rage. Billy Bragg rolled his eyes in public protest. But Rod didn’t blink. He shrugged off the backlash, zipped up his glittered jacket, and told the BBC: “No speeches. Just music.” And then — just when fans thought they’d heard it all — the lights dimmed. The guitar struck. And every eye in the crowd waited, wondering: Will he keep his promise… or will Glastonbury become the stage for the loudest political encore of his career?
Rod Stewart said fellow Brits should give Reform U.K. party leader Nigel Farage ‘a chance.’
When it comes to music and politics, Rod Stewart isn’t the first artist that comes to mind, but the “Do You Think I’m Sexy” singer shared some political views in an interview leading up to his appearance at the U.K.’s Glastonbury Festival Sunday, June 29.
Stewart called on his fellow Brits to give Reform U.K. party leader Nigel Farage “a chance.”
The 80-year-old rocker offered the endorsement in an interview with the U.K.’s The Times, that was published on June 27.
“It’s hard for me because I’m extremely wealthy, and I deserve to be, so a lot of it doesn’t really touch me. But that doesn’t mean I’m out of touch,” Stewart explained. “For instance, I’ve read about [U.K. Prime Minister Keir] Starmer cutting off the fishing in Scotland and giving it back to the EU. That hasn’t made him popular. We’re fed up with the Tories. We’ve got to give Farage a chance. He’s coming across well. Nigel? What options have we got? I know some of his family, I know his brother, and I quite like him.”
When the interviewer asked Stewart what the politician stands for, aside “from Brexit, tightened immigration policies and unrealistic economic promises?” Stewart responded, “Yeah, yeah. But Starmer’s all about getting us out of Brexit and I don’t know how he’s going to do that. Still, the country will survive. It could be worse. We could be in the Gaza Strip.”
In the interview, Stewart also said he was disappointed President Trump “has moved away from Europe, as America were our strongest allies.” He also referred to Elon Musk as “the other dickhead, the one with the motor car company, coming in wearing a baseball cap,” when discussing Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s meeting at the White House with Trump and Vice President JD Vance.
Stewart’s foray into politics caught the eye of at least one fellow musician. Veteran indie rock troubadour and political Billy Bragg posted the “give Farage a chance” headline on Facebook, along with the sarcastic caption, “Why is Rod Stewart making Glastonbury political? Artists should stop banging on about bloody politics and just sing their songs. Grrr.”
Don’t, however, expect Stewart to get political on stage during his Glastonbury set. He told the BBC that he won’t “make any announcements between songs” so he can “get in as many songs” as possible during his set.
