Happy 70th Birthday Rod Stewart Scotland’s adopted son

As Rod reaches milestone birthday, we recall his musical and marital ups and downs.

He’s long been a pensioner and now he’s set to become a septuagenarian.

But most would have to admit that, as he turns 70, Rod Stewart’s wearing it well.

Scotland’s most high profile adopted son has reached the milestone today with some special celebrations planned.

There have been both musical and marital highs and lows along the way, but as he showed in front of a billion-strong audience at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, footie-daft Rod’s still going strong.

Here are Rod’s defining decades.

1960s

London-born Rod’s musical roots in the 60s saw him have some early success with the Jeff Beck Group as well as joining The Faces alongside Ronnie Wood, who became a Rolling Stone.

He was already wise to the ways of getting attention and admits stories about being a gravedigger “I just measured up the graves” were spun just to make himself seem more interesting.

1970s

A decade of success with music, money and women. It kicked off with Maggie May topping the charts on both sides of the Atlantic

Hit after hit, like Sailing, This Old Heart of Mine, Hot Legs and Da Ya Think I’m Sexy?, followed as the 70s wore on.

He was earning so much he moved to the States to avoid punitive taxes on his massive royalties and rung the changes romantically too.

Rod started with model Dee Harrington, had a much-photographed mid-decade fling with sexy Swedish actress Britt Ekland and rounded it off by making George Hamilton’s ex Alana the first Mrs Stewart.

1980s

By 1984 Alana had become the first ex Mrs Stewart, swapped for another model, literally, in the form of Kelly Emberg.

He says there was a procession of leggy lovelies from all over making their way to his south of France pad at one stage, although he concedes there was a “shallow emptiness” to it.

“I was never a good-looking guy but I had a certain amount of charm and I was the singer in a rock group.”

Musically, Baby Jane and Every Beat Of My Heart were among a less stellar collection of songs.

1990s

Rod saw in the decade by marrying model Rachel Hunter and ended it by separating. They divorced in 2006.

They had two kids, Renee and Liam, to add to the four he’d already had Sarah, whom he’d had in the 60s, Kimberley and Sean with Alana and Ruby to Kelly.

All for Love, with Sting and Bryan Adams, from The Three Musketeers movie was a chart-topper and there was acclaim and new fans won over from an MTV Unplugged special.

2000s

That famously gravelly voice was at risk at the start of the decade when docs had to perform emergency surgery after Rod was found to have throat cancer.

He spent nine months fearing the tool of his trade would never return.

New love with, just for a change, model Penny Lancaster helped him through it and after years together it seems it was third time lucky for Rod when the couple wed in 2006.

They had two more kids, Alastair and Aiden, to make him a dad of eight.

Having now sold over 100 million records, the Great American Songbook albums of old classics helped put Rod back on top after a leaner period.

2010s

Time an album of original music in 2013 after decades where he’d given up songwriting feeling he just wasn’t any good was another well received late career move.

His stage skills weren’t a gamble for Las Vegas bosses who signed him up for a two-year residency. And he showed them off in style to Scots fans, as the opening act for both the SECC Hydro and last summer’s Commonwealth Games.