After a disco and new wave period in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Stewart's music turned to a soft rock/middle-of-the-road style, with most of his albums reaching the top ten in the UK, Germany and Sweden, but faring less well in the US.

[nb 2] In any case, regarding possible career options, Stewart concluded, "Well, a musician's life is a lot easier and I can also get drunk and make music, and I can't do that and play football.

[37] Stewart began listening to British and American topical folk artists such as Ewan MacColl, Alex Campbell, Woody Guthrie, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, and especially Derroll Adams and the debut album of Bob Dylan.

[37] He was an active supporter of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament at this time, joining the annual Aldermaston Marches from 1961 to 1963 and being arrested on three occasions when he took part in sit-ins at Trafalgar Square and Whitehall for the cause.

[37][39] In 1962, he had his first serious relationship, with London art student Suzannah Boffey (a friend of future model and actress Chrissie Shrimpton); he moved to a bed-sit in Muswell Hill to be near her.

[42] On several trips over the next 18 months Jones and Stewart took their act to Brighton and then to Paris, sleeping under bridges over the River Seine, and then finally to Barcelona,[41] from where he was deported from Spain for vagrancy in 1963.

[21][38][44][45][46] In 1963, Stewart adopted the Mod lifestyle and look, and began fashioning the spiky rooster hairstyle that would become his trademark[47] (it was made possible with sugar water or large amounts of his sisters' hair lacquer, backcombing, and his hands holding it in place to protect it from the winds of Highgate Underground station).

[47][48][49]) Disillusioned by rock and roll, he saw Otis Redding perform in concert and began listening to Sam Cooke records; he became fascinated by rhythm and blues and soul music.

Contrary to popular legend, during this time Stewart probably did not play harmonica on Millie Small's 1964 hit "My Boy Lollipop"; that was probably Peter Hogman of the Dimensions, although Powell has also claimed credit.

[58][59] Turning down Decca's recommended material as too commercial, Stewart insisted that the experienced session musicians he was given, including John Paul Jones, learn a couple of Sonny Boy Williamson songs he had just heard.

[70] The album featured Beck's masterly guitar technique and manipulated sounds as Stewart's dramatic vocalising tackled the group's varied repertoire of blues, folk, rock, and proto-heavy metal.

It established the template for his solo sound: a heartfelt mixture of folk, rock, and country blues, inclusive of a British working-class sensibility, with both original material ("Cindy's Lament" and the title song) and cover versions (Ewan MacColl's "Dirty Old Town" and Mike d'Abo's "Handbags and Gladrags").

Stewart's 1971 solo album Every Picture Tells a Story made him a household name when the B-side of his minor hit "Reason to Believe", "Maggie May", (co-written with Martin Quittenton) started to receive radio play.

The rest of the album was equally strong, with "Mandolin Wind" again showcasing that instrument; "(I Know) I'm Losing You" adding hard-edged soul to the mix; and "Tomorrow Is a Long Time", a cover of a Bob Dylan song.

But the ultimate manifestation of the early Stewart solo style was the Stewart-Wood-penned "Every Picture Tells a Story" itself: powered by Mick Waller's drumming, Pete Sears's piano and Wood's guitar work in a largely acoustic arrangement; it is a song relating to the picaresque adventures of the singer.

[90] In 1975, Stewart moved to Los Angeles; that year, he released the Atlantic Crossing album for his new record company, using producer Tom Dowd and a different sound based on the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section.

[91] Later in 1976, Stewart topped the US Billboard Hot 100 for eight weeks and the Australian ARIA chart with the ballad "Tonight's the Night", with an accompanying music video featuring actress Britt Ekland.

[93] In interviews, Stewart, while admitting his accompanying look had become "tarty", has defended the lyrics by pointing out that the song is a third-person narrative slice-of-life portrayal, not unlike those in his earlier work, and that it is not about him.

[94] Stewart was criticised by the anti-apartheid movement for breaking a widely observed cultural boycott of apartheid South Africa by performing at the Sun City resort complex in Bophuthatswana as part of his Body Wishes (1983) and Camouflage (1984) tours.

[84] The corresponding Camouflage album went gold in the UK, and the single "Infatuation" (which featured his old friend Jeff Beck on the guitar) received considerable play on MTV.

[85] Also in 1993, he reunited with Ronnie Wood to record an MTV Unplugged special that included "Handbags and Gladrags", "Cut Across Shorty", and four selections from Every Picture Tells a Story.

[87] On 31 December 1994, Stewart played in front of 3.5 million people on Copacabana beach in Rio, and made it into the Guinness Book of World Records for staging the largest free rock concert attendance in history.

[100] In 1995, Stewart released A Spanner in the Works containing a single written by Tom Petty, "Leave Virginia Alone", which reached the Top 10 of the adult contemporary charts.

The track "These Foolish Things" (which is actually a British, not American, song) reached number 13 on the Billboard adult contemporary chart, and "They Can't Take That Away From Me" went Top 20.

Starting on 20 March in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, the tour visited arena concerts in North America – with performances in New York, Toronto, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Chicago, Detroit, Tampa and Montreal, among others.

[149] In May 2023, Stewart performed at the Jeff Beck tribute concerts held at the Royal Albert Hall, sharing the stage with Ronnie Wood, Eric Clapton, Kirk Hammett and Johnny Depp among others.

[150] In late 2023, Warner Music announced a new album, Swing Fever, recorded with Jools Holland's Rhythm And Blues Orchestra, for 23 February 2024 release.

[157] Before returning to the UK, Stewart played for his LA Exiles team made up of mostly English expatriates plus a few celebrities, including Billy Duffy of the Cult, in a senior soccer league in Palos Verdes, California.

[169] In September 2002, Stewart's son Sean was sentenced to three months in jail and required to pay compensation and attend anger management, drug and alcohol treatment courses for attacking a man outside a restaurant in Los Angeles.

[172] During February 2023, it was announced that Stewart paid for a day's worth of MRI scans for patients at Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow in order to aid in reducing waiting lists.