Monday, April 15, 2013 5:45am ET by  
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Rod Stewart: 'Songwriting felt like school work'

'Maggie May' star Rod Stewart has revealed that while his songs are loved by millions around the world he never really enjoyed songwriting and it felt similar to being forced to do homework.

Speaking about his upcoming new album 'Time', which is his first collection of original songs in over 10 years, the rocker explained that writing an autobiography helped him to fall back in love with putting a pen to paper as it was something he never really enjoyed:

"My assumption was that I was finished as a songwriter. I was trapped down all sorts of unhelpful mental alleys. [But after writing the book] I was getting up in the middle of the night to write things down, which has never happened to me."

"I used to hate [song writing]. It was like being at school, 'Come on, Stewart, you've got to finish the lyrics!' - and you'd get kicked into a room with a bottle of wine. But this was just a pleasure and a joy. I loved every minute of it."

Stewart added that his lack of enjoyment for songwriting stems from struggling to rhyme lyrics: "I'll sing over some chords, searching, what does [the music] conjure up, where's the melody taking you? I deliberate over the lyrics, I really do. I'll come up with one line in a day, and then it might be a couple of days before I come up with the rhyming line. It's never been easy for me."

 

 

 

 

Watch his music video for 'It's Over' here: