Rod Stewart says The Killing of Georgie should define his legacy, not Maggie May

Rod Stewart, 80, says the one song he would like to be remembered for is The Killing of Georgie, not the hit fans often name. The British rocker rose to fame in 1971 with Every Picture Tells a Story and its chart-topping single Maggie May, and his six-decade career has included Do Ya Think I’m Sexy, Tonight’s the Night (Gonna Be Alright), and Sailing. In a 2011 interview, he pointed to a lesser-known track as his proudest musical achievement: a two-part ballad released during the height of his 1970s fame that tackled homophobia.

The Killing of Georgie, a two-part suite on the 1976 album A Night on the Town, follows a man who is beaten and murdered for his sexuality; the narrative was reportedly inspired by a real friend of Stewart’s. The track opens with lines that reflect the era’s changing attitudes and centers on Georgie as the friend at the heart of the story. In a Guardian interview in 2016, Stewart said he never witnessed the events and acknowledged he embellished the tale, though he believed the core is true to his friend’s experience. He recalled that Georgie would share songs with the group and would introduce milestones in their circle.

The track’s subject matter was rare for pop music at the time, and it remains a notable part of Stewart’s catalog for its willingness to address prejudice and violence. The singer has said the narrative, while not a documentary, resonated with people who lived through hostility toward LGBTQ+ individuals in the 1970s and beyond.

In recent years, Stewart’s wife, Penny Lancaster, has publicly praised his vitality, describing him as youthful and “a machine” as she spoke about their relationship. Lancaster said the couple, who have been together for about 18 years, still look ahead to tours and adventures, including occasional getaways to Paris or other locales. On his 80th birthday, Stewart told Lancaster he intended to keep pushing forward and promised to give her “another 20 years.”

The relationship has been central to the couple’s public narrative, with Lancaster recounting how she initially wasn’t a fan of the singer but quickly found herself drawn into his world. Their romance comes amid a large family history for Stewart that spans multiple marriages and partnerships. He has eight children with four women, including a first child who was adopted, Sarah, and others named Kimberly, Sean, Ruby, Renee, Liam, Alastair, and Aiden, reflecting the breadth of his personal life as he charts a continued career.

The Killing of Georgie thus sits at a unique intersection in Stewart’s legacy: it is a deeply personal social statement from a blockbuster star, decades before today’s conversations around LGBTQ+ rights and representation became more commonplace in mainstream music. While it may not be the track most fans associate with his fame, Stewart’s own framing of the song as a crowning achievement underscores how artists sometimes measure success by impact and intent as much as by chart performance. As the culture around pop music evolved, Georgie stands as a reminder that music can address difficult topics even within a commercially successful career, a nuance the singer himself has acknowledged more than once over the years.