Rod Stewart says The Killing of Georgie would define his legacy

Rod Stewart says the one song he would like his legacy to be remembered for isn't one of his chart-toppers but The Killing of Georgie, a two-part track from the 1970s that tackles a social issue head-on. The song appears on his seventh studio album, A Night on the Town, released in 1976, and remains notable for its unusual subject matter in pop music at the time. Stewart, now 80, describes the track as his proudest musical achievement because of its message and its storytelling.

Georgie tells the story of a man who is beaten and murdered for his sexuality, a narrative that stood out in an era when LGBTQ topics were rarely addressed in mainstream rock. The track unfolds in two parts on the album and has been described as a rare act of social consciousness within Stewart’s catalog, pairing a vivid narrative with a pop-rock sound that helped define his mid-1970s heyday. The song opens with lines that frame a changing social landscape and the intimate tale of a friend, Georgie, whose life becomes a focal point for a broader commentary on bigotry and violence. The storytelling is said to draw loosely on a real-life acquaintance of Stewart, though he has said he did not witness the events firsthand and later acknowledged that he “embellished a bit.”

![Rod Stewart in 1976](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/09/27/09/102497967-0-image-m-21_1758961291411.jpg