Rod Stewart offers advice to Beatle

Veteran rocker Rod Stewart has advised Paul McCartney not to read the papers, to “stay out of it”.

In a pre-recorded interview to be screened later today he tells Lunchtime Live on Sky News that his advice to the singer, whose divorce battle with estranged wife Heather Mills has made headline news, would be: “Don’t read the newspapers. Stay out of it.”

Stewart said that he is usually warned if there is “something dodgy in the newspapers and so I don’t read it. It’s all forgotten about the next day."

However, asked if he would also advise against getting married again, Stewart replied: “No, no, no, marriage is a wonderful thing.”

Stewart wants another child – to add to his brood of seven – after tying the knot with Penny Lancaster.

The star, who already has a baby boy named Alistair with the model, told Kay Burley the wedding date would be next year, “sort of in the summer months”.

Asked if he wanted another child, Stewart said: “Yes, we are going to have one more, it will be after we get married and that will be it.”

He continued: “I’m enjoying being a father right now and Penny wants another one. I’m not opposed to it.

“I still think I’m lively and energetic and I’ve hopefully got a long life in front of me.

“And this one’s just so much fun. He’s just great. I can’t wait to teach him how to play football. That’s when a dad becomes a dad.”

He said it was more difficult to look after girls than boys and “I scare most of their boyfriends off”.

He said he was “all mates now” with Russell Brand following insinuations that the loudmouth presenter had been involved in a tryst with his daughter Kimberly.

He told the programme: “He got a bit mouthy, he insinuated that he had had sex with Kimberly and my kids are always very honest with me and they give me information even when I don’t ask for it because it was all over the papers.

“Kimberly said: ‘Dad no, I just got caught in a photographic position. We were going into his flat because I lost the keys to my flat’, and so he insinuated at the GQ Awards that he had done the dirty deed.

“And I confronted him on this from the podium and said, You didn’t, stand up and tell the truth. And he went: ‘No OK Rod, you got me there, I didn’t’. So I stood up for her.”

Asked if he fancied a knighthood like McCartney, Stewart replied: “That would be wonderful.”

Fresh from a guest appearance on the X Factor, he said there was “something wrong” with a shortcut to success and stardom.

Last week, viewers saw the veteran rocker sing on the ITV show and offer advice.

Speaking about his experience, he said: “The kids – some of them were good, yes, some of them were extraordinary, some of them were a little out of tune and gay.”

Asked about advice for the hopefuls, one of whom will walk away with a life-changing record deal, he said that as a “very old fashioned guy” he believed in “doing your apprenticeship”.

Stewart added that a lot of them “didn’t have any presentation whatsoever”.

“And you only get that by working and working so I would advise that to anybody coming into the music business.

“This is a shortcut to success and stardom but there’s something wrong with it and I can’t put my finger on it.”

He said 21-year-old hopeful Leona Lewis was his favourite.