Rod Stewart has publicly backed a second EU referendum, stating that he believes British voters have been “fooled and lied” to over Brexit.
In a new interview with the Independent, the 73-year-old singer also explains his close friendship with Donald Trump, but distanced himself from the US President’s policies.
When he was asked his opinion about Brexit, he said: “If I had my way I would definitely have a second referendum – I think the people have been fooled, I think they’ve been lied to.
“I think whether we drop out of the customs union or whatever I think it all needs to be rescheduled and we should have a new referendum because people are fed up with it. I think there are too many doubts now in everybody’s minds.
“I agree with the Mayor of London, there should be a second referendum. I might be putting my foot in it there but I do live here quite a bit.”
When pressed on his friendship with Trump, the ‘Maggie May’ singer insisted he’d “always been nice to me” but stated he didn’t believe he was a great President.
“Let me just clear up the situation,” he said. “I’ve known Trump for a long time. I’ve done concerts for him in his casinos. I live probably three-quarters of a mile down the road from him on the beach in Florida. He’s always been extremely nice to me. He’s let my friends use his golf course for nothing, and I’ve had no problems with him at all.
He added: “Is he a great president? Nah. I think his moral compass is way off. But on the other hand the country’s doing extremely well, although I believe part of that was down to President Obama – the country was starting to do great anyway, he’s just carrying it on.
“But we’ll see with the midterm elections. It does seem like the walls are closing in on my dear friend. I won’t say dear friend, he’s just a friend.”
Last week Rod claimed the BBC denied him permission to perform his classic track ‘The Killing Of Georgie’ during a Radio 2 acoustic set, as it was “too controversial”.
The singer spoke of his shock at being told that he would not be allowed to perform the track, during an acoustic set on Chris Evans’ Radio 2 show on Friday morning.
He said: “[It’s] the biggest show across the land. And I asked if I could do ‘The Killing of Georgie’, which, as you know, is about a homosexual friend of mine. Well, he was a friend of the Faces, who was murdered in the 70s.
“I thought it would be OK now because they banned it when it first came out... And I asked if I could sing it and they said no, it was too controversial. This was 1976 and now we’re in 2018… Unbelievable.”
However, the BBC had a rather different version of events, telling HuffPost UK: “No songs are banned on the BBC. Radio 2 still regularly plays Rod’s song ‘The Killing Of Georgie’. All songs performed live on the BBC Radio 2 Breakfast Show are agreed with the artist.”