Way back in the '70s Rod Stewart was one of the bad boys of rock ‘n roll, shrieking and rasping out classics such as 'Hot Legs', 'Gasoline Alley' and 'Maggie May' to the delight of millions of fans across the world.

With his huge mop of blonde hair flying wildly he strutted his stuff with such wild animal abandon that it made Tom Jones and Elvis Presley look like choir boys.

And the fans went ballistic as he belted out a string of raw, yet at times quite sentimental and moving songs; music that never clearly slotted into one single genre, but with deep roots in rock, soul, folk, blues and R&B.

But all the fame and money got to him. So did scorching British taxes so he crossed the pond and lived the high, wild life of fame and notoriety in the US of A.

There he produced two albums, 'Atlantic Crossing' in 1975 and 'A Night On The Town' in 1976. Both were good, but he seemed to have lost the real raw edge of his first three great UK-made albums, 'Never A Dull Moment', 'Every Picture Tells A Story' and 'Gasoline Alley' that kick-started his wild trip to stardom.

The '80s blurred past for him and it wasn't until 1993 when he teamed up with Ron Wood — who worked with him in the late sixties with various groups, including Small faces and the Jeff Beck Group — that the idea of producing a purely acoustic album was born.

They made the album in a makeshift mini concert hall, which was little more than a converted sound studio at L.A's Universal Studios, with Rod sitting down on a pub stool surrounded a mass of musicians including a full string section, backing vocalists and a core band of talented rockers, plus a small, select audience.

And that's when this unplugged album was created, complete with Rod The Mod’s old favourites such as 'Maggie May', 'Hot Legs', 'Cut Across Shorty' and 'Every Picture tells A Story', plus the gentler 'Have I Told You Lately', 'Waltzing Matilda' and 'The First Cut Is The Deepest'.

This selection of 15 tracks from the original album, plus two bonus tracks, tells the true life story of an iconic rocker — and it makes for great listening.

With the CD comes a DVD of the man and the playing of most of the songs on the CD. Throughout Stewart's voice oozes passion and commitment in a style that will never really date. Great entertainment, even for those who were born long after he first rocked to fame.