Rod Stewart: Do ya think I'm sixty?

• Rod Stewart: still going strong. Picture: Getty

MOST Scottish children of the 1970s have a particular shared cultural moment. It was the time that they realised Rod Stewart isn't Scottish: a shock akin to discovering Supergran is actually a Rada-trained actor from High Wycombe (she's not, by the way), the realisation that Stewart spoke with a London accent was one of the most identity-confounding moments for a generation. And that might be why we, as a nation, have decided "accent schmaccent, Stewart is Scottish enough for us".

Stewart's father, Robert, was a master builder in Leith, who instilled in his youngest son a love of Scotland. He is Celtic's best-known supporter, and although he might be one of the world's best-selling recording artists, he's also rumoured to be prone to just a touch of parsimony ("I don't mind buying one round of drinks, but I'm bloody well not going to buy another", is a famous Stewart line). Add that to the fact that the man has worn enough tartan in his five-decade career to rival Moira Anderson, and I think we can say, Roderick David Stewart, born in Highgate, North London, is as Scottish as stovies.

And so with full national honour we wish you, Rod (the God) Stewart, CBE, many happy returns for tomorrow, the day that you, having already entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame back in 1994, enter yet another pantheon of achievement: pensionerhood.

Stewart, once described by the Godfather of Soul, the late James Brown, as the "greatest white soul singer alive" celebrates his 65th birthday tomorrow. Thus, to his list of accolades, including 62 hit singles, more than 250 million albums sold, including 19 million of his last four albums alone (the Great American Songbook collection], being No33 in Q magazine's list of the Top 100 Greatest Singers of All Time, Rod Stewart can now add a state pension. You can't argue with that.

What's more, he can legitimately claim to be something unique in the fickle world of pop: a survivor. A man who has suffered personal trials (a penchant for beautiful women a good few decades younger than him has kept the gossip columns filled), countless fashion faux pas (leopard-print leggings, anyone? Hot Legs indeed) and professional struggles – after 1978's album Blondes Have More Fun… Or Do They? there was a 25-year drought of chart-toppers, and for a while in the 1980s Stewart almost caused a national irony shortage with his never-ageing lothario rocker style. But what's amazing about Stewart is that he's still here – and, in a way, we love him more now than we ever have.

OK, he's not alone. Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Tom Jones, even Keith Richards is still wobbling around somewhere. But there's something different about Rod. He may not be revered like McCartney or Jagger, but he's seen to be something that neither of them can pull off: an ordinary bloke who has found a new audience while moving on enough to keep the original fans quite happy.

Before Macca was upsetting people and sullying The Beatles' legacy by appearing on The X Factor last year, Stewart had been a mentor on American Idol back in 2006. At a Rod Stewart gig, there will be fans who got to know and love the gravelly growl in the 1960s through The Jeff Beck Group or The Faces, as well as plenty of whippersnappers who think he's a crooner.

And it's hard to argue with his back catalogue. Maggie May, Sailing, This Old Heart of Mine, even Do Ya Think I'm Sexy? has a certain retro disco charm.

Part of his success might be that he was always a musical chameleon. Al Jolson was the music played at home. Then when his father gave him his first guitar, in 1959, it was skiffle that appealed. Next, Stewart turned to the blues. After that, he went through a phase of being called Rod the Mod, then there was glam rock and his love of soul music. There's never been a simple formula you could apply to Stewart's musical style or his appeal.

Although back in 1980, music critic Lester Bangs castigated him for carrying out the greatest betrayal of talent pop music had ever seen, I think it would only be fair to say Stewart has had the last laugh.

But there's something else about Rod. It's that we think of him as ordinary. Or certainly more ordinary than the Ronnie Wood school of 1960s rockers, whose main role seems to be providing tabloid headlines and Celebrity Big Brother contestants.

Maybe it comes from the love of football? Or maybe it's the reputation for being tight? Whatever it is, despite the head of expensively maintained highlights, the finely cut suits and the multimillion bank balance, which has paid for his private yacht, a house in LA and a pile in Epping Forest, Rod is seen as one of us. He's a regular guy, prone to gaffes like getting drunk before making his wedding speech (when he married Rachel Hunter], or falling asleep on shopping trips to be awakened only to pay the bill (with current wife Penny Lancaster]. Even when it comes to the fabulous homes, what we remember about the LA pad is that its top floor is filled with a giant train set. The Epping Forest mansion, where he spends most of his time now, sticks with us because it's got a full-sized football pitch. "I go down there five times a day," he has said. "It gives me more pleasure than any painting, Ferrari, whatever…" See, ordinary.

Even his love life, which in decades past was the stuff of legend, is all quiet domesticity these days. He may have seven children with five different women – Sarah with art student Sarah Boffey, Kimberley and Sean with first wife Alana Hamilton, Ruby with model Kelly Emberg, Rene and Liam with second wife Rachel Hunter and Alastair Wallace Stewart (you don't get much more Scottish than that) with current wife Penny Lancaster – but Stewart's days as a lothario appear long gone. He's more likely now to be seen as the supportive husband sitting in the audience for Lancaster's Strictly Come Dancing appearances, or the protective father telling Russell Brand to behave himself when he boasted about sleeping with Stewart's daughter Kimberly. "He's got to be careful," Stewart said. "He might be a bit of a player, but he shouldn't boast. I never did."

And not only did he never show off, he's also been refreshingly honest about feeling a little bit vulnerable when things didn't work out. After being dumped by Rachel Hunter for being boring, he confessed that he was knocked for six. "I don't know how I carried on," he said. "It's amazing what resilience can do. I stopped drinking – before I would always have a drink before I went onstage, but I just said, 'I've really got to stay grounded and in control of myself here. If you start drinking, you're going to get all teary'."

Last year, Stewart said that if he'd been asked 20 years ago whether he'd still be singing in 20 years' time, he wouldn't have known. But things look positive. "As long as my health stays and I'm fit, I will enjoy carrying on with my music."

Rod Stewart is 65 tomorrow. I think we might say he wears it well.