Rod Stewart told The Guardian that Elton John showed him up one Christmas when the "Rocketman" singer bought him a Rembrandt painting.
During their feud, John released his autobiography, "Me," in which he told his side of the feud, writing that he always tried to upstage Stewart. In a reader interview with The Guardian, where celebrities answer questions from the publication's readers, Stewart was asked about his favorite time when John tried to upstage him.
The British rock singer replied that John showed him up the most "in private."
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"We used to live 20 minutes from each other in Berkshire, so for Christmas I bought him a pop-up fridge from Harrods," he recalled. "You pressed a button and there'd be steam and lights and a bottle of Champagne. It cost me £600 — a lot of money in the '70s. We swapped presents and he said: 'Oh very nice, dear, thank you.' He gave me a Rembrandt painting! I've never felt so stingy."
Stewart continued: "He's eternally the most generous person I've ever known. I'm not sure what the best one I've done on 'her' is … he's usually got one over on me. I can't bear it. We communicate through the press now, but we love each other. That's what counts."
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Rembrandt (1606-1669) is considered one of the Dutch Old Masters. Most recently, one of his paintings sold for $20 million to $30 million through a private Sotheby's sales channel.
In John's autobiography, released in 2020, the "Rocket Man" singer said he tried to send Stewart a message to end the feud but Stewart's manager told him the rock singer couldn't speak because he was on "constant vocal rest" between shows.
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In October, the same month the book was released, Stewart said on the British TV presenter Chris Evans' podcast "How to Wow" that he had also tried to offer an olive branch by inviting John's sons Zachary and Elijah to use the soccer pitch at his house.
