Rod Stewart Says He Won’t Play Saudi Arabia Because of the Country’s Human-Rights Record

Rod Stewart has revealed that he turned down a huge payday to perform in Saudi Arabia because of the country’s human-rights abuses.

Stewart posted a quote from a recent interview with U.K. newspaper the Mirror on his Instagram in which he declared, “I’m grateful that I have a choice whether or not to perform in Saudi Arabia. So many citizens there have extremely limited choices… women, the LGBTQ community, the press. I’d like my choice not to go… to shine a light on the injustices there and ignite positive change.”

A source close to the 78-year-old singer told the Mirror, “Rod was determined to do the right thing and couldn’t accept the offer, no matter how much money was on the table. Some things are more important.”

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While the sum he was offered wasn’t revealed, the source told the Mirror that it was “much higher” than the £1 million Stewart rejected to play in Qatar at the 2022 World Cup, a gig he turned down because of Qatar’s similarly poor human-rights track record.

“It’s not right to go,” Stewart told the U.K.’s Sunday Times last year. “And the Iranians should be out too for supplying the arms.”

It’s illegal in Saudi Arabia to partake in same-sex sexual activity, and can possibly be punished with the death penalty. And according to the Human Rights Watch organization, there have been “consistent reports of discrimination and violence” against members of the LGBTQ+ community. In addition, Saudi officials are suspected in the 2018 murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a journalist who criticized the country’s royal family, at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey.

Stewart became a knight in 2016, and he’s said that since receiving the honor he’s made an effort to be more thoughtful about doing charitable deeds.

“I want to be seen to be doing something now,” he told the Mirror last year. “I am a knight, I should be using my power to do something for people. I am sure that if there are people out there who see what I am doing, they will pick up some slack too.”

Stewart’s other recent charitable acts include renting a house in Berkshire, U.K., for a Ukrainian family that fled their country because of the war, and giving jobs to two other Ukrainian refugees at his Essex, U.K., mansion.

On the music front, Stewart has a couple of U.S. headlining shows lined up in early November in Thackerville, Oklahoma, and Laughlin, Nevada, followed by a new series of Las Vegas residency dates later that month. Visit RodStewart.com for his full schedule.