Stewart was born in Sunderland. In 1980 he and his ex-girlfriend Annie Lennox founded the Eurythmics, going on to sell 100 million records. After the band split in 1990 he collaborated with artists such as Mick Jagger, Sinéad O’Connor and Stevie Nicks. He lives in the Bahamas, Jamaica and Nashville with his third wife, the photographer Anoushka Fisz, with whom he has two daughters, Kaya, 23, and Indya, 21. He has two sons, Sam, 36, and Django, 32, from his second marriage, to Bananarama’s Siobhan Fahey.
Wherever I am in the world, when I wake up I have coconut water, then sliced apple and some green tea with a little bit of honey and fresh lime. Then I meditate for at least 20 minutes.
I don’t like gyms, so I live somewhere it’s easy to stay fit. In my first ever interview, in the Sunderland Echo, they asked me what I would do if I made it and I said move to the Caribbean. Now I live on a tiny island in the Bahamas and I walk along its one long beach and back barefoot, about three miles. Then I swim in the sea.
I have brunch at about 11.30am and from 12.30pm I work. It could be directing a short film or writing and producing — I’ve just finished Daryl Hall’s new album, but everyone knows work stops dead on 6.30pm.
At 7.30pm I always mix myself a vodka martini, very strong with two olives. Before Annie and I had our first success with the Sweet Dreams album we’d been broke, living in a squat in Crouch End, but eventually we both bought little flats in Paris. Mine was near La Coupole brasserie and the barman made me my first ever martini. Every evening after that he’d see me approaching and prepare my drink. I’ve loved the ritual ever since.
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When Annie and I were a couple we wrote no songs. But after we split up, the music poured out. We still talk all the time — probably more than most married couples. We have dinner with my wife and her husband. People assume the conversation will be all about music but we’ll be talking about my daughter’s puppy.
Whenever we’re on stage together, sparks fly — it’s always emotional: most of the songs are about our relationship, so you’re standing two feet away from your ex, looking at them, knowing what we’ve been through. But she’s not accompanying me on my current tour where we play all the Eurythmics hits because she hates touring. Fair enough; she emailed to wish me luck.
Instead I’m performing with an all-female band and three amazing singers including my daughter Kaya, who’s Annie’s goddaughter; she was singing There Must Be an Angel on Annie’s knee aged five.
Right now I’m in London for the opening of The Time Traveller’s Wife, the musical I wrote with Joss Stone, who’s my Nashville neighbour. Last night I went to a French restaurant with Bryan Ferry. In 1993 he took me to a dinner in St Tropez. I didn’t want to go but I was seated next to Anoushka as we both take photographs. We talked till 3am.
Bryan and I are both from small mining villages in the northeast. I taught myself guitar, I still can’t read music. I left school at 16 for London because I’d seen images of people there who had long hair and flower-power T-shirts. You didn’t see that in Sunderland.
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I go to sleep some time after midnight. First I watch television. I love Snabba Cash, that’s Swedish, and Fauda, which is Israeli. My all-time favourite is Gomorrah. I wrote an opera, which is now being made into a film, with the guys who did the score for it. They contacted me after I posted an Instagram video of myself nodding along to their music. I meet a lot of people that way. I can’t believe I’m 71 — you get older but you don’t feel any different in your brain.
Words of wisdom
Best advice I was given
Trust your wildest dreams
Advice I’d give
It’s scary to step outside the status quo, but it’s much scarier being in it
What I wish I’d known
Not to stay up for a week on amphetamine sulphate
Dave Stewart’s Eurythmics Songbook tour plays Sunderland Empire Nov 10 and London Palladium Nov 17. The Time Traveller’s Wife is at the Apollo Theatre, London W1, until Mar 30
