click to enlarge - Michael Bush | Dreamstime
- Rod Stewart
Editor's note, December 17, 2023: We goofed. The man described in this story is NOT Rod Stewart. Read our Maggie mea culpa here.
Rod Stewart is into thrifting.
That's the conclusion following sightings of the 78-year-old British pop singer and his wife, model and TV personality Penny Lancaster, in Addison County in recent days. On Thursday, the couple caused a stir in sleepy downtown Vergennes — at least, once folks finally realized who they were.
Lauren LaBerge Taddeo greeted the "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?" singer and Lancaster when they popped into
Sweet Charity, the resale shop she manages in the Ryan Block on Main Street.
"This couple comes in, and they're tall," LaBerge Taddeo said, adding that she informed them of the store's ongoing sale: If you buy three holiday items, they're half-price. "They're very sweet, beautiful people," she said.
click to enlarge - Featureflash | Dreamstime
- Penny Lancaster and Rod Stewart
As Stewart and Lancaster browsed, Sweet Charity employee Maggie (yes, Maggie) Catillaz had something to say to them.
"She asked if they'd been here before," LaBerge Taddeo said. "And they said, 'No,' in this thick British accent. 'We're visiting from Liverpool.'"
Catillaz filled the couple in on the store's mission — selling donated goods and putting the profits back into the community — and she began to realize she might not be talking to typical Little City Christmas shoppers. So she slipped her boss a note.
"Is he a rock star?" the note read. "Check out shoes."
"I looked down at his boots and was like,
Oh, man, those are $1,000 boots," LaBerge Taddeo said. "They're, like, alligator, glittery platform … They're not a shoe you'd wear casually."
That inspired LaBerge Taddeo to inspect him more closely.
"He's tall, he's got the spiky blond hair and a little music earring, like a G clef," she said. "So now I'm, like, really interested — like,
Who is it? Is it Sting?"
It was not.
As they chatted, Stewart opened a bag and pulled out a leather jacket he'd just bought at
Your Turn Resale Shoppe, another Main Street thrift store two doors down.
"'Look what I got,' he said," LaBerge Taddeo recounted. "He got this Harley-Davidson leather jacket for $100. He said, 'This would be $300 in the UK.'"
Stewart and Lancaster didn't leave Sweet Charity empty-handed. They purchased a pair of country CDs, which meant they got a third for free. Score.
It was only later that day that LaBerge Taddeo realized who her glamorous shoppers were when she saw a social media post from her friend Shawna Sherwin, co-owner of
Vermont HoneyLights in Bristol, asking if anyone else had seen Rod Stewart around town.
"I was like,
Shit, it was
him," she said, laughing.
Stewart and Lancaster told LaBerge Taddeo they were in Vermont because they wanted to experience a white Christmas and will be here through the holiday.
"He was so charming and sweet," she said.
Next door at
3 Squares Café, the staff was a bit more keen that something was different about the captivating couple who ordered two bowls of mushroom bisque and two hot teas for lunch. As manager Andrea Lalumiere told
Seven Days, their attire tipped them off, because "leather pants on a Thursday is a lot for Vergennes."