Richard Wilkins grabs nervously at his hands before lowing his voice as he speaks.
Moments earlier, the Nine Entertainment Editor was gesturing wildly as he spoke of being interviewed “a long time ago” by fellow New Zealander and model Rachel Hunter.
However, while speaking about a moment during that same interview, Wilkins’s body language changes.
“Rachel Hunter, the very beautiful, wonderful and lovely New Zealand model, who was married to Rod Stewart at the time, was doing a series for TV,” Wilkins tells 9Celebrity in the latest episode of Dickie’s Diaries.
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The TV series was on New Zealanders “who are doing OK”, Wilkins recalled..
“She did something with Sam Neil, Neil Finn and Russell Crowe, all the usual offenders… and myself,” he said modestly.
The Australian-New Zealand singer-turned-journalist then recalled how halfway through the interview Hunter suddenly revealed something that took him off-guard. It resulted in Wilkins experiencing his first “fan boy” moment.
“She said ‘Oh, Rod’s been reading about you… he was quite interested in a couple of things,” Wilkins recalled.
As Wilkins speaks about the moment, he clasped his hands and narrowed his shoulders.
“When I started out singing, I kinda half wanted to be Rod Stewart,” he said, his voice almost a whisper.
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“You know, the hair, I put on a scarf, but of course I didn’t have the voice, or the talent, or the songs, or anything else. But that didn’t stop me wanting to be Rod Stewart, and I may have mentioned that to a couple of people in the early days….”
In Wilkins view, the Maggie May singer seemed to have close to the ultimate lifestyle.
“Travelling around, kicking soccer balls, making lots of money, married to a beautiful Kiwi model… seemed like not a bad option,” he said.
Wilkins then returned to discussing his interview with Hunter and how, all of a sudden, a figure appeared, pacing towards him.
It was Stewart. He walked straight up to Wilkins with questions at the ready.
“You want to be like me? Why would you want to be like me? … It’s a bit cheeky, isn’t it, saying you want to be like me?” Wilkins recalled Stewart saying.
“I said ‘Oh, no I…’ [and] he said, ‘No, I’m just kidding.”
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Wilkins then said Stewart asked how things were going with Hunter and whether Wilkins was being nice to her. Then he offered an invitation.
“He said, ‘Very good, come and have a drink with us afterwards,” Wilkins said.
“And I was like, ‘Oh my god, that was actually Rod Stewart.”
Wilkins said he and Stewart remain “pretty good chums” to this day.
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