People have been telling Drew Smith that he looks like Rod Stewart since he was a young, spiky-haired kid growing up in the English countryside. For his entire adult life, fans of the iconic pop star have stopped Smith on the street — and at restaurants and bars and airports — wanting an autograph or a photo. Smith often obliges, even as he insists he's not the famous singer.

Sometimes people just refuse to believe him. Sometimes they want the photo anyway. And sometimes those encounters take on a life of their own. As Stewart himself once sang, every picture tells a story. The one above marks the epilogue to a winding tale of mistaken identity,  journalistic malpractice and great hair.

In December, Seven Days received a tip that Stewart and his wife, model Penny Lancaster, were visiting Vermont for Christmas. Based on several eyewitness accounts around Addison County, I wrote an online story about the glamorous-looking couple's afternoon in Vergennes, where they hit up thrift stores, ate at 3 Squares Café and inspired the quote of the year from café manager Andrea Lalumiere: "Leather pants on a Thursday is a lot for Vergennes."
The story went Vermont-viral and was even briefly picked up overseas by a London tabloid.



There was only one problem: It wasn't Rod Stewart.

On the day he and Lancaster were purported to be in Vergennes, Stewart played a sold-out Christmas concert in Madrid, Spain. The following day, the couple hosted their annual Christmas gala in London. Meanwhile, back in Vermont, a veteran writer and editor saw his journalistic career flash before his eyes.

We quickly published a follow-up post owning up to the mistake. While my "Maggie mea culpa" offered an explanation for how the error happened, it did little to dampen the attention on "Not Rod" and "Not Penny," who were just trying to enjoy a holiday in Vermont and maybe have a white Christmas. They caused a stir wherever they went.

And the question has remained ever since: Who was that mystery couple with the charming British accents?
The married couple are Drew and Angie Smith. They are indeed from England — Dover and Kent, respectively — but currently live in southwestern France. Drew, 67, is an auto mechanic and musician. Angie, 57, is a complementary therapist. They've been married for 17 years but have been together much longer. And in June, for the first time, they met the real Rod Stewart.

As they recounted in a July Zoom interview with Seven Days, the couple had seen Stewart, 79, perform a June 25 show at Lanxess Arena in Cologne, Germany. The next day, they got a tip that he was flying out of the Cologne airport on a private jet around the same time they were heading home.

"So we took a chance and said, 'Let's go and see,'" Drew said. "And lo and behold, there he was, just sitting in an armchair with a couple of his mates."

"So I walked straight up to him — nobody stopped me," Angie recalled. "And I said, 'I just wanted to say that we saw you last night, and you were fantastic.'" Then she gestured to her partner: "And this is my husband, Drew."

Stewart turned to Drew and quipped, "Nice hair, mate."

The Smiths chatted briefly with the singer before posing for a picture.

"I was dead chuffed to have a photo," Drew said. "Made my day," 

"It was his dream," Angie added.

A representative of Stewart in the U.K. confirmed this week that Stewart and the couple did meet and take a photo together at the Cologne airport in June.
Drew has wanted to meet Stewart since starting to learn his songs on guitar as a kid, he said. Yes, he does play a handful of Stewart's tunes with his two bands, an acoustic trio called the Fingersmiths and a classic rock band, Rat Salad. In fact, he performed Stewart's 1975 hit "Sailing" at a 2017 New Year's Eve show with the German band Bläck Fööss — at the same Cologne arena Stewart played in June, no less.



Drew said he was once asked to front a Stewart tribute band but declined.

"It's too cheesy," he said, wincing.
While Drew's artistic integrity is admirable, he may be missing out on a lucrative calling given his eerie resemblance to the "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?" singer. Drew said he's been told he looks like Stewart since he was 13 or 14. People mistake him for the pop star all the time.

"Everywhere we go, people want a photo," Angie said.

The couple said the misguided celeb treatment can sometimes be overwhelming, though it occasionally has perks. A few years ago, Drew and Angie were in Prague for another Stewart concert and went out to dinner. Shortly after being seated at a table, a manager approached and asked if they wanted to move to a much nicer, more private section of the restaurant.

"It was like, Wait a minute. What's going on here?" Drew said.

At the same restaurant, a group of American women were convinced Drew was Stewart, despite his protestations.

"The only way I could get them to leave was to sign something," Drew said.

When the couple left the restaurant, Drew looked across the street. "And I said, excuse my French, 'We're fucked.'"Across from the restaurant was a throng of paparazzi, armed with cameras. "They followed us all around Prague," Drew said.

As it turns out, I wasn't the first journalist to confuse Stewart and Drew. Later that night, Drew said, "We were on the evening news." (Seriously, click the link and scroll through the photos. I'll wait…)

The Smiths said they were as charmed by Vermont as Vermont was by them, praising the people, scenery and beer. The couple were here for just over three weeks and visited every corner of the state, following a detailed itinerary Angie devised from a Vermont travel book — Burlington to Middlebury to Stowe to the Northeast Kingdom and beyond, in vain search of a white Christmas. They chose the Green Mountain State because Angie's "addicted to Christmas," she said, and all of their favorite TV Christmas movies are set in Vermont.

But as the trip wore on and a certain article made the rounds, the Smiths' relaxing Christmas vacation took on a different tone. A friend sent them the Seven Days story, and the couple "just got more and more and more and more" attention, Drew said.

And that's when they bumped into Anthony Hopkins — or rather, a Hopkins lookalike.

At a party at the Middlebury Snowbowl in Hancock, Drew and Angie met a man who bore a striking resemblance to the famous actor. Perhaps commiserating with Drew's plight, the man later posted a plea on social media for Vermonters to leave the couple alone.

They did not.

Throughout their vacation, the couple were hounded by people thinking they were Stewart and Lancaster. Even after the Seven Days follow-up clarifying that they weren't the famous couple, the Smiths were still bombarded by locals and tourists who wanted a photo with "Not Rod."

"That's the part I couldn't get over," Drew said. "People still wanting photos with me when they know I'm not Rod Stewart."

For the most part, though, the couple rolled with it.

"We weren't cross at all," Angie said. "It was quite funny for us, and as long as [people] were getting joy out of us being there, then we're happy."

Now having met Stewart, Drew understands why the confusion persists — and likely always will. "We really do look very similar," he said.

"It's quite uncanny," Angie agreed. "Separated at birth."

After the Smiths bid Stewart goodbye, they walked back out into the airport and encountered an excited Stewart fan.

"This bloke came running up and asked me to sign something," Drew recalled, adding that a member of Stewart's entourage witnessed the scene and was "killing himself laughing."

"And I said, 'No, mate, I'm not him.'"