WATCH: Rod Stewart gets his Irish up during AMAs performance

Rod Stewart's performance of his hit song "Forever Young" at the American Music Awards (AMAs) last night, Monday, May 26, included an energetic Irish interlude.

Stewart, 80, picked up the Lifetime Achievement Award at the AMAs "in recognition of his incomparable career, body of work, and unparalleled contributions to music for nearly six decades, honoring his lasting legacy and continued influence on generations of artists and fans."

After a brief but heartfelt acceptance speech, Stewart launched into a performance of his 1988 song "Forever Young," which proved that the rocker is showing no signs of slowing down.

About halfway through the performance, Stewart's violinists broke out into a portion of "Galway Girl," followed by snippets of Irish reel tunes.

Accompanying them was a performer donning a massive drum that bore the logo for Celtic FC, the Scottish football club with deep Irish roots that counts Stewart as a megafan.

You can watch Rod Stewart's performance of “Forever Young” at the 2025 American Music Awards here:

Rod Stewart's Irish connection

Stewart, who was born in London to a British mother and Scottish father, has been a fan of the Glasgow-based Celtic FC his entire life.

At one Scottish Cup final, he heard Celtic's fans singing the Irish ballad "Grace," and the song's tale had a deep impact on him.

The song tells the story of 1916 Easter Rising leader Joseph Plunkett's marriage to Grace Gifford in Dublin's Kilmainham Jail, just hours before Joseph was executed for his role in the rising. 

Jim McCann, former member of The Dubliners, recorded the song in 1986, and it has since gone on to be covered by a litany of artists.

So intrigued by the song, Stewart traveled to Kilmainham Jail in Dublin to learn about the story firsthand, and in 2018, he recorded his own version of the ballad for his album "Blood Red Roses."

At the time, Stewart said the song is "about a love affair between a young couple, childhood sweethearts, that took place in Ireland during the rebellion, the uprising against the English in 1916.

“He was sentenced to death and a few hours before his execution they got married in the jail and were allowed 15 minutes together. He was taken out the following morning and shot. ‘As the dawn is breaking, my heart is breaking too.’ It’s just devastating.”

Around the same time he announced the cover of "Grace," Stewart claimed that BBC wouldn't let him perform the song due to its "Irish, anti-English overtones in the song.”

Speaking with Billboard magazine about his cover of "Grace," Stewart said: "I went over to Dublin and did my homework.

“I visited the jail and went into the chapel where it all happened. So it means a lot to me, that one, it really does. There was no furniture in the jail apart from the bed of jail, no table, no bed, no chair, nothing.

“Just sat on the floor, and the glass that was there when I visited wasn’t there in those days, so the wind and the snow came straight into the cell.

“Man’s inhumanity to man never stops to astonish me.”

A few months later, Stewart was in Ireland for an appearance on RTE's "The Late Late Show," and made sure to visit Grace Gifford-Plunkett's grave at Dublin's Glasnevin Cemetery.

During his "Late Late Show" appearance, then-host Ryan Tubridy gifted Stewart with a collection of poetry by Joseph Plunkett.

"Are you kidding me?" Stewart said, clearly moved by the gift.

He added: “It just means so much to me, because it was just f****** unfair the way the Irish were treated."