A small Vermont town was starstruck when Sir Rod Stewart sailed into their midst – his sparkly platform alligator boots and leather pants suggested someone sexy was in their midst, but they had no idea who.
The 78-year-old rocker and his model wife Penny Lancaster made a splash Thursday in Vergennes, a town of 2,500 on the New York border, 20 miles south of Burlington.
Stewart and Lancaster caused a stir as they browsed thrift stores – but no one could pinpoint who they were.
Lauren LaBerge Taddeo, who runs the Sweet Charity thrift store, told Seven Days VT that she noticed them immediately.
“This couple comes in and they’re tall,” she said.
She told Stewart, who is worth an estimated $280 million, about her special sale: Buy three Christmas items and they're half price.
Rod Stewart and his wife Penny Lancaster pictured November 18 in Las Vegas. The couple caused quite a stir in Vermont — even though no one was entirely sure who they were
Lauren LaBerge Taddeo, who runs the Sweet Charity thrift store and waited on Rod Stewart, thought he might be Sting
“They are very sweet, beautiful people.”
One of the employees, Maggie Catillaz, asked Stewart and Lancaster if they had ever visited Vergennes.
LaBerge Taddeo said, “She asked if they had been here before.”
“And they said, ‘No,’ in this thick British accent. “We’re from Liverpool.”
As Catillaz told the couple the story of the store, which sells donated goods and gives the profits back to the community, she began to suspect that Stewart, whose 13-year residency in Las Vegas ends in August 2024, might be above average secondhand shoppers .
Carillaz wrote a note to LaBerge Taddeo and slipped it into the palm of her hand.
“Is he a rock star?” the note read. “Look at shoes.”
Stewart, whose net worth is estimated at $280 million, browsed thrift stores in Vermont on Thursday
The town of 2,500 is located 20 miles south of Burlington, on the New York border
LaBerge Taddeo continued, “I looked at his boots and thought, 'Oh man, those are $1,000 boots.'”
“They look like alligator leather and glittery platforms.” “These are not a shoe you would wear casually.”
She said she looked closer to see if she recognized the music legend.
“He's tall, has spiky blonde hair and a little musical earring, like a G clef,” she said.
“So now I'm really interested – who is this? Is it Sting?”
She said they chatted and Stewart showed off a bag containing a leather jacket he had just purchased two doors down at Your Turn Resale Shoppe.
LaBerge Taddeo said she told her, “Look what I have.”
She added: “He got this Harley-Davidson leather jacket for $100.” He said: “In the UK that would be $300.”
Stewart can be seen making a surprise appearance at London's St. Pancras Station on December 5th
Stewart and Lancaster bought two country CDs, which meant they got a third for every three.
She told the newspaper she only realized who it was when her friend Shawna Sherwin, co-owner of Vermont HoneyLights in Bristol, posted on social media asking if anyone else had seen Rod Stewart around town.
“I thought, 'Shit, it was him,'” she said, laughing.
Stewart and Lancaster told LaBerge Taddeo that they were in Vermont because they wanted to experience a white Christmas and were spending the holidays here.
“He was so charming and sweet,” she said.
However, the owner of 3 Squares Café next door said she immediately recognized that the customers who ordered two bowls of mushroom bisque and two hot teas for lunch were special.
Andrea Lalumiere, the manager, told Seven Days she caught his eye immediately because “lederhosen mean a lot to Vergennes on a Thursday.”