Rod Stewart gets his ''best ideas'' when he's driving.

The 'Maggie May' hitmaker finds getting behind the wheel of one of his many vehicles clears his head and helps his creativity.

He said: ''I love to drive. It clears my head and I get my best ideas then.

''The one thing I don't do any more is drive at night because I like to have a drink of wine every night.''

Rod finds songwriting ''wonderfully fulfilling'' and thinks of his songs as being his ''babies''.

He explained: ''I long for the next song to be written but, in says that, I wouldn't write unless I had to.

''It's wonderfully fulfilling, when it's right, and you go, 'Blimey, did I write that?' One minute your page is empty, later it's got some stuff on it.

''It gives me even more satisfaction, because my songs are like babies. You create them, you nurture them, and you bend them and twist them and then you put them out to the public and then you hear them on the radio and you go, 'That's amazing'. To hear it back.''

And the 70-year-old star still gets excited when he hears his work on the radio.

He added to Uncut magazine: ''That buzz hasn't left me after all these years, to hear it on the radio.''