Scots country singer reveals awkward way he found out music legend wanted to collab

Scottish Sun

27-06-2025

He will play the biggest show of his life next month
COUNTRY singer Kevin McGuire has revealed he was shopping in Home Bargains when Marti Pellow asked him to perform at Edinburgh Castle.
The musician was stocking up on toiletries from the discount store near his flat in Glasgow's Govan district when he got a life-changing email from the former Wet Wet Wet star.
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Kevin had a blast singing with Sir Rod Stewart
Credit: Supplied
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He's building up towards the biggest gig of his life
Credit: John Kirkby
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Marti Pellow recruited Kevin for his blockbuster gig
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Home Bargains will always be a special spot for Kevin now
Credit: Getty
It means Kevin will be swapping pub and club gigs for the biggest show of his life at the iconic landmark next month.
He says: 'I was buying razor blades and other bits as I was just about to leave on a 10-day tour of my own.
'I had missed three frantic calls from my manager and it was only when I was at the checkout I finally saw his message saying, 'Read the email Marti Pellow has sent you!'.
'Marti had written this lovely message saying he really enjoyed my music and even said I had a great voice, which is a huge compliment coming from him.
'He asked me to open the show for him but said he hates the term 'support act' and was instead inviting me to be his 'special guest' then said he would wait for my answer. I paid for my goods and emailed the promoter saying the answer was, 'Yes, yes, yes and yes' then ran all the way home.
'But I took half an hour to compose myself before replying to Marti himself, thanking him for this amazing opportunity.'
Reaching this point has been a long slog for Kevin, who worked behind several bars while pursuing his dream.
And he believes he had to wait for music tastes to change before his brand of country pop became popular.
Kevin, 32, explains: 'I've been doing country music since I was at school, when I fell in love with the genre and with songwriting.
'I loved the honesty of country and that famous phrase that it's just 'three chords and the truth'. But it was hard to get a gig as a new country singer at the time.
Marti Pellow pranked by Jamie Oliver in hilarious restaurant stitch-up
'Back then I would go online and see who was top of the country charts in America, and that's where I discovered artists like Taylor Swift before she moved into pop.
'Now it seems everyone is trying to get on board, with Beyonce's country album Cowboy Carter and Post Malone's F-1 Trillion last year.
'It's led to more country bars popping up in Glasgow, and more recognition for local country artists. So it feels like the last 10 years of slog are finally starting to pay off.'
Kevin's first break came when Clyde 1 DJ George Bowie did one of his GBX dance mixes of Kevin's cover of country classic Wagon Wheel.
The boost to his profile means he can now sell out 300-capacity venues such as Glasgow's Saint Judes.
And major promoter Regular Music, which is staging the Edinburgh Castle concerts, is now backing him as one of Scotland's rising stars.
Kevin already got a taste of the high life when he went on tour with his manager, John McLaughlin, whose own band Johnny Mac & The Faithful were supporting Sir Rod Stewart.
He says: 'John has been my mentor for years and has worked with me on my songwriting. One day he called and said he's going on tour with Rod and wanted me to come too, as I was doing a lot of the pre-production work for Johnny Mac & The Faithful.
KEVIN will return to the capital later this summer when he performs his own stage show at the Edinburgh Festival.
The singer has put together a Fringe production called Never Mind The Nashvilles, about the perils of growing up in Scotland as a budding country singer.
And he reckons his story is a real-life version of the 2018 hit film Wild Rose, which starred Jessie Buckley as a Scot who dreams of performing in Nashville.
He says: 'Never Mind the Nashvilles is about my journey trying to do country music in Scotland, and all the struggles that come with that.
'So it's songs and stories as I tell people how I got into the music in the first place and the slog of trying to get a break.
'I hope it will be a good laugh as well as a sort of truth-telling.'
He adds: 'Wild Rose kind of sums up everything I've been through.
Jessie plays a Scottish country singer desperate to make it to Nashville but when she finally gets there she realises, 'Wait a minute, I can still do country music in Scotland'.
'That's what I'm hoping to do – build the country scene in Scotland where singers can thrive instead of having to look to America.'
Never Mind The Nashvilles runs from August 15 to 17 at the Voodoo Rooms.
"I wasn't in his band but some of my songs were being played by John. That was the first time I had heard songs I'd written being played in arenas — it was a special time.'
He adds: 'Because Rod and John are good friends, Rod really looked after us and made sure we had the same catering he did.
'It was amazing as we'd rock up to the venue three hours beforehand and have the most incredible five-star buffet you can imagine. You'd be having fillet steak for lunch. It was amazing.'
Kevin even got to perform a duet of Rod's 1971 classic Maggie May with the 80-year-old rocker — in a Glasgow boozer rather than on stage.
He says: 'When Rod comes to Celtic games he always goes to Murphy's Irish Bar with John afterwards. Inevitably it ends with a sing-song and on the night I was there I ended up singing Maggie May with Rod.
'I wasn't nervous at all as it's one of my favourite songs — I must have sung it thousands of times before.'
Asked if Rod passed on any words of wisdom, Kevin says: 'Not specifically, but I learned just seeing how he takes care of himself with vocal warm ups and things like that. And also he treats his band and the crew really well. But the best thing is the way Rod still really enjoys what he does.
'I think that's why I'm not nervous when I perform. I figure there's no point being a bag of nerves when you go on stage because you've worked so hard to get there in the first place.'
Now Kevin who, along with his West End star sister Emma Ralston, was raised in Glasgow by his college principal dad Martin and uni worker mum Caroline, is preparing for the biggest gig of his life when he warms up the 8,500 crowd for Marti Pellow's Castle concert.
He says: 'When I got the news in Home Bargains I called my mum as I ran home. She was squealing with delight as she's a huge Marti fan.
'When I wrote back to Marti I just praised him for being one of the few male artists from the west coast of Scotland who is still pushing the envelope.
'It's a bucket-list gig to get and I'll never forget where I was the day I was asked to do it.'
Marti Pellow Love Is All Around 30th anniversary tour comes to Edinburgh Castle on Saturday, July 5. For tickets visit ticketmaster.co.uk