American composer and writer of songs and verse who doesn’t call himself a poet, although his books of poems are best sellers. Some of his works include “Stanyon Street and Other Sorrows” and “Fields of Wonder,” 1971. At the height of his composing career, in 1981, he was doing 300 concerts. After his peak, however, he dropped out of sight and kept a low-profile by writing and doing film, as well as V-O commercials.
Rod’s unmarried mom supported him as a waitress, phone operator and dance hall hostess. He suffered a very lonely childhood, moving from town to town throughout the West. At the age of seven, he was sexually abused by an uncle. He dropped out of school at 11 to become a youthful drifter, doing odd jobs. At 16 he played Romeo with the San Francisco Young Players, then became an all-night disc jockey and dispenser of advice to the love-lorn. In 1953 he was drafted, seeing service in Tokyo and Korea.
Beginning to scribble, he wrote songs, books of poetry, got into films and became a popular balladeer. Creative and prolific, he has written over a thousand songs. Though the sophisticated are cool toward his work, he sells well.
His bouts of depression started in 1982, lasting for a decade.
A bachelor and bisexual, he never married the mother of his two children. In the ’80s, he was living in an old-world style Beverly Hills mansion with his brother-manager, Edward. Their Spanish house built in 1928 housed one of the world’s largest private record collections.
News reports state that he died of respiratory arrest, a result of pneumonia, at a hospital in Beverly Hills on “Thursday morning” 29 January 2015.
Link to Wikipedia biography