Billy Bragg: 'I got this crazy idea I was a poet'

From bedroom tussles to political struggles, Billy Bragg has chronicled our charged times. In this exclusive extract from his new book A Lover Sings, the singer reveals how he cracked songwriting – and why Rod Stewart was his salvation

I learned to play guitar when I was 16, but I’d been stringing words together since I was 12. A poem I wrote for homework caught the eye of my English teacher, and when I was chosen to read it out on local radio, I got this crazy idea that I was a poet. Soon I was thinking up tunes to go with my words, although the fact that I couldn’t play an instrument meant that I had to keep the melodies in my head.

Over the summer of 1974, my schooldays kind of petered out. Not expecting much joy from my exam results and unenthused about looking for a job, I was hoping something else might come along. Through the wall of our back room, I heard the kid next door playing his electric guitar. It was the sound of salvation. Wiggy was two years younger than me and obsessed with the Faces. Soon he was teaching me how to play my way through the Rod Stewart songbook he’d bought on mail order.

While I've never shied away from the label protest singer, I think my personal songs are as powerful as my polemics

Singing songs won't change the world … The people with the ability to bring about real change are in the audience