Calvin Harris Has A Framed Picture Of Rod Stewart In His DJ Booth

According to a video shared by Steve Aoki, Calvin Harris actually has a framed picture of Rod Stewart in the DJ booth when he’s on stage.

While we’re not sure if this is a one-time event, Steve Aoki shared the footage on Tuesday August 14th with the caption “When u realize @calvinharris has a framed photo of Rod Stewart on his dj booth. Simply amazing.”

Calvin Harris followed up Rod Stewart’s achievement of becoming a Scottish artist to reach #1 on the US Billboard charts. Calvin Harris accomplished this in 2011 and Rod Stewart did it in 1993 for his single “All For Love” which featured Bryan Adams and Sting.

When u realize @calvinharris has a framed photo of Rod Stewart on his dj booth. Simply amazing pic.twitter.com/HVFMFpIKmB

— Lie To Me Aoki (@steveaoki) August 15, 2018

When u realize @calvinharris has a framed photo of Rod Stewart on his dj booth. Simply amazing pic.twitter.com/HVFMFpIKmB

— Steve Aoki (@steveaoki) August 15, 2018

It’s a small detail, but it says a lot about how Calvin Harris sees himself and his place in music history. He’s not exactly hurting for accolades of his own — by 2018 he’d already logged multiple UK number ones, a stack of Billboard hits, and a run as one of the highest-paid DJs on the planet — yet he’s still keeping a photo of a fellow Scottish icon by his side every time he steps on stage. That’s the kind of gesture that reads less like superstition and more like genuine respect for the guy who paved the way before him.

And the “All For Love” connection checks out. Bryan Adams, Rod Stewart, and Sting’s collaborative power ballad — originally written for Disney’s 1993 film “The Three Musketeers” — spent three weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 that year, making Stewart the first Scottish artist to top the American singles chart. Calvin Harris matched that feat in 2011, when his collaboration with Rihanna, “We Found Love,” hit number one on the Hot 100 and made him the first Scottish solo artist to top the chart since Stewart’s run nearly two decades earlier. It’s a genuinely rare club — two artists from the same country, separated by almost twenty years, both breaking through on the same chart with a song that wasn’t a solo credit but a high-profile collaboration.

So when Aoki’s video caught Harris’ setup mid-set, it wasn’t just a funny stage prop — it was a nod from one chart-topping Scot to the guy who got there first. Given how much Harris has talked over the years about his influences and his roots, it tracks that he’d want a piece of that history literally in view every time he performs, a quiet reminder of the lineage he’s part of even while he’s up there commanding a festival crowd of tens of thousands.

Whether the photo travels with him to every show or was just there for this particular one, Aoki clearly thought it was worth pointing his camera at — and honestly, so do we.