While known more as an interpreter, Rod Stewart is a mean songwriter when he puts his mind to it, and he was honored Wednesday at the 28th annual ASCAP Pop Awards in Los Angeles, particularly for the string of hits he wrote in the 1970s.

Stewart told a comic tale of his first attempt with longtime collaborator and Faces bandmate Ron Wood to write songs together -- they wound up drunk, with blank pages -- before thanking the mothers of his eight children, five of whom were in attendance at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel in Los Angeles.

"I remember their mothers saying, 'Shh, your father's in there trying to finish a song'," Stewart told the crowd of songwriters, music publishers and other executives as he accepted the ASCAP Founders Award.

"Glee's" Darren Criss complemented the Stewart tribute with ballad version of "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy," for which he accompanied himself on piano.

The center of the 28th annual ASCAP Pop Awards honored the most performed songs in the ASCAP repertory in 2010, and featured several performances. Pat Monahan and two of his Train bandmates performed the ASCAP song of the year "Hey, Soul Sister"; Josh Kear sang the hit he write for Lady Antebellum, "Need You Now"; Taio Cruz sang "Dynamite" to track; and Band of Horses, who received the Vanguard Award, delivered "No One's Gonna Love You."

"When we got our first [royalty] check, I thought there must be a magical gnome that shakes down the music industry," Band of Horses' Ben Bridwell said, acknowledging his naivete with regard to music publishing and performing rights organizations. "I love these checks!"

Ke$ha presented Dr. Luke (Lukasz Gottwald) with one of the two Songwriter of the Year awards; Adam Lambert (sporting a new goatee) presented the other one to Max Martin. Randy Bachman of Bachman Turner Overdrive and the Guess Who received the Global Impact Award.

The ASCAP Pop Music Awards kick off the 6th annual ASCAP "I Create Music" Expo, a three-day conference dedicated to songwriting and composing.