Rod Stewart has opted to address one of the most enduring urban myths in pop music, talking on "Katie" about the claim that he once (Warning: things are about to get graphic) had his stomach pumped to remove semen after orally servicing a bunch of sailors.

The story, which spread across schoolyards throughout the 1980s, has always sounded unlikely. And surprise: Stewart says it was made up. (The story has also been pinned on various other rock stars and celebrities.)

Stewart talked about the tale in an interview with Katie Couric, who proved that she really is willing to ask anything.

"I'm as heterosexual as they come," he told Couric, explaining that the story was made up by a former publicist.

He also addressed the story at length in his new autobiography, Rod: The Autobiography, which has been excerpted by the Daily Beast [5]. Stewart wrote that he once had his publicist share a room with his wife's 7-year-old son because a hotel was overbooked. (Side note: Don't do that to your publicist or a child. Inconsiderate.)

The now-deceased publicist met a man at a bar and brought him back to the room, so Stewart fired him the next day, Stewart said. But the publicist's revenge, Stewart said, was "absolutely inspired."

"He fed the press a story in which, as a consequence of an evening spent orally servicing a gang of sailors in a gay bar in San Diego, I had been required to check into a hospital emergency room to have my stomach pumped," Stewart wrote. "I have never orally pleasured even a solitary sailor, let alone a ship's worth in one evening. And I have never had my stomach pumped, either of naval-issue semen or of any other kind of semen."

Which leaves us with exactly one celebrity emergency room urban myth. Time to set the record straight, Richard Gere.

Watch Stewart discuss the story on "Katie":