Dave Stewart revisits the Eurythmics songbook at Orlando's Kia Center

Dave Stewart finds time to be a fascinating thing.

The English musical legend, best known as half of synth-pop duo Eurythmics alongside Annie Lennox, has many claims to fame. Despite a busy and lengthy career of songwriting, producing and performing over decades, Stewart says that he's able to reconnect with his past by transporting himself back in time through music.

"When I go to a point in time, the first day I met Annie, or the first time we played a stadium, or the first time I learned how to play this or whatever, it's funny because time stands still, you go immediately back there. Like you can walk down the street and somebody's cutting the lawn in their garden, and the smell of fresh-cut grass, you're taken somewhere else immediately," Stewart says during a phone interview with Orlando Weekly. "Music is one of the few things that does that, right?"

Stewart's most recent musical adventure has him joining Bryan Adams on his "So Happy It Hurts" arena tour, serving as a special guest with his latest stage show, "Eurythmics Songbook." Stewart says performing live is one of his favorite things in life.

"It's always a joy to me to have an audience. Especially when I get to play and improvise on songs that, you know, the audience likely knows at least 50 percent of, unless they're a fan of Eurythmics," Stewart says. "It's a celebration between me and my band and them, because they haven't been hearing those songs live for 30-odd years."

Stewart's career spans both solo and group pursuits, including collaborations with Stevie Nicks, Tom Petty, Mick Jagger and Daryl Hall, to name just a few. Although his experience is extensive, Stewart still seems a little shocked that Eurythmics took off in the way they did with American listeners.

"In England, we didn't really have MTV blowing up like in America. So when we made the videos for 'Sweet Dreams' or 'Here Comes the Rain Again' and things like that, we didn't think we were making them for MTV. We were making little vignettes that would go with the song in a very sort of artistic way," Stewart says. "And then they put the "Sweet Dreams" video on MTV and that sort of went bonkers. Well, that's the English word for 'went crazy.'"

Eurythmics' iconic hit, "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)," is still a joy for Stewart to play for audiences decades later and it's one of his personal highlights from the Eurythmics Songbook set.

"'Sweet Dreams,' the whole place goes nuts," Stewart marvels. "'Sweet Dreams' has never been off the radio, never been off clubs, never been off festivals, you know what I mean? It's like an anthem."

Despite their now easily recognizable discography, the Eurythmics duo found themselves in an unusual personal situation upon forming in the 1980s: Lennox and Stewart had just ended a relationship.

However, Stewart feels this may have been the secret to their success all along.

"The inspiration behind all our songs, with Annie and myself, a lot of it was just the two of us together. We had been a couple, and we decided not to be a couple after four years. When we were a couple, we didn't write any songs together or separately, we were in another band and the other guy in the band wrote the songs.

"Then we decided not to live together, and then we wrote about 140 songs together," Stewart says. "It's my advice to all young duos out there, or young couples if you're getting into music: Live together, then break up and start writing songs."

With Eurythmics' recent Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction and Stewart's and Lennox's own inductions to the Songwriters Hall of Fame, it is clear that Stewart's career has brought him to a point many only dream of achieving. And it all stems from those little moments he's able to revisit time and time again in his mind.

"I can still be exactly at that moment in the room, creating 'Sweet Dreams.' Annie was lying on the floor kind of really down and depressed because we were working really hard and she didn't think we'd get anywhere. And then when I programmed the beginning of 'Sweet Dreams,' it was very loud and she leapt up, really excited. I remember all of it, exactly what happened, and I can be in that room," Stewart says.

Stewart holds a particular fondness for his return to Florida, as the state reminds him of time spent with beloved friend Tom Petty.

"I do have special connections [to Florida] because of my great friend, Tom Petty. I bought the house around the corner from him. I wrote 'Don't Come Around Here No More' with Tom and other songs. He was making the Traveling Wilburys album with George Harrison staying in my house in the back garden," Stewart recalls. "Florida has always been a really amazing audience. My main connection to Florida is working a lot and talking a lot with Tom. He was a great friend."

"Eurythmics Songbook" has brought Stewart back on the road for the first time in years, a place he says he missed and cherishes deeply, getting to connect with an audience all these years later and still feeling the same energy and excitement as he did the first time.

"Time is such a strange thing, you know? Einstein said time is an illusion, but in India, they don't agree with that. They think time is something measured in the heart," Stewart says. "Being 19 years old or 18 years old, I got signed to Chris Blackwell's Island Music, and then Elton John signed me to his record label. And my life and career started then, 50-something years ago."