Rod Stewart loves models, everyone knows that, but it's his love for model railroading that led to his appearance on the cover of the Milwaukee-area-based Model Railroader magazine.
And that led to the magazine's senior editor Carl Swanson being interviewed in a number of British publications. Below are links to two of them.
According to the Daily Record, "Experts said the 62-year-old singer has created one of the best train sets they have ever seen. And when Rod and wife Penny went out to posh London restaurant Nobu on Monday night, the December issue of US magazine Model Railroader could be seen in the back of their car.
"The singer had spent 12 years making his special railway, which measures 124ft by 23ft."
The paper's Web site also quoted Stewart, 62, as saying, "It means more to me to be on the cover of Model Railroader than to be on the cover of a music magazine."
Swanson reportedly flew to Stewart's Los Angeles home to see the layout.
"The railroad that was revealed was extraordinary, so of course we were interested. It's definitely, if not the finest, then among the finest model railroads I've ever encountered," Swanson told the Daily Record's Ben Spencer.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
