Stewart likes listening to classics
Rod Stewart: Rocker turned model railroad builder
ROD STEWART, KNOWN for decades as a consummate crooner, rocker, fashion plate and tongue-in-cheek sex symbol, is adding a new element to his image: serious model railroad builder.
The 74-year-old singer has put the finishing touch on a 23-year project that has landed him on the cover of Britain’s Railway Modeller magazine. It’s a far cry from Rolling Stone, whose cover he has graced many times. The model is an ambitious portrayal of a gritty American city in 1945, representing a combination of New York and Chicago. It’s an artistic success, one that Stewart didn’t outsource but designed and constructed from start to finish, with some help with the electrical and computer connections. “It’s the detail that I’m
Now that the rail model project is completed, he’s got more time for music. The singer says that for some reason it’s easier for him to write songs than it used to be. He’s promoting a new record — his best-known songs backed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra — and traveling.
If pressed, he can come up with a few new artists that he likes, but Stewart
proud of,” Stewart said. “There’s garbage in the streets, the windows are filthy, there’s everything you can imagine in real life is on the railroad.”
He grew up in London across the street from a railroad line and has been fascinated by trains ever since.
readily admits he’s ‘old fashioned’ and prefers to listen to classics by Otis Redding, the Temptations, and Frank Sinatra. “The greatest,” he said of Sinatra. “Probably the only white singer I’ve ever listened to and really studied his technique. And I’ve actually met him a couple of times...and his daughter is the godmother of my children. Pretty good, huh?”
When he got around to building a house in Beverly Hills, he added a room at the very top for his oversize model railroad. He would typically go up there for three or four hours at a time. “It wasn’t a whim, it took a bit of planning, and 23 years later it’s finished,” Stewart said.