BOB SEGER CONQUERS THE WORLD (And About Time!)

By all accounts, Bob Seger is your archetypal Nice Guy—polite, friendly, low key, easy-going, self-effacing, able to laugh at himself with ease. Despite the beard and shoulder-length hair, he has the well-scrubbed look of a 30-ish Midwestern-boy-next-door.

Even so, there’s something initially disarming about that demeanor as he steps out of a Holiday Inn shower and into a dark blue bathrobe for a noon interview on the day of his first New York date as a headliner. “Went to see the Eagles last night,” he offers by way of explanation. “They were...uh...just like the Eagles. Real good.” He shrugs, grins, and takes a seat, small-talking all the while.

Of course Seger, whatever his natural disposition, has all kinds of new reasons these days for feeling so good. Cracking the Big Apple, after 13 years as a regional rock star, is no small achievement, though he takes it in stride. He’s also riding the crest of his first Top 10 single ever (“Night Moves”) this very week. And the album that song is named after is on the verge of going platinum (another first for him).