In the Nineties Curtis Stigers was an international pop star on the same record label as Whitney Houston and Aretha Franklin with hits on every continent.

In the UK there were top 10s I Wonder Why and You’re All That Matters To Me and his version of Nick Lowe’s (What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding, which appeared on the bestselling soundtrack to the 1993 Whitney Houston blockbuster movie The Bodyguard.

But by the mid Nineties the Boise, Idaho-born singer-songwriter seemed to bow out of the fickle pop industry.

Having started his music career as a teenager, playing in jazz, rock and blues groups, receiving formal training in clarinet and saxophone, he then took a more enduring low-key jazz route. Today he continues to perform at festivals, concert halls and clubs around the world.

We caught up with Curtis as he prepared to play a string of select UK dates that included the legendary Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club in London – and the Regent Centre in Christchurch on Tuesday.

“We played the Regent a couple of years ago and about a month later the promoter asked me to come back and it’s nice to get that reaction. It’s a lovely part of the world and I remember having a lovely run to the water. I have to run although I spend a lot of time on my bike at home. Aside from keeping some kind of fitness, I get to see places in an interesting way when I run, places I wouldn’t otherwise see.”

Curtis turned 50 last year and I wondered if this had been a milestone.

“I said at the time it just feels like turning 49. Turning 30 felt worse. I feel more comfortable in my skin at this age than when I was younger. The aches and pains come but I’m having a good time. I split from my marriage of over 20 years three or four years ago and that was a terrible time but I’ve come out the other side and fallen in love again, and I have a lovely 16-year-old daughter. So 50 ain’t bad: I can recommend it! “ So would he consider marrying again?

“I think so. For the first year or so we both promised not to. We bought each other cheap little “I promise never to marry you rings!

“We have both been married before and have kids and this is nice but as you get to know each other you think, this could be a good safe place to be.

But I could be blinded by the madness of love muddling my senses!

“Love is a messy emotion but how can you not do it? I started thinking this has been the message of songs over my life. I Wonder Why is about just that: why does it always end up like this?”

The latest album Hooray for Love reflects the happy point Curtis has reached in his life – in contrast to the previous album Let’s Go Out Tonight, released 2012, which coincided with the break-up of his marriage.

“The last album was really dark, reflecting what I was going through, so I set out to consciously record 10 entirely happy love songs.

“I was married for 22 years and I was a mess. I was broken and I made her an album that was broken, although I’m very proud of the album and think it’s one of the best things that I’ve done in my career – but it was kind of hard to listen to. I’m on the other side of that now. There is life on the other side of heartbreak so I decided to make a record that reflected that.

“Hooray for Love is a song I wrote and the title came from an email a friend wrote to me after I’d started seeing my partner. It was the last line of the email and I thought it fits perfectly.”

Curtis has tended to bring out a new album every couple of years so can we expect a new one soon?

He laughed: “I’m supposed to be writing one! I’m working on it. I have a few ideas for albums kicking around.

I sit down with a guitar and I’m very good at writing half a song!

“I love starting and ending a song but everything in the middle is hard work!

I envy people who can write a song in just an hour or two and then just get on with their day. I can’t do that, probably because I’m lazy and want to get on with a million other things but if you have a deadline then you do it!

When people say they just woke up and wrote a song I feel like ‘shut up!’: it would take me three years to write that song!

“The song Hooray for Love had been in my head for a year. I thought about what it would look like; what it would sound like and what it would say. I’m a great procrastinator! It is something I do have to battle and work really hard at. I don’t sit around and watch TV much or play video games. I work hard and put things off.

“There is no real deadline for the next album. It’s not like the world is waiting up at night for it! I don’t need to keep up with Beyonce and record hits. My live shows are the centre of my career right now. There is no great hurry.”

So how does he remember life as a chart-topping pop artist ?

“The Nineties were a lot of fun but a crazy time, touring with Eric Clapton, Elton John, meeting Jarvis Cocker and Kylie. It was great fun but I don’t miss it. It was like an outer body experience and was never really me. I met all my heroes but it was time to work out what I wanted to do when I grew up.

“I love my career now; being in a band doing gigs everywhere from Edinburgh to Christchurch; being able to run to the beach and go to the pub.”

So what can we expect at the Regent Centre?

“I always do the hits but bring them up to date and take a simpler approach, and there will be my newer stuff too.”

As we spoke Curtis had dates at Ronnie Scott’s lined up as well as major festivals in Luxembourg, Germany and Montreux.

So why little old Christchurch?

“I find audiences in places like Christchurch enjoy what we do as much as people in big cities. In London audiences are kind of ‘OK, show me what you can do’ whereas in places like Christchurch people appreciate you have come all that way and have a much higher appreciation factor because you have come to them!”

Regent Centre Box Office: 01202 499199 regentcentre.co.uk