Michael Bolton’s Time, Love and Tenderness tour opens on October 13 and visits Bournemouth on Saturday, November 27. Tickets are on sale now at gigsandtours.com

You’re returning to the UK to for your Time, Love and Tenderness tour in October. What can we expect? And how do you keep things fresh?

"The idea is making it different for me - and making it different for the band. If we’re happy with the arrangements then it’s a safe bet the audience is going to be happy because we’re bringing energy to the stage and bringing the music to life. Every now and then I’m asked if it’s tiresome going with the same repertoire every day for the entire tour.

"We are always changing it up from one audience to the next. The only thing you get tired of if you’ve been out on the road too long is the travel, that’s when everything starts to wear on you.

"Flights can wear you down if you’ve been doing it too long. We’re going to play around with the arrangements for this tour, freshen it up. It’s still going to be a greatest hits tour. Fans come for the greatest hits. They gotten married to certain songs. They’ve had their greatest and toughest moments through my albums. They’ve conceived children - or at least written about it. They want to hear the greatest hits.”

How do you do that and make them fresher arrangements but still have the songs be completely identifiable?

“There can never be a question of what the song is from the first beat; the first three or four notes. I went to see Fleetwood Mac in New York not long ago at the Garden. I must have heard 20 hits in a row. There was one song from their new album. I was looking around and saw the audience bobbing their head to the rhythm, wanting to enjoy it, but it wasn’t that immediate excitement you feel when you hear a song you know you already enjoy. It ignites you through your memory cells. You associate it with something very specific and positive, especially when there is a beloved song list. I’ve done some covers where people know and love the songs already and now it’s a question of how they feel about this arrangement. We have some great new arrangements coming up for the tour.”

What are your pre-show rituals?

“Rushing, ‘cos I’m usually late. Luckily we have a pretty tight crew and programme down where they’re all prepped for me to just show up and do my thing. Depending on how close it is to show time I have a voice lesson. I’ve been doing this for close to 30 years. Seth Riggs is the teacher.”

Why do you feel after all this time in the business you need a vocal lesson?

"Have you ever watched professional athletes before they take to the field for a game of say soccer? Professional athletes don’t run into the middle of a field sprinting - they stretch. Sometimes literally they’re lying on their back and being stretched by a trainer. In general they know what to do so they don’t injure themselves. It’s the same muscles they’ve been playing professionally with for 15 years or so. Very similar to a lot of athletes preparing, I’m doing scales. I always think of it like going to the driving range with my clubs. You start out with the light ones, the pitching wedge, nine iron, six iron then next thing you know you take your driver out. Most people do that with their vocal coaches. They have funny sounds - not necessarily funny haha – but funny strange sounds. You can do that up to 15-18 minutes. Different sounds, different vowels. It’s more important than ever for me to be doing it now as compared to the experimentation you were doing with your voice in the beginning of your career, where it’s a miracle that anybody actually makes it through their rock/club days with a voice because there’s so many ways to do injury. That’s probably the single most important thing. It’s an exercise that stretches and strengthens the chords at the same time, like something you’d do at the gym. I can’t think of the equivalent… lunges? You’re not feeling like you’re hurting yourself. If you sing up to a certain step in your voice lesson and there’s no note up there, you can’t force one.”

What TV shows do you watch while on the road?

"I love The Crown. The show is showing me a very different perspective (of the royal family). I don’t have any way of gauging if any of it was accurate or not, although from what I understand it wouldn’t be easy or fun doing something that’s on the destructive side of the family. I think the woman who is playing Elizabeth is really great. The cast is great. John Lithgow was really great as Churchill.”

Have you met the royal family?

“I met the Queen at the Royal Variety. I don’t remember anything being surprising or stringent, there was just a proper way to address her. The Spice Girls were right next to me in line and one of them forgot to curtsy so that was a scandal the next day. It wasn’t Mel B - I like Mel a lot. It wasn’t Posh. I don’t think it was on purpose. Enya was on my right. I did a show with Pavarotti in France and Princess Di was in the front row. The whole night was surreal. Bono and The Edge were performing and I was singing with Pavarotti for the first time - in Italian. I wrote down the lyrics phonetically. He saw them and said: ‘Oh, I see what you’re doing here’. He found it amusing. He was so gracious. Afterwards there was a dinner at Pavarotti’s Italian restaurant he owned. That’s when I walked up to Princess Diana. We talked about having kids and travelling at the same time and how difficult it can be. Here she was at this fundraiser for the children of Bosnia. From what I understood that’s what her year consisted of - flying into different charities and impoverished countries. That was, as far as I could see, what she was going to do with her whole life. She was committed.”

Prince Harry is getting married this year…

“She (Meghan Markle) seems really nice. I think he did good.”

Would you like to sing at the wedding?

“Sure. If I can get from there to Australia in time for my tour. The (royal) family is well-liked in the States. William is very well received from day one. I don’t think they’re going to have any problems making friends over there.”

What are your memories of playing UK shows?

“I have lots of memories because I’ve been touring here a long time. There are some beautiful venues around the world but the Royal Albert Hall (in London) is my favourite venue in the world. The Sydney Opera House is a beautiful place to play too. Once you understand the sound, you can make it a beautiful evening. I’ve done a couple of nights there with an orchestra. But give me the Albert Hall anytime.”

What else are you working on aside from the tour?

“All of May and June I’ll be working with an orchestra on an album. I don’t want to wait too long to have the orchestral experience. I have a great arranger and conductor in Los Angeles, a great tech in Sydney, a great tech in New York and we can now do things across continents. You can just turn your computer on and you conductor will say: ‘This is how I heard “Said I Loved You... But I Lied” with heavy on the strings’. I can listen, make notes. You can make changes on the spot digitally because it’s being developed before we record the orchestra. I recorded the main title song “Go The Distance” for the animated Disney film Hercules. Disney gave us permission to go ahead with the track anyway we thought was best, which was very generous - the budget was pretty high.”

“We wound up putting 30 tracks of samples down first and then Jeremy Lubbock, famous British arranger/conductor, he created this lush orchestra of players who recorded on top of the sample of parts. It was magnificent.”

How do you take care of yourself on the road in terms of exercise and diet?

“What’s kept me out of trouble is I really have to take care of myself to have a full voice. I know that there are people who are singers that are smokers and somehow they have a great voice. But eventually it’s going to catch up to you. Coating your vocal chords with anything is going to take it’s toll. I’m nowhere near that point where I want to feel time closed in on me to that extent. I feel you’re working against time in whatever career you’re in. Fortunately, with music, if you take care of your instrument, you can have a long career. Athletes, as great as they are, once they’re in their mid-thirties there’s someone on the bench - faster - waiting to take their job. In almost every sport the window starts closing faster than if you’re a musician. I’m a little jealous of guitar and sax players ‘cos whenever their strings are tired or rusty, they change them in five minutes. Singers can’t do that. Discipline on the road is no joke. The primary rule, which is ironic because singers have a tough time with this issue, is getting eight hours sleep. It’s non-negotiable to be full voiced. Musicians and singers are not to bed at normal hours. Not just me either. You have to create a bare window. You get into bed, see what time it is and do the math. And don’t wake up, don’t get out of bed until that hour arrives where you’ve had your rest. And don’t drink your head off. I don’t drink on school nights, that’s what I call them when there’s a show the next day.”

Do you still party?

“I wouldn’t say party, especially when I’m on tour. Everybody else seems like they can but that’s because they can throw their strings away. The recovery time is not worth it. Waking up feeling like you’ve had a good night’s sleep - I go to the gym five nights a week on the road - that’s a good ache. When you’ve had a good workout and you can feel like your muscles are going: ‘I got it. You want us to be in shape and function for you’. I’m a lightweight. My daughters can out-drink me, all of them. But they’re half Irish so I don’t even have a chance. It’s been a blessing that I can’t function fully if I’m not completely taking care of my body.”

“It’s interesting to be talking about this while the Olympics are happening. The work that has to go into performing at such a high level. Again, because they’re athletes, that window is going to shut for them. For me it’s not an event that happens every four years. It’s all year, every year. I’m looking at my schedule and I wanted to take a week off. Now I’m thinking about putting a week in.”

I’m always co-producing all my projects from TV to Film to Music. I’m very hands on. So for the next album, I’m going to be listening critically and stepping back and listening very emotionally to see that when I hit the road again and this music is now part of our show, I don’t want to regret a note. We have the technology to perfect things so you want that combination of emotion and perfect execution.”

You turn 65 this month. What are your plans for your birthday?

“It’s impossible where the time goes. I tell all my friends in their forties to really appreciate life because 40 to 60 goes like that (snaps fingers). It’s the quickest I remember any period of time passing. I have years where everyone goes: ‘Where did the year go?’ but in your forties it starts to fly… For me especially I started having success at 34. Then I went into high gear full-on. Toured the world, wrote an album, toured the world, wrote an album again and again and again. So to some extent I know at least where the first 12 years went. But it goes by really quickly. Some of these questions from today will help me reflect a little bit. I’m looking at these projects that are coming up and I want to stay busy and enjoy the process.”

You’ve collaborated with so many other artists. Who do you keep in touch with?

“Kenny G is someone I still play golf with. He’s been a friend of mine for 32 years - before I even took up golf. He’s pretty much a scratch golfer. He plays to a zero handicap, which is phenomenal. I have friends who are actors out in Los Angeles I work with and play with but the closest celebrity is Kenny.”

Lets talk about your Michael Bolton Charities. It’s obviously important for you to help people and give something back…

“What my organisation does is important. It’s interesting the timing of the world news… When I started my foundation 25 years ago it was with the intention of helping people who are part of economically struggling families because that’s something that I could identify with from my early years. The harshest period of being a starving artist is your family starving with you. We didn’t tell them why they were eating frozen broccoli and frozen brussels sprouts. We tried to make them taste as good as possible. After I finally had some success, my first instinct after going to a few fundraisers as a celebrity guest was to try to create an organisation that to help struggling families.”

“Then I discovered from the woman who became my executive director that the homeless shelters she visited - the families were there because of domestic violence primarily. From a boyfriend or visiting male - and in front of children, who were then traumatised and victims of domestic violence themselves. I said: ‘What can we do?’ She met with Yale University. They have a childhood youth study centre. They have skilled people who are family advocates, who sit down with these mothers and walk them through how they’re going to get on their feet and not end up in the same situation 10 miles away. They’re therapists and social workers put into one. Some of them are better equipped to handle the kids than others. We found a great music programme we introduced to them that lets the kids express themselves though rap, writing… They’re expressing things that were too painful for them to talk about. We’re trying replicate that programme. We’re trying to open a family justice centre, which is a one-stop shop destination for a woman and her kids where there’s psychiatric help, skilled social work, legal assistance - which most people don’t realize they have to contend with - and childcare.”

“I was raised a certain way. My father was very old school in a lot of ways. We were taught that you never, ever hit a woman and you never allowed anyone - if you see them, potentially being violent with a woman. I was maybe eight or 10-years-old. I got a lot of good values from my parents. There were certain things that were not tolerated in our house. Racism or jokes that might perpetuate prejudice were not allowed in our house. My father and his friends used to relate to each other by ’the Irishman on Sherman Avenue’ or ’the friendly Italian’. They were one generation from where their grandparents came from. We’re of Russian decent. In the neighbourhood where my parents lived it was maybe eight blocks of Jewish Americans. If they walked out of that neighbourhood they would have rocks thrown at them. They basically weren’t safe. Instead of being bitter about it they went in the opposite direction and raised their kids not to treat anybody, who has come from a different place, any other way. Anyone who was anti-Semitic was not worthy of the friendship.

James Bay recently cut off his long hair, and like yourself was known for his look. Have you got any advice for him now his hair is overshadowing his music?

“I have zero tolerance for hair getting overshadowed by music. (laughs) I think it’s funny - and hopefully for him it won’t be overshadowed by hair. I was in the UK doing a radio promotion when I cut my hair back in the 90s. At the radio station I was doing the interview and during it all this world news was coming through on Teletext. All of sudden it was: ‘Michael Bolton cuts hair’. It was completely insane. But that’s pop culture I guess.

“I had grown long hair because of the Brits. The invasion had happened. We had the Stones, Beatles, The Kinks, The Zombies, all these great artists on TV all the time so my brother and I grew out our hair immediately. Then we would get in trouble walking down the street with long hair. Guys with their families would yell stuff out and try to start a fight. Long hair came in and went out then grunge came in and long hair came back. If James keeps writing and delivering strong material and takes care of his voice it’s not going to matter how long or short his hair is."