Michael Bolton on his iconic love songs and what it’s really like to work with Lady Gaga

Michael Bolton opens his Love Songs Greatest Hits tour of the UK tomorrow after his longest time off the road in years due to the pandemic.

The How Can We Be Lovers tour began after Bolton spent six hours packing his bags. Michael says: He’s sold over 65 million albums and singles worldwide.

Michael says, “When people tell me that they chose my music for their wedding, one of the first things that comes to my mind is, ‘I hope you guys are still together.’

“It’s cool – limits too much liability. I remember the first time someone suggested to me, ‘Do you know how many children have been conceived with your music?’ “

Having started in the hard rock and heavy metal scene as the frontman of Blackjack, it wasn’t until the late 1980s before Michael’s shift to pop-rock ballads gave his career a stratospheric career.

How can I live without You? and his cover of Percy Sledge’s When A Man Loves A Women cemented his position of strength to be reckoned with, and then two Grammy Awards, six American Music Awards and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame followed.

The 68-year-old has written songs for Cher and performed with Lady Gaga, Paul Stanley and Jay-Z.

He can’t wait to return to the studio with Gaga following the positive response from their duo Murder My Heart, which was featured on their 2009 album One World One Love.

Michael says: “We talked about potential work in the future.

“This is something I would definitely love to do.

“It just has to make sense to both of us. His work ethic is insane – it’s off the charts. Gaga is on top of the world and immerses herself very deeply in cinema and her acting career.

“I have enormous respect for her as an artist and I love her as a person.

“You reminded me that there was something I wanted to lead through her.

“It must remain secret …”

While his arm can’t be twisted to reveal more, Michael tells me how extremely proud he is of how The Lonely Island comedy trio brought him to a new audience.

He was featured on their 2011 parody track, Jack Sparrow, which saw him sing a powerful ballad about Johnny Depp’s Pirates of the Caribbean character.

The hilarious accompanying video, where Michael dresses up as Sparrow, the other characters in Scarface’s Tony Montana movie, Forrest Gump and Erin Brockovich, had over 220 million views on YouTube and led Justin Bieber to call Bolton ” beast “.

A father of three, Michael says, “It was a fun and changing part of my career development because people think I am very serious.

“I take care of my work but I’m also the class clown who would get in trouble at school and should be sent to the principal’s office and my dad should come in.”

“Finding out what’s funny in things is something I’ve loved to do for as long as I can remember.

“Anything I could do to make people laugh or feel better is at the top of the list.”

“My daughter was sitting at her computer watching all the comments that came in.

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“She looked up at me and said, ‘You’re not going to believe what’s going on – they love it.’

“She was the one who told me about Justin’s comment.”

Although intrigued by Abba’s Voyage experience, in which the Swedish quartet’s avatars will perform in a custom-built venue in London, Michael has no plans to hang up his mic in person anytime soon.

He said, “I thought about it and was told about the hologram experience.

“I want to keep playing while my voice comes in as far as it’s with the power and the high notes.

“I want concerts to sound like records but to be fresh and alive.

“I feel nervous, like it’s my first tour – and it’s not.

“It took me 20 years to build a career, then I toured non-stop, recording, producing, promoting around the world.

“The next thing I know is that there isn’t a single show allowed to perform.

“It’s been tough for a lot of people, and a whole industry that supports hundreds of thousands of people and reaches the millions of people who love to watch music live.”

Michael’s Love Songs Greatest Hits UK Tour, with support from Rebecca Ferguson, opens tonight in Harrogate and concludes at the Royal Albert Hall in London on October 25. Tickets are available on gigsandtours.com and VIP packages on sjm-vip.com