Diamond enjoying tour

MARVIN GLASSMAN

At 71, singer/songwriter Neil Diamond could easily settle into retirement, looking back on his close to 50-year recording career, selling 125 million records with 39 top-40 songs. But Diamond is not ready to exit the limelight yet. He is currently on a 31-city North American concert tour that will bring him to Vancouver’s Rogers Arena on July 21.

Diamond has had much to beam about lately. On April 21, he married for the third time; this time, to his 41-year-old manager, Katie McNeil. As well, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2011 and ended that year as a Kennedy Centre honoree for lifetime achievement in the performing arts.

“I feel so fortunate to make my dream a lifetime’s work. Having Katie with me, being honored over the past two years, I am as excited about singing and songwriting now as I ever was. I feel that I have been rejuvenated. I’m looking forward to another 20 years of singing and songwriting,” said Diamond in a phone interview from his home in Los Angeles.

Diamond has sold more records in his career than most artists, yet seems to be humble enough to avoid the excesses of stardom. His last two CDs, Twelve Songs (2005) and Home Before Dark (2008), gave him the status of being the oldest artist to reach number one on the Billboard music charts.

“It’s a joy to know that those young enough to be my grandchildren are still interested in listening to my new songs, along with their parents and grandparents,” he said.

Opening his current tour in Fort Lauderdale on June 1, Diamond sang 29 songs in a two-hour concert without either an opening act or intermission. Dressed all in black, Diamond performed his most beloved songs from the past five decades, ranging from his first hit, “Cherry, Cherry” (1966), to “Hell Yeah” (2005), with his 14-piece band. Most memorable for Diamond fans was his singing of signature tunes “America,” “I Am I Said,” “I’m a Believer” and “Sweet Caroline” – the crowd sang along with him.

“I am grateful that, after all these years, people resonate with my songs. I try to be honest and truthful in everything I do, just the same when I was struggling in the 1960s. But, for me, it is not the fame or money that moves me – it is the challenge of expressing myself in new songs.”

Diamond recreated, to a degree, his Jewish upbringing when he starred in the film The Jazz Singer (1980), a remake of the tale of a cantor who found fame as a pop singer. Although the film was viewed by some critics as out of date and they were harsh on Diamond’s acting ability, Diamond had three hit songs from the film: “America,” “Hello Again” and “Love on the Rocks,” all of which can be heard on the concert tour.

“Even though my parents wanted me to become a doctor and not a cantor, the film is a tribute to my Jewish heritage,” said Diamond. “I worked very hard to retell this classic story of a Jewish cantor who left his expected place in society for a world in show business. I loved the retelling of the Jewish experience. So much of the story reminds me of my grandparents and their kind of life. They were immigrants to America and taught Yiddish to me as a child.”

He added, “I wanted Yiddish in this movie. In fact, I tried to convince the director at one point to have the whole opening in Yiddish, with subtitles, as they did in The Godfather. Yiddish is a beautiful language and I wanted to do my part to keep it alive.”

Born in Brooklyn in 1941 to Akeeba and Rose Diamond, young Neil knew that he wanted a life in music but, to satisfy his father’s wishes for him to have a stable career, he enrolled as a pre-medicine student at New York University and was awarded a fencing scholarship. However, after taking his first job as a songwriter for $50/week in 1961, he was hooked on a music career.

Diamond’s first marriage, to Jewish schoolteacher Jaye Posner in 1963, lasted for six years, until they divorced, having had two daughters together. Diamond married Marcia Murphy in 1969 and had two sons with her, before their divorce in 1994; his $150 million settlement with Murphy was one of the largest in history.

“Marcia was worth every penny I gave her,” said Diamond. “I am difficult to be with, as songwriting demands so much of my time that it was unfair to both my wives to stay married.”

Although Diamond has some disdain for organized religion, he embraces Jewishness and raises funds for organizations he personally admires. The musician has performed for Chabad, singing “America” at the 2002 L’Chaim to Life Telethon in Los Angeles, and he donated funds to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem at a 2003 dinner in honor of Barbra Streisand (with whom he sang the duet “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers”).

“I am Jewish,” he said. “I believe in G-d, love the traditions I learned growing up, and tend to be very spiritual, so I want to pass on to my four grandchildren all I know about their heritage.”

After the end of the concert tour in September, Diamond will be going on a six-month honeymoon that will include stops in New York, Israel and Italy, among other places.

“I want Katie to know everything about me and my past,” he explained. “Aside from my natural ties to New York City and Israel, my mother has relatives in Italy, so we look forward to a wonderful journey together.”

For more information on Diamond, visit neildiamond.com. For tickets to Diamond’s Vancouver concert, call 604-899-7676 or go to rogersarena.ca.

Marvin Glassman is a Toronto freelance writer.

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