As ordinary as some people found Manilow’s music, his upbringing was anything but. His mother, Edna, had him when she was 19; his Irish American father left when he was a baby. So he grew up with Edna and her parents, an only child, in what was then a down-at-heel Brooklyn. Edna later remarried, and although he loved his stepfather, the couple drank and argued a lot, it seems, but “even though everybody had their own shit I always felt loved”. He only met his biological father, a truck driver for a local beer factory, twice in his life, he says. Once, when Barry was 13, he dropped by and gave him a reel-to-reel tape recorder as a present. “He said: ‘I’m your father.’ And: ‘I think you’d like this.’ And before he could say anything else, grandma came running out of the apartment building that we lived in and was yelling at him: ‘Get outta here!’ And so he ran back to his truck and took off.” The second time was in his dressing room, years later, when he was an established star. “He came in and said: ‘You did a real good job out there.’ And that was it.” He doesn’t know why his family hated his father. He never asked, he says. “He wasn’t real to me. I never really thought about it.”

Being gay came on very slowly to me … Coming out was such a non-event. Everybody knew

When Mandy went to No 1, I hoped it would go away … it was not what I was planning on doing with my life

His mother, meanwhile, seems to have clung to him. When he moved to an apartment in Manhattan in the early 70s, Edna one day told him she had moved into the apartment above. “I was such a nice guy, I didn’t say: ‘Are you fucking crazy?’ I pretended that that was a good thing, and that was the last thing I wanted.” Edna repeatedly attempted suicide. One time she phoned him from upstairs to say she had taken an overdose, and he had to take her to hospital. She went to rehab and recovered, and he supported her once he made money, but he felt he had to look after her. “Guilt. Jewish guilt,” he says.

Manilow’s own attempt at a conventional relationship was short-lived. He married his high school sweetheart, Susan, aged 21 in 1964, but they separated within two years. He attributes the break-up to his falling in with the musical theatre crowd he’d started working with after finishing his day job, at the mailroom at CBS in New York. “They were showbiz and they knew stuff that I’d never even heard of musically,” he recalls. “I never wanted to leave that place, but Susan was waiting with dinner for me. That’s why we split: because I was going to be a very bad husband to her.” He presents it as a choice between domestic stability and music, and he chose the latter. As he puts in his memoir: “My passion for music had obliterated everything in its path.”

It was not long after this that Manilow began to discover his sexuality, although “being gay came on very slowly to me”, he says. He met his husband, Garry Kief, in 1978 and they have been together ever since. He only went public about being gay in 2017, in an interview with People magazine. It was simultaneously front-page news and not really a surprise to anyone. “It was such a non-event,” says Manilow looking back. “Everybody knew. I wasn’t hiding from it.”

His mother, who died in 1994, was also fine with it, he says. “She just loved Garry. It was a phone call, and I said: ‘Ma, you know I’m gay? And Garry and I …” She said: ‘Yeah, I always knew that you were gay.’ I said: ‘You did?’ She said: ‘Oh, yeah. When you tried to put my high heels on …’ And I said: ‘Stop! Stop!’” He’s laughing.

It was a different era, though. “In the 70s, when I was starting off, it would have ruined me, it would have killed my career,” says Manilow. “Not just me, but the record company and everybody that worked for me. It would have hurt everybody. So I couldn’t be honest about that.” Even in the 80s, while British artists such as Boy George, Bronski Beat and Soft Cell were breaking down barriers, most gay performers still had to play it straight, like George Michael, Freddie Mercury and even Elton John, who married a woman in 1984.

Manilow’s mostly female fanbase has not been deterred at all. He still gets knickers thrown at him on stage – “they’re much bigger now, those knickers,” he laughs. But it’s tempting to re-read some of Manilow’s most heartfelt songs in light of his personal history. Break-up songs such as Tryin’ to Get the Feeling Again, This One’s for You, Ready to Take a Chance Again, Even Now, Mandy – often they’re lamenting failed or past relationships. Or I Made It Through the Rain, which feels like a personal survival anthem (“I kept my world protected”). Beneath the polished facades, did we miss the emotional torment? Admittedly, schmaltzier songs such as Can’t Smile Without You or The Bermuda Triangle don’t fit into this thesis, but even his grooviest, most upbeat hit, Copacabana, is actually a tragic story: Lola the showgirl ends up drinking herself half blind and losing her mind 30 years later.

Manilow disavows any personal reading of his music: “I’ll give you a romance, but torment: no,” he says. “I was writing songs I was hoping that people would like. That’s it. I’m not writing about myself.” Besides, many of his songs were written by or with others, he has a group of lyricists who have worked with him for decades, and he often collaborates. On his new album, for example, there’s a song co-written with Gary Barlow. So even when he sings Once Before I Go, it doesn’t mean it’s literally about him going anywhere, he insists. Except, hopefully Britain next month. He’s in rehearsals again this week. “I’m going to do this tour if it kills me,” he says.

When I ask Manilow which of his own songs is his favourite, after some consideration, he lands on I Write the Songs. This is surprising and perhaps quintessentially Manilow. Surprising because he actually didn’t write I Write the Songs. He’s proud of the fact that the original demo of the song was nothing like what he turned it into. But also, for anyone who actually listens to the lyrics, the “I” who says they write the songs (that make the whole world sing and make the young girls cry) is actually music itself. So Manilow is just the messenger, at the service of music – the interpreter, the reluctant showman. That’s all he claims to be. And whatever deeper forces might or might not be driving him, the show must go on.

Barry Manilow, 82, gives update on his cancer battle as he cancels more tour dates

The singer revealed his early-stage lung cancer diagnosis in December after doctors found a spot on his left lung

Despite a slew of show cancellations and postponements, Barry Manilow has his heart set on a June stage return amid his ongoing cancer treatments.

On Friday, the 82-year-old singer-songwriter announced that while he has to cancel his “Hits Come Home” residency dates in May at Westgate Resort in Las Vegas, he’s “making great progress” with his lung cancer treatment and plans to return to the stage sooner rather than later.

“Good news! I went to the doctor yesterday and he said I’m making great progress and look great! Well of course I do! Thank you very much!” he wrote on X. “All the training and exercising I’ve put in is paying off.”

“He did say, however, that I’m not quite ready for Vegas. That means I won’t be able to return for our May shows at @WestgateVegas. But the good news is he said I will be ready for my June arena shows in the UK. It’s going to be great to see you all in the UK. Westgate Las Vegas is my home away from home… and I’ll see you all in July. In the meantime… come to the UK! We’ll be there in June and hope you will be too! See you then… Barry.”

In December, Manilow revealed he had been diagnosed with early-stage lung cancer after doctors discovered a cancerous spot on his left lung following a bout of bronchitis.

“As many of you know I recently went through six weeks of bronchitis followed by a relapse of another five weeks,” Manilow wrote on Instagram at the time. “Even though I was over the bronchitis and back on stage at the Westgate Las Vegas, my wonderful doctor ordered an MRI just to make sure that everything was OK. The MRI discovered a cancerous spot on my left lung that needs to be removed. It’s pure luck (and a great doctor) that it was found so early. That’s the good news.”

“The bad news is that now that the Christmas A Gift of Love concerts are over I’m going into surgery to have the spot removed,” he continued. “The doctors do not believe it has spread and I’m taking tests to confirm the diagnosis. So, that’s it. No chemo. No radiation. Just chicken soup and I Love Lucy reruns.”

In February, Manilow announced he was rescheduling additional February and March dates on the tour after a “very depressing visit” with his surgeon.

That same month, the “Copacabana” singer detailed a tough conversation he had with his doctor.

“He said, ‘Barry, you won’t be ready to do a 90-minute show. Your lungs aren’t ready yet,’” Manilow continued.

“You’re in great shape considering what you’ve been through, but your body isn’t ready. You shouldn’t do the first arena shows. You won’t make it through.”

Manilow continued, “I had a feeling he’d say that. Deep down… my body knew what my heart didn’t want to admit: I wasn’t ready… When I do come back, I will COME BACK!!!”

Fox News Digital’s Ashley Hume contributed to this post.