\u201cBarry loves music as much as anyone I\u2019ve ever known,\u201d says Bette Midler, who hired Manilow as her pianist for the name-making gig she played at New York\u2019s Continental Baths in the early 1970s. Performing, Midler adds, \u201cisn\u2019t a job with him \u2014 it\u2019s a vocation, a calling.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yet now that calling faces a threat. In December, Manilow announced that he\u2019d been diagnosed with lung cancer<\/a> and that surgery would require him to postpone a number of concert dates; five months later, he has yet to return to the stage \u2014 the longest break, COVID-19 aside, he can remember taking in decades.<\/p>\n Fortunately for Manilow, he has a new album, \u201cWhat a Time,\u201d with which to occupy himself. Due June 5, it consists mostly of original material \u2014 his first such LP in nearly 15 years \u2014 though it opens with a sumptuous rendition of Peter Allen and Dean Pitchford\u2019s \u201cOnce Before I Go.\u201d Manilow notes proudly that the song, which was produced by Kenneth \u201cBabyface\u201d Edmonds, recently made Billboard\u2019s adult contemporary chart, extending his run on that tally beyond the half-century mark.<\/p>\n Barry Manilow performs in Beverly Hills in 2025.<\/p>\n (Gina Ferazzi \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n Still, performing is clearly on his mind as he leads me into a tile-roofed gym equipped with weights, a treadmill and a massage table. Manilow has been working out here every morning, he says, to regain the strength needed for his show; he\u2019s got Vegas dates on the books for July but admits he\u2019s unsure whether they\u2019ll happen or not. We settle into two leather club chairs, his dogs Jake and Abby at his feet.<\/p>\n \u201cPlease be brilliant,\u201d he tells me. \u201cDon\u2019t be boring.\u201d<\/p>\n What are you doing on a day you\u2019re not working? I see. Was the diagnosis a shock? Fair enough. I have. How\u2019d you react? Barry Manilow with Dionne Warwick in Los Angeles in 1985. <\/p>\n (Paul Harris \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n Sorry to be morbid, but were you close to death? How long you figure it had been since you weighed 128 pounds? You said you never thought cancer would get you. Why? What\u2019s it been like to be offstage for so long? Well, there\u2019s one other way. Are you working with a vocal coach? Could you do a show where you skip the uptempos? No \u201cIt\u2019s a Miracle\u201d or \u201cCopacabana\u201d? Are you allowed to smoke or drink? Before he was a skinny piano player, he was a skinny accordion player.<\/p>\n Manilow grew up poor in Brooklyn, the only son of a Jewish mother and an Irish father who split up right after he was born. As a kid he entertained his mom and his maternal grandparents by squeezing out the Jewish folk song \u201cHava Nagila\u201d; later, his stepfather brought home records by Gerry Mulligan and Judy Garland that opened his mind to jazz and pop.<\/p>\n He says today that he never saw himself as a performer \u2014 he wanted to write, arrange, produce. His first success came with jingles for brands like State Farm \u2014 \u201cLike a Good Neighbor\u201d is his handiwork \u2014 and Band-Aid.<\/p>\n \u201cMy ideas were good for pop music because of the commercials,\u201d he says. \u201cThe rules are pretty much the same \u2014 you need to grab the listener as soon as possible. For a commercial, you\u2019ve got about five seconds. For a pop song, you\u2019ve got 10.\u201d<\/p>\n In 1971, Manilow got the job with Midler and ended up working on her million-selling debut, \u201cThe Divine Miss M,\u201d which led to a deal of Manilow\u2019s own with Clive Davis\u2019 Arista Records. Despite Manilow\u2019s insistence that he was a behind-the-scenes guy, he scored a No. 1 hit out of the box with the plaintive \u201cMandy,\u201d then quickly followed that with another chart-topper, \u201cI Write the Songs\u201d \u2014 a pop-philosophical epic, as nobody\u2019s tired of pointing out ever since, that Manilow didn\u2019t actually write.<\/p>\n Barry Manilow at home in Palm Springs.<\/p>\n (Christina House \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n Bruce Johnston, who wrote \u201cI Write the Songs\u201d \u2014 and won a Grammy for song of the year thanks to Manilow\u2019s recording \u2014 says the key to Manilow\u2019s performance is that \u201che\u2019s never too cool for school.\u201d A Beach Boy for six decades until he retired from the band<\/a> this year, Johnston adds that Manilow\u2019s rendition of the song, which was also cut by Captain & Tennille and David Cassidy, \u201cis the only one I care about, honestly. He really grabbed it \u2014 he\u2019s just as real as he could be.\u201d<\/p>\n After several more Manilow hits \u2014 \u201cTryin\u2019 to Get the Feeling Again,\u201d \u201cWeekend in New England,\u201d \u201cLooks Like We Made It\u201d \u2014 Davis asked the singer to produce a would-be comeback album by his latest Arista signing, Dionne Warwick<\/a>. Warwick\u2019s initial reaction to that idea: \u201cReally?\u201d she says with a laugh. \u201cDid Barry Manilow really know anything about Dionne Warwick? As it turned out, he knew quite a bit,\u201d adds Warwick, who recalls turning up for their first session to discover that Manilow had laid every one of her albums on his piano. \u201cHe was letting me know: I know you,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n \u201cDionne,\u201d the album they made together, went on to win a pair of Grammys and spun off silky hit singles including \u201cDeja Vu\u201d and \u201cI\u2019ll Never Love This Way Again\u201d that reinvigorated Warwick\u2019s career and helped solidify Manilow\u2019s standing as a kind of soft-rock auteur.<\/p>\n Which isn\u2019t to say that rock\u2019s intelligentsia ever viewed him kindly. Though his best music finds an emotional truth in over-the-top theatrics, critics routinely dismissed Manilow as a lightweight or a schlockmeister; even now, he seems an unlikely candidate for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, where he\u2019s been eligible for induction for decades.<\/p>\n Manilow, who entered the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2002, insists the slights don\u2019t bother him. \u201cI\u2019ve never been one of the guys,\u201d he says. We\u2019ve been talking for a while, and because of the bursitis, perhaps, he\u2019s hoisted one of his legs over the arm of his chair. \u201cI don\u2019t think about awards and parties and stuff like that. I\u2019m very lucky \u2014 I live in the most gorgeous place I\u2019ve ever seen and I have the most wonderful partner that you can imagine. I\u2019m grateful he\u2019s chosen to share his life with me. We\u2019ve been together for over 46 years, and we still laugh and we still love each other. That\u2019s the greatest award I\u2019ll ever get.\u201d<\/p>\n Manilow and Kief married in 2014; the singer came out as gay three years later. (Manilow was briefly married to his high school girlfriend, Susan Deixler, in the mid-1960s.) Has he found that the world looks at him differently since he came out?<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a non-event. Nobody gave a s\u2014,\u201d he says. \u201cThey all knew. I never really hid it, but in the \u201970s and \u201980s, that would have killed the career, and I didn\u2019t want to do that. So I just never talked about it.\u201d He smiles.<\/p>\n \u201cGarry and I are just two guys that live in a house on a hill with two dogs that we love.\u201d<\/p>\n Like many of Manilow\u2019s hits, \u201cOnce Before I Go\u201d was Davis\u2019 idea.<\/p>\n Allen, the late Australian entertainer portrayed by Hugh Jackman in Broadway\u2019s Tony-winning \u201cThe Boy From Oz,\u201d had played the tune for Manilow in the early \u201980s. \u201cAnd I loved it,\u201d Manilow says now. \u201cBut I was too young to sing a song like that \u2014 that song needs age to be able to pull it off honestly.\u201d<\/p>\n Davis first suggested that Manilow perform it in his set at the post-pandemic We Love NYC concert that Davis put on in Central Park in 2021. After the show, which was called off due to weather as Manilow sang \u201cCan\u2019t Smile Without You,\u201d Davis repeatedly advised the singer to record it.<\/p>\n Clive Davis, left, with Barry Manilow at an Arista Records party in Los Angeles in 1989.<\/p>\n (Lester Cohen \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know, he had a bug up his ass,\u201d Manilow says. \u201cHe loved it, and he loved it for me. And I\u2019m not even on his record label anymore \u2014 he\u2019s just a friend at this point. But he was right once again.\u201d<\/p>\n Given the cancer diagnosis, did Manilow worry that fans might interpret the song \u2014 a teary goodbye from a well-wishing lover \u2014 as a more permanent farewell?<\/p>\n \u201cNot one time has anybody said, \u2018Is he talking about dying?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n You wouldn\u2019t necessarily call \u201cWhat a Time\u201d a concept album, though many of the songs ponder the ways memory and history can shape a romance. Manilow knows he\u2019s regarded as a singles act but says that putting together LPs is what he\u2019s always enjoyed best. His favorite is 1984\u2019s jazzy \u201c2:00 AM Paradise Cafe,\u201d on which he collaborated with Mulligan, Sarah Vaughan and Mel Torm\u00e9.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was one where the critics who\u2019d been killing me, they didn\u2019t know I was capable of doing something like that,\u201d he says. \u201cBut frankly, I\u2019d been surprised that I was capable of doing the pop stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n You made records of hits from the \u201950s, \u201960s, \u201970s and \u201980s. Why\u2019d you stop before \u201cThe Greatest Songs of the Nineties\u201d? Barry. I can think of a handful of classics by Whitney Houston alone. You\u2019ve said the problem with modern pop is that there\u2019s no melody anymore.![\"Barry](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1780203599_879_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Working.<\/p>\n
Since the surgery, I can\u2019t go on the road. Ninety minutes of screaming in tune, which is what I do for a living \u2014 I\u2019m not up for that yet. I will be, but it\u2019s taking a long time to get my voice back. They warned me that I\u2019d have to learn to breathe again. So these days, I get up, I go to my piano and I try to be creative. Before I know it, the afternoon\u2019s over.<\/p>\n
Imagine your doctor saying, \u201cYou\u2019ve got lung cancer.\u201d<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll tell you the story. I have terrible hips \u2014 bursitis and everything \u2014 and they hurt so bad that I thought maybe I broke a bone or something. So I asked my wonderful family doctor, I said, \u201cCan you just do one of those MRIs and see?\u201d Now, before that, I\u2019d had two bad bouts of bronchitis, one after the next. Have you ever had bronchitis?<\/p>\n
It stinks. So I asked him if he could check my hip, and he told the guys that were doing it, \u201cWhy don\u2019t you check his lungs?\u201d And I think he might have saved my life because they found a big black thing in my chest. One doctor said it was probably remnants of the bronchitis, the other doctor said it could be cancer. I voted for the bronchitis. But they went back in to see and it was a cancerous tumor.<\/p>\n
When they told me, I was on the road, and I just went back to sound check. What else could I do? I never thought cancer would get me \u2014 it wasn\u2019t in the cards. They wanted to get rid of it as soon as possible, so we made a deal: I\u2019d finish the couple of weeks of shows that I had, then I\u2019d go to the hospital and they\u2019d remove it. It was supposed to be a no-brainer \u2014 it hadn\u2019t spread yet, thank goodness. But then my AFib kicked in and acid reflux kicked in and pneumonia kicked in. They rushed me to the ICU for seven days.<\/p>\n![\"Barry](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1780203600_294_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
They said at one point \u2014 I didn\u2019t hear them say this but I heard that they did say it \u2014 \u201cWe don\u2019t want to lose him.\u201d It\u2019s all a total blur now. When they finally brought me back to my lovely room at the Eisenhower [medical center], I weighed 128 pounds.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t remember ever being 128.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m too busy. Pretty stupid. What I realized is that I\u2019ve always been the leader \u2014 leader of the band, leader of an audience \u2014 but I wasn\u2019t the leader of this one. That was a big lesson for me. I had to rely on everybody else. Nurses, doctors, friends \u2014 you should see some of the notes people have sent.<\/p>\n
Agony. Make an album, go on the road, come back, make an album, go on the road \u2014 that\u2019s what my life\u2019s been for years. And I like it. Now I just have to get better and do what the doctors are telling me. It\u2019s the only way out.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not ready to croak. But I wasn\u2019t ready to stop performing either, and it just went like that [snaps fingers]. The day before surgery, people are screaming, standing ovation, band sounds great. Next day I\u2019m packing to go to the hospital.<\/p>\n
Yep. But I get winded just walking down the hallway. I turn on my old records and sing along, and three songs in I\u2019m like [pants].<\/p>\n
I\u2019m trying ballads too \u2014 my ballads end big.<\/p>\n
I stopped smoking many, many years ago. I vape but hardly \u2014 I just like holding it. I was a great smoker. Brooklyn in the \u201950s? Please. I started smoking when I was 9. I got up to three packs of Pall Mall non-filters a day, and it never bothered me \u2014 never had any problem breathing. I was just a skinny piano player who smoked. That\u2019s who I am. That\u2019s who I was.<\/p>\n![\"Barry](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1780203600_798_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Clive](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1780203601_886_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Were there songs in the \u201990s?<\/p>\n
Didn\u2019t it start to go downhill?<\/p>\n
You can\u2019t touch those. I\u2019m a good arranger, but you can\u2019t top those records. Maybe four of those albums was enough. I was ready to go back to writing.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s what I miss. Clive\u2019s been pushing me to do \u201cThe Great New American Songbook.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Barry](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1780203602_816_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n