turned 68 on January 24 -RRB- stepped into the studio , a man ready for his close-up . He had slipped a black button-down shirt over his T-shirt , and suddenly he looked like Neil Diamond -- the same Neil Diamond who next week will be feted by The Recording Academy as its `` 2009 MusiCares Person of the Year , '' joining an elite club that includes Aretha Franklin , Elton John , Sting , Bono and Quincy Jones . He 's working on a follow-up to last year 's CD , the Rick Rubin-produced `` Home Before Dark '' -- which earned Diamond his first-ever No. 1 debut on the Billboard Top 200 album chart . That album came after 2005 's `` 12 Songs , '' also produced by Rubin , which re-invigorated his recording career . As for live performance , he 's rarely had problems filling arenas -- but he remembers when he did . Watch Diamond talk about giving back '' CNN : The man in black . This has become quite the trademark . Neil Diamond : Yeah . I still wear black , but I got sparkly somewhere along the way --
LOS ANGELES , California -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- The day I interviewed Neil Diamond , he was sitting in a little room to the side of a studio , and a makeup artist was smacking him in the face with a powder puff . He was wearing a white wife-beater T-shirt and looked like he wanted to flee . Neil Diamond is riding high with a huge world tour , a successful album and a humanitarian award . It was November , and Diamond had just come off the first two legs of his biggest world tour yet -- with 64 shows in 50 cities and nine countries already under his belt . In a moment , he would step in front of a camera to begin a round of 70 or so interviews -- beamed via satellite to local television stations -- to talk up the remaining 20 dates , where he 'd thrill diehard fans with such nuggets as `` Cherry Cherry , '' `` Song Sung Blue '' and `` Sweet Caroline . '' Ours was the only in-person interview he -- or someone in his camp -- had agreed to do . The singer-songwriter -LRB- who