We last saw Barry Manilow in April 2016, when he played Xcel Energy Center on a tour dubbed One Last Time! On Friday, the man born Barry Alan Pincus will return to the St. Paul hockey arena to perform what he’s calling The Final St. Paul Concert.
“I don’t like the road,” Manilow said in a recent phone interview from his Palm Springs home. “I’ve got to get off the road. Look, I love working with my band.
I love working with my crew. I really love the audiences. But I don’t like touring and it finally got to me.
So this time, I mean it. This is the end of my touring.” But don’t think that means the 81-year-old is ready to retire.
While he has been playing these final concerts in cities around the country, Manilow still has ongoing residencies in Las Vegas and at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. He also has a new album, his 30th overall, on the way. The New York native began his career writing advertising jingles for the likes of State Farm Insurance, Band-Aid, Kentucky Fried Chicken and McDonald’s.
In the early ’70s, he famously played piano for Bette Midler at the Continental Baths in New York and produced her first two albums. While his 1973 self-titled solo debut found only modest success, Manilow’s single “Mandy” topped the charts the following year. He went on to rule that decade with “Could it Be Magic,” “I Write the Songs,” “Daybreak,” “Can’t Smile Without You,” “Ready to Take a Chance Again” and “Copacabana (At .