Neil Diamond is in love again, and his new studio album (his first in six years), ‘Melody Road’, reflects that. The 73-year-old musician, who married for the third time in 2012, has sold more than 125 million records worldwide, making him one of the world’s best-selling artists of all time.

Explaining his success, he said: “There’s no better inspiration or motivation for work than being in love. It’s what you dream of as a creative person. So I found that. And I was able to complete this album – start it, write it and complete it – under the spell of love, and I think it shows somehow.”

Diamond spent 18 months making “Melody Road,” a collection of 12 tracks about heartache, family, and finding love: “‘Melody Road’ is the story of the last 10 or 20 years of my life; the highs and the lows, the questions. Not many answers, I have to say. But it’s an uplifting album for me.”

A songwriter since the early 1960s, Neil Diamond writes every day, regardless of inspiration or deadlines. He doesn’t listen to, or play, any other music while working on his own material, and he doesn’t preview his songs for anyone until they’ve been recorded.

“I just write. That’s what I do and I don’t think about it at first, I let things come out and plant themselves on paper and I think about it and I wade in the water and swim about for a while until I understand what this is that I’m going to be working on.”