Neil Diamond News

Neil Diamond is about to embark on the final leg of his latest world tour, but he's already put his next album in motion.

The veteran singer and Rick Rubin, who produced his last two albums, will meet on January 12, four days after Diamond's final concert, to start planning the follow-up to his recent chart-topping "Home Before Dark."

"I told (Rubin) I want to start writing on the 12th," said Diamond, who hits the road Saturday in Grand Forks, N.D., for a 17-show North American run. "He said, 'Why don't you not start writing and let's sit down and talk about what the concept is and what we're gonna do.' I said, 'Good idea,' so we'll meet on the 12th and go from there."

Diamond told Billboard.com that he and Rubin have "spoken about an idea we both like," and that it will be "a different concept, a different approach" to the largely acoustic sets "Home Before Dark" and 2005's "12 Songs."

There's material left from both albums, but Diamond said he and Rubin still plan to "start fresh. We're going to make believe there's no such thing as songs in the can. We don't know if the songs we've recorded are going to be meaningful or even usable on this next album."

Before fans hear the new music, however, Diamond plans to deliver a souvenir of the tour, which has so far played to nearly a million fans in nine countries since May. He said the show has been filmed, and he expects to roll it out in the new year as a television special as well as a DVD.

"I'm very pleased with it," Diamond said. "I've always felt you could never really replicate the experience of being at a concert, but this film comes as close to replicating it as anything I've ever seen."

Reuters/Billboard