Steve Hofmeyr's personal life is an open book ? or, rather, open tabloid. So ? as he brings his 'Beautiful Noise Reunion' show to the stage ? we briefly forget about Natasha and Janine and Joost and that cup of tea to talk Neil Diamond, nostalgia, and becoming part of the furniture.

Of all the people you could cover, why Neil Diamond? And why do you keep coming back to him?
I'm not such a great vocalist that I have everybody to choose from. I have to stick with the guys I can do, like I did a Kris Kristofferson project last year. I did the previous Neil Diamond tribute ten years ago but this time around I wanted to do the full project: 25 songs ? all the ones I omitted the previous time.

So many other people have sung these songs. Is there no sense of trepidation?
I'm not the post modern educator of people out there. I don't care what's new and what's happening out there, I side with nostalgia and when people close their eyes I want them to go: 'Damn, I was there and it sounded like that.'

For some or other reason, in spite of that, every night I ask what age groups are in the hall and half the hall is filled with people who are younger than 30 so maybe there's a retro rediscovery of Neil Diamond ? especially in these sense that I concentrate on brass instruments rather than the '70s string instruments.

It could be that, it could be a combination of me and Neil Diamond but I have an idea that people still go for nostalgia. They go for something they are sure they know they're going to get.

In fact of all my 21 CDs, it's been my second or third most successful project. So I don't feel any trepidation singing his songs at all.

Have you ever met him?
I haven't. I know he knows who I am because there's a club that collects all the imitators of Neil Diamond. I try not do an impersonation ? I don't put on a mask and a wig and try look like him, I try to physiologically sound like him and copy what he did so when you close your eyes you get it.

Of course it wouldn' work if Neil Diamond toured here, but it's not likely he's going to come to South Africa soon which just suits me fine ? I'll keep bringing the music to the people out there.

Is he someone you grew up listening to?
Neil Diamond was something that was played in our house. It wasn't my choice of music. I was a bit of a rocker. I went the AC/DC and Pink Floyd route much later but I was never the kind of guy who declared war against the music of my parents, so Neil Diamond, Roger Whittaker, Bob Seger, Kris Kristofferson were all very much alive in my memory and of course I still own their CDs. I have a love of music so that I can mix my heavy metal and Dave Matthews with my Kristofferson without feeling bad about it at all. I love both.

Have you ever felt tempted to go in the heavy metal AC/DC direction?
I don' think I could pull it off at all. I am looking at someone like Bob Seger which is as old as AC/DC but more the kind of thing that I can pull off. Like you won't catch me pulling off a Michael Jackson move ? I haven't got it in me. So I realise my limitations and stick to the artists I can do.