The story Burt didn’t want you to hear

With a lifetime creating some of the most memorable songs of all time, Burt Bacharach could be forgiven for just enjoying the fruits of his labours.

But at the age of 85, the man whose amazing back catalogue includes Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head, Close To You, Anyone Who Had A Heart and Walk On By, among dozens more, is hitting the road again.

He’s about to embark on a short UK tour and says a concert just after the horror of 9/11 really brought home the way live music can still touch people so powerfully.

“It’s funny, but I think I may have even more enthusiasm for stepping out on stage,” Burt told The Weekly News from his Los Angeles home.

“You see teenagers, their mothers and grandmothers and they’re all connected by the music.

“If you can touch somebody, even for a minute, that’s special.

“Right after 9/11, we were due to play in New Jersey. We thought the promoter would cancel us but he wanted us to do it and we went ahead.

“Five songs we did were Alfie, A House Is Not A Home, The Windows Of The World, What The World Needs Now Is Love and That’s What Friends Are For.

“There wasn’t a dry eye in my group on stage and I dare say there was a similar reaction in the audience.

“To make people feel good is something worthwhile.”

Burt has recently documented his amazing life in powerful autobiography Anyone Who Had A Heart, the title of one of the many famous numbers he wrote for Dionne Warwick with songwriting partner Hal David.

But he admits it was the book he didn’t want to write.

He relived moments in his life he’d rather forget and the awful tragedy of the suicide of daughter Nikki, whom he had with actress Angie Dickinson.

Born with chronic health problems and struggling with Asperger’s Syndrome, she took her own life in 2007 at the age of 40.

“It was tough to do,” admits Burt. “Although I’d been approached to do a book for years, I want to be in the present and look ahead in life.

“But the only way to write a book was to be totally honest.

“That’s about the bad as well as the good, all the pimples and blemishes.

“I’ve got three kids, a 27-year-old son, a 20-year-old son and a 17-year-old daughter.

“I want them to really know about things including the times I wasn’t so proud of.

“Don’t be sensationalist but don’t gloss it over. The stuff with Nikki was very, very hard and it really drains you as you have to go though the whole thing. But there was a catharsis.”

The tour kicks off at the Royal Festival Hall in London on June 26 before moving to Glasgow Royal Concert Hall on Friday, June 28 and Edinburgh’s Usher Hall on the 29th.

There’s a date at Bournemouth Pavilion on July 5 before a return to London on the 7th.

Just before the death of David last year, the duo were honoured by President Obama at the White House.

“I’ve won Academy Awards and got Grammys but that was different,” adds Burt.

“Those reward you for one piece of work, whether it’s a score like Butch Cassidy or a song like Raindrops.

“The Gershwin Award was for a body of your work and you really can’t get any more important.

“I had my family with me and it was just so special.”