WHEN Don McLean shares a few insights into the art of songwriting you tend to take notice.

After all this is a man who has penned both American Pie and Vincent - two genuine classics - and is in both the Grammy and Songwriters Hall of Fame.

“You can’t be an artist and be afraid,” said Don who next week comes to Manchester as part of his first UK tour for three years.

“A component of being an artist is being fearless.”

Don has certainly practised what he preaches and has never been a man to pull his punches both in his songs or his public comments on everything ranging from politics to environmental issues.

“I’m a free radical rambling around the circulatory system of the nation finding ways of displaying my ideas,” he said. “It hasn’t always been fun being me. I’ve always been irritated by people trying to stop me doing certain things or writing certain types of songs.”

Earlier this year Don released Botanical Gardens his 19th studio album and his first for eight years.

“I do take my time with these things,” he said. “There is so much material on Don McLean on YouTube, on the internet, in recordings - there’s a tsunami of Donny McLean all over the place so it can be hard to distinguish something new.

“If I release anything, I want it to be important. I like to give the audience something from my heart and that is personal whether that’s a point of view or a love song.

“I don’t like to just toss this stuff off for the sake of it – it’s too important.

Recorded in Nashville with musicians he has worked with for over 25 years, Botanical Gardens is, according to Don, “the September of my years album”.

“Those guys are like a family. They will be there in Manchester - all five of them.

“They have done many tours with me and know me well and we’re all looking forward to the moveable feast that is our live show as we ramble around the country.”

Given the vast number of songs he has written over a career spanning more than 50 years, putting a show together might, you would think, cause a few problems.

But Don has a simple solution.

“I’ve never had a setlist in all the years,” he said. “I know thousands of songs and the band know most of the songs I’ve written.

“If you work all the time like I do you have songs that move to the forefront that perhaps you haven’t recorded and others which you’ve been playing for years which you then don’t sing for a while.”

One song which Don has recently introduced into his set is Prime Time which he wrote in 1970.

“It was about seeing America as a game show where everything was viewed through television,” he said. “It was relevant then and is even more so today.

“Do you remember the film Dr Strangelove where Slim Pickens is riding the nuclear bomb?

“That’s who I think Trump is, riding that nuclear bomb just raring to drop that sucker. All we are left with is the humour because it is so serious.”

In such times Don believes that songwriters have a major role to play.

“A simple song placed in the proper political context can make it explosive,” he said.

Having earlier said that it hasn’t always been fun being Don McLean, he ended our chat on an upbeat note.

“It is a very good time to be me and I’m enjoying it,” he said.

Don McLean, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, Monday, May 7. Details from 0161 907 9000 or www.thebridge water-hall.co.uk