If there was a dictionary of hipness, Neil Diamond would be MIA. In the 474-page "Rolling Stone History of Rock & Roll," he barely exists, dismissed as a singer who "sold millions of records to a market hungry for maudlin middle-of-the-road pop rock." He appeared in the Band's legendary 1976 farewell concert, "The Last Waltz," but few people seem to know why. Even Diamond himself says, "I don't fit in."

At 63, Diamond remains something of a musical vagabond, a singer and song-writer who has visited many camps, yet calls none of them home. Yet he stands as one of the most successful - and surprisingly influential - performers of the last 40 years.

On his previous tour, in 2001-02, Diamond played to more than 1.5 million fans in the United States, Canada and Europe and hauled in revenue of $88 million as he sold out 98 of 117 shows. In the '90s, he earned $182 million from 461 shows, the decade's most successful touring act, according to Billboard. In addition, he has sold more than 120 million albums worldwide.

Beyond the numbers, Diamond's songs have endured. While everyone from the Monkees ("I'm a Believer," a No. 1 hit that helped launch their career in 1966) to Frank Sinatra ("Sweet Caroline") has covered his songs, he has also made an impression on several generations of musicians who might not necessarily be typecast as Diamond buffs. His "Kentucky Woman" was covered by British hard rockers Deep Purple in 1968 and hit the top 40, UB40 had a hit with a reggae version of his "Red Red Wine" in 1984, Urge Overkill provided a defining moment in Quentin Tarantino's 1994 movie "Pulp Fiction" with its version of "Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon," and Johnny Cash titled his 2000 album "American III: Solitary Man" after a Diamond song that he recorded with producer Rick Rubin.

And this year, the singer recorded an album with Rubin, who has also previously worked with Slayer, the Beastie Boys and Rage Against the Machine - none of whom, you can bet, would ever be in regular rotation on Neil Diamond's iPod. The still-untitled collaboration, to be released in November, is built on Diamond's songs, voice and guitar-playing. It was designed by the producer as a throwback to the singer's earliest days as one of the '60s' most distinctive singer-songwriters.

"The whole album is guitar-based and I was scared at the beginning," Diamond says in an interview from his adopted hometown of Los Angeles. "I was basically forced (by Rubin) to play guitar on every one of those songs I had written. I had been away from it since I wrote `Kentucky Woman' and `Cherry, Cherry' in the '60s, only because I felt there were better guitar players out there. We had an argument pretty much every day or any time we faced a new song. I tried to figure out a way where one of the other guitar players could cover my parts, so I could just worry about singing it. And Rick was pretty insistent that I play the part, and as it turned out he was absolutely right. The vocal performances he got out of me are better than I've heard in a long time, because Rick was trying to involve the artist and the instrument as one, and it became real intimate."
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