n the cover of Curtis Stigers’s latest album, Let’s Go Out Tonight, there’s a picture of the man himself in a dark suit, sitting forward in a chair, holding a bunch of red roses.

The long chestnut hair of 20 years ago is shorter and lined with grey. At 46 he looks a little like George Clooney, only taller.

Of the ten songs on the album, the opening shot is Bob Dylan’s Oscar-winning Things Have Changed, with its catchy, apocalyptic chorus: “People are crazy, times are strange/I’m locked in tight, I’m out of range/I used to care, but things have changed.”

“I thought the lyrics were about Dylan. As soon as I started singing it, the lyrics hit home. It turned out they were about me,” Curtis says.

“I had just split with my wife after 22 years. I didn’t realise the song spoke to me in that way.”

The melancholy album cover and its title take on deeper significance in the light of this information.

“Dark is the wrong word for it,” said Curtis, of the album. “It has its sad moments. Let’s Go Out Tonight by Paul Buchanan is one of the saddest.

“That particular song is about that moment when you find yourself in a relationship that you know is broken, but you just brush over it by saying ‘let’s go out tonight’. That’s what the album is about.” he added.

I wondered why Curtis, who wrote the hit I Wonder Why, wrote none of the ten songs on the album.

“I was preoccupied with other stuff. I didn’t get around to writing any songs that made sense for the record. I usually write about things a year or two after the fact. I chose songs that mean a lot to me and reflect where I am,” he said.

In the early 1990s, Idaho-born Curtis enjoyed pop success, touring with artists such as Eric Clapton and Elton John. His self-titled debut album sold nearly two million copies. His 1992 follow-up to I Wonder Why was the Nick Lowe song (What’s So Funny ’Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding, which appeared on the soundtrack to the movie The Bodyguard.

He later returned to his first love, jazz. “I studied jazz and played in a New York trio, but it was pop that record labels wanted me for initially,” he says.

The turning point came in the mid-1990s when he was reunited with his old mentor, Gene Harris.

Curtis was a teenage jazz musician when he first met the late blues-driven jazz pianist, playing in a hotel.

“He taught me that music is about what you love,” said Curtis.

We spoke the morning after a concert at Buxton Opera House. His arrival coincided with Wednesday’s snowstorm. The tour bus had to get through foot-high snow drifts.

“For a while we thought we weren’t going to make it. The concert was lightly attended; at least a third of the audience who had tickets hadn’t been able to get there,” he added.

That journey through snow drifts struck me as indicative of his personal situation, so I asked Curtis if he was coming out or getting deeper into it.

He chuckled. “I feel good. You’ve got to move forward. I feel happy and I have a wonderful 12-year-old daughter who sustains me.”

l Curtis Stigers is at St George’s Hall on Sunday. For tickets, ring (01274) 432000.