If you made a list of performers who have sold more than 53 million records, won multiple Grammy trophies for Best Male Vocalist and countless other honors, earned a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame and sold out arenas worldwide, Michael Bolton would be on that list.

But if you tallied all the artists who’ve sung with Luciano Pavarotti and Ray Charles, written Steel Bars with Bob Dylan, written hits for Kiss and Barbra Streisand, played guitar with B.B. King and been sampled by hip-hop superstar Kanye West, Michael Bolton would be the only name on that list.

And he doesn’t take such dream collaborations for granted. “Working with people who’ve inspired me so profoundly, like Ray and Luciano, it’s like an out-of-body experience,” the singer marvels. “These are some of the greatest moments of my life.” Celebrating those moments is a key theme of Bolton’s new album, Til the End of Forever, which gathers seven studio tracks (including such new material as the title track, “The Courage in Your Eyes” and “Next Lifetime,” as well as a slinky reggae version of “Said I Loved You … But I Lied”) and 11 live performances (among them “When a Man Loves a Woman,” “Dock of the Bay,” “How Am I Supposed to Live Without You,” “How Can We Be Lovers” and “Time, Love and Tenderness”). And he’s particularly effusive about the great soul singers who’ve inspired him.

“Every night, I get to pay respect to the pioneers, the masters who’ve been such a great inspiration and influence on all of us,” Bolton says of the soul classics in his repertoire. “That’s a great part of what I do for a living, and it’s an incredible honor.” Still, Bolton is keenly aware that some of the sharpest criticism he received, when his hits began dominating pop radio, questioned the right of a white singer to perform such cherished R&B songs as “Dock of the Bay” and “When a Man Loves a Woman.”

“There’s a certain polarization that happened fairly early in my career, and I realize that my response to it played a role. I can’t do anything about that,” he reflects. “But what I can do is what my continuing career has allowed me, and what the work I’ve put in has earned me.”

Part of what he’s earned has been the opportunity to share stages with the likes of Charles, his all-time favorite singer (and singing “Georgia on My Mind” to him when Charles was inducted into the Jazz Hall of Fame), Patti LaBelle, Sledge, King and other greats, to sing at the Apollo and at the Ebony Awards, and to be the only white artist asked to perform at Motown’s 35th Anniversary gala. “It twists your head around, to be invited to participate in this way,” he says.

Indeed, Bolton’s reception by the community of artists who influenced him has been virtually unanimous. Otis Redding’s widow, Zelma, told Bolton that hearing him sing “Dock of the Bay” on Showtime at the Apollo brought her to tears; she wrote him a letter proclaiming his rendition “my favorite version of my husband’s classic,” adding that Otis himself would have approved. The song’s co-writer, legendary soul guitarist Steve Cropper, echoed her praise. Billboard reported that Percy Sledge, who originally recorded “When a Man Loves a Woman,” declared, “I think Michael Bolton is one of the greatest singers I've ever heard. For him to do my song, it was really an honor.” Bolton recalls meeting another of his idols, Tina Turner. “She said, ‘When I first heard you on the radio, I thought you were a brother,’” he relates with a laugh.

Bolton’s sense of connection to the African-American community his Russian-Jewish father’s experience as a survivor of intolerance, and extends beyond his music. Through the Michael Bolton Charities organization, which he founded in 1993, he created a United Negro College Fund scholarship, as well as a music class for the Harlem Boys and Girls Choir, who joined him in singing Bill Withers’ classic “Lean on Me” during a post- 9/11 tribute to firefighters and police at Yankee Stadium.

On a more personal level, his work as a Democratic political activist cultivated in Bolton a spiritual kinship with the burgeoning Civil Rights Movement. “One thing I grew up with was this: Don’t ever judge people based on their ethnicity or background,” he remembers. “Martin Luther King, Jr., was a heroic figure in our house. Many years later I met Coretta Scott King, and we became friends. When she invited me to sing to her at the Recording Academy’s Heroes Awards earlier this year, I thought about what a rock she was for him, standing behind him through all these historic, dangerous times, and that’s what inspired me to write ‘The Courage in Your Eyes.’”

Bolton’s achievements as a songwriter may surprise those who are only acquainted with his singing career. He has penned hits for Barbra Streisand, KISS and Cher, as well as songs for Joe Cocker, Marc Anthony, Kenny G., Peabo Bryson, Greg Allman, Wynonna Judd and many others; over the years, he has earned multiple honors in this field, including BMI’s Songwriter of the Year, Song of the Year and Million-Air awards, ASCAP’s Writer and Publisher Awards and a Hitmaker Award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame. “I got to watch fans lift their lighters to KISS’ last big hit, “Forever,” which I wrote with Paul Stanley,” Bolton relates with satisfaction. He’s also collaborated with such hitmakers as Diane Warren, Robert John “Mutt” Lange, Desmond Child and Babyface.

Still, sitting down to compose a song with Dylan, he admits, was a daunting experience. “I’d studied his lyrics since I was a kid,” he says. “When I was writing with him, I couldn’t get it out of my head: ‘I’m writing with Bob Dylan!’” Their collaboration, “Steel Bars,” was the fifth single from Bolton’s album Time, Love and Tenderness, which sold more than 15 million copies; a live version is featured on the new disc. Meanwhile, Bolton had just received his multiplatinum award for rapper/producer Kanye West’s College Dropout album (which sampled his “Maybe It’s the Power of Love”) when he learned a sample of his music would appear on a live DVD by another hip-hop star, John Legend.

With its new studio songs and diverse selection of live performances, Til the End of Forever demonstrates Michael Bolton’s mastery of an array of styles and the powerful chemistry he creates with audiences. Late 2005 saw him embark on a world tour encompassing everything from a sold-out show at London’s Albert Hall to a packed arena in Taiwan to performing for a capacity crowd of 5,000 in Bucharest, Romania, that included the country’s Prime Minister and his wife. His international itinerary includes performances in China; Bolton, an activist for women’s rights worldwide, is particularly keen to help spark greater openness there. And with every show, he reiterates, “It’s my honor to share this music – and these moments – with my fans.”

The father-daughter relationship figures prominently on Forever, particularly its cathartic, reassuring title song. “I’d wanted to write this song for my daughters for some time,” he notes. “It deals with divorce, which makes it challenging, but it’s really about saying that you’re going to be there for them – that the bond is only going to get stronger.”

The song’s reflections on fatherhood echo Bolton’s belief that parents sometimes exert their greatest influence after they’re gone. “The story is about a bigger paternal role than just being there to walk them down the aisle,” he elaborates. “That’s the part that makes dads cry, and the song talks about being there for the important moments, of course. But there’s another element, which is bigger than our roles in this lifetime. My father died 20 years ago, but he never left me. You’re always feeling their presence, and you’re always mindful. It’s in your cells, permanently in your memory. You can express all this, but you know your children won’t fully understand, as the lyric says, until they look into the eyes of their own child.”

He explores similar deep emotional territory on “Next Lifetime,” which, he says, “is about holding on to a relationship, but also about every aspect of appreciating what you have more deeply. Nobody knows if there will be a next lifetime or not. It’s what you appreciate deeply this time around. The important thing is saying what matters to you to the people who matter to you. And doing what you want to do with your life this time around.”

After his extraordinary successes in the pop arena, Bolton might easily have rested on his laurels. Instead, he threw himself into a new challenge: opera. In the midst of a tour to support his Greatest Hits album, with a scant couple of weeks to prepare (and study Italian), he joined Pavarotti onstage for a series of demanding arias and then recorded an album, 1998’s My Secret Passion: The Arias, which sat atop the Classical charts for six weeks. That album features, among other operatic selections, Puccini’s “Nessun Dorma,” which Bolton performs live on Til the End of Forever.

“I fell so in love with the body of music Pavarotti introduced me to,” he insists. “When I started listening, I couldn’t get my head out of it. There were so many beautiful moments. I started studying these songs and discovered so many new places I could go with my voice. I’m a tenor, and I had the notes, but opera forces you into training mode. Even so, it’s important not to allow technique to take over your singing. You have to learn technique to sing arias, but you cannot bring the sound of technique into pop music and you can’t get it anywhere near R&B.”

The singer’s musical diversification, however, has not dampened his commitment to making his voice heard in the social sphere. Through MBC, Bolton has also been deeply involved in, among many other campaigns, the struggle to raise awareness about domestic violence. To that end, he served as executive producer for the Lifetime Network’s documentary Terror at Home: Domestic Violence in America, for which he wrote and recorded the song “Tears of the Angels,” which was nominated for an Emmy Award. “I got more deeply involved with this issue because I have daughters,” he says. “I feel such outrage about the scourge of violence committed against women, particularly in America.”

Bolton’s organization has enabled him to testify before both houses of Congress, notably as a champion of The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) and an advocate for the safety of women and children generally. “Of all the access that my career has afforded me, this is probably the most important,” Bolton reflects. “I’ve been able to add my voice to the chorus of support for bills to spend billions on a national level, not to mention millions regionally. Advocates of women’s rights have tremendous allies on both sides of the aisle, real leaders who have dedicated themselves to passing legislation like this. I’m just grateful to be part of the process.”

Here, as in all of his endeavors, Michael Bolton combines heart, soul and hard work to make a difference in people’s lives.