Barry Manilow’s Secret Life: The Hidden Obsessions He Kept Far From the Stage—Until Now

Introduction

For more than five decades, the world has known Barry Manilow as the man who could command an arena with a single note. He has sold millions of records, broken residency records in Las Vegas, and carved out one of the longest, most enduring careers in modern entertainment. But behind the spotlights, behind the velvet curtains and the precision of every chord progression, lies a part of Barry’s life that the public has rarely glimpsed—an entire world of passions that have nothing to do with music at all.

These passions didn’t just entertain him. They shaped him. They grounded him. And in ways even lifelong fans never realized, they helped create the very version of Barry Manilow that millions now adore.

Few people know that when Barry stepped off the stage, the applause still ringing in his ears, he didn’t retreat into silence or solitude. Instead, he ran—quite literally—into a different universe. Sports. Not as a performer. Not as an entertainer. But as a devoted fan and a quiet student of the athletic discipline that mirrored his own. Long before the glitz of Vegas, Barry found in sports a sense of movement, structure, and stamina that influenced the physicality of his performances. Every sprint across the stage, every leap into a crescendo, carried echoes of the athletes he admired. This wasn’t a hobby. It was a hidden engine behind his stage presence.

Yet that wasn’t his only offstage world. Away from the cheering crowds, Barry immersed himself in literature. Not tabloids, not reviews—real literature. He devoured novels, history, poetry, dramatic scripts. These weren’t just leisure reads for him. They were fuel. The emotional depth, the narrative arcs, the human confessions found in the great works shaped how he approached songwriting. Fans wonder why so many of his hits feel like short stories set to music. It’s because they are. His love for literature refined his storytelling—quietly, invisibly, powerfully.

But perhaps the most surprising passion was theater. Before he ever became a headlining icon, Barry Manilow was captivated by the stage—not only as a singer, but as a lover of drama, performance, dialogue, and character. Theater taught him how to build tension, how to hold a room, how to create emotional arcs not just in a show, but in a single song. Those dramatic pauses, the way he lifts a lyric and lets it hang in the air, the way he shapes an entire concert like a narrative journey—those skills were born in the world of theater long before music made him famous.

These passions—sports, literature, theater—were never side activities. They were the hidden architecture of his artistry. And now, as Barry opens up more than ever before, the world is finally starting to understand the truth:
Barry Manilow didn’t just create songs. He created entire stories, worlds, and emotional landscapes—and the secret ingredients came from far outside the recording studio.

Video: Barry Manilow – Big Fun (Live from the Houston Rodeo, 1988)