Barry Manilow took up smoking when he was nine years old

Barry Manilow took up smoking at the age of nine years while growing up in a tough neighbourhood in New York.

But despite giving up 20 years ago, Barry recently started inhaling from electronic cigarettes after smoking a real cigarette in Las Vegas.

He said: "Well I smoked for 30 years. I started when I was nine years old. I grew up in Brooklyn.

"Then I stopped about 15, 20 years ago. Then I just started in Las Vegas and the band and I went down to a little club and somebody offered me a cigarette. And I was back. Within a week I was back. Not on a pack a day, cause when I was really smoking I was on three packs a day - non filters. Oh yeah. I was a great smoker."

Discussing his electronic smoking, he admits it is not for everyone but works for him.

He said: "Do they work? They do for me, my band and my crew, all of us who hated smoking but couldn't stop."

Barry, 68, is well-known for leading a bachelor lifestyle, and he has no regrets about not having children as he enjoys "raising" his dogs.

He said: "It was impossible. This insane world that I have and trying to be a father - I think I would have had to choose one or the other. But, the choice never really happened anyway. Hey, look, the closest I get is raising dogs. Whenever I get one of those little puppies, I stop everything I do. I give them a good eight or nine weeks just with me and I train them."