When Michael Bolton finally got a chance to sing with his hero Ray Charles, “the first words out of my mouth were ‘the student finally meets the master,’ and I saw him break into this ear-to-ear grin.” These days, Bolton is the one working with artists who “were hearing my hits when they were teenagers.” His new Sony Legacy duet album, “Gems,” in stores on June 21, features collaborations with Seal and A.R. Rahman, but also with relative newbies like Rascal Flatts, Orianthi, and Australian hitmaker Delta Goodrem, who co-stars on the just released first single, “I’m Not Ready.”

Bolton had his first major hit as an artist in 1987 and was already an 18 year industry veteran at that point. Although Bolton has always been busy, his public profile was dramatically raised a month ago with his surprise appearance in the Lonely Island’s SNL digital short, “Jack Sparrow.” A few days later, he returned to “Dancing With The Stars” with Goodrem to perform “I’m Not Ready.” At this point in their career, a lot of veteran artists might simply opt to promote a concept album through TV and the consumer press, but Bolton will be doing radio promotion to support the album.

WHY RADIO STILL MATTERS

That he continues to make records for radio, Bolton says, is a function of “how important radio has been in my life. I wouldn’t have the music in my DNA the way I have.” Growing up in Connecticut, Bolton’s early radio influences ranged from Cousin Brucie on Top 40 WABC New York “to the rock stations that were playing the Paul Butterfield Blues Band.” He adds, “There’s never been a time in my entire career where one person at any label has said ‘never mind radio, they’re not important in this mix. If I was at a label that didn’t want to go to radio, I would feel like I was at the wrong label with my music.”

Bolton admits to being surprised in the mid-’90s when his string of ballad successes created increasing resistance at Top 40. “I remember how curious it was when I first heard somebody at the label tell me, ‘We’re not looking for a Top 40 single.’ I was like, ‘What do you mean? I’ve had a lot of Top 40 singles.’ But you’re being told that they’re looking for a younger audience, all while you’re still having tremendous success and touring the world. But you have to adjust to where your music is promoted and well-received.”

But Bolton also says, “For me the AC format has been enormous, not because I was aiming for it, but because their audience responded so strongly and so quickly.” And he’s now primarily an AC listener himself. “When I travel, I’m basically listening to AC. Occasionally, I want to hear what’s going on at Top 40 at certain times, but it’s the AC format that’s relevant to me as well as to what I’m doing… Those are the stations that have been my allies for [so many years].”

Bolton’s first duet with another major artist came 20 years ago when he teamed up with Patti Labelle for “We’re Not Makin’ Love Anymore.” Bolton says he’s always been surprised and grateful at other artists’ interest in collaborating, from legendary Motown writer/producer Lamont Dozier (“you start to think you're finally doing something with your life, then you go to Lamont Dozier’s house and see his gold records and they’ve all been hits three times”) to Lady Gaga, who reached out to him as a co-writer.

THE EDGE OF GAGA

The Lady Gaga collaboration, “Murder My Heart,” happened as the newer artist was literally on the edge of glory—before her U.S. breakthrough with “Just Dance.” Bolton remembers how self-possessed Gaga was even then: “I took her and her mom to dinner in London when we were finishing the song. Her mom was worried about whether her daughter was expecting too much from her career and I just smiled. I knew she was going to take the reins of her career and run with it.”

The new duets album has been in the works for about a year-and-a-half, a brief gestation by his standards, Bolton says. “This project brought me back together with David Foster, who is one of the greatest geniuses I’ve ever worked with. If a fly burps in the corner of the room, he’ll tell you what note it was.” At the veteran producer’s “Foster & Friends” concert, Bolton found himself teamed with Seal for a duet of “When A Man Loves A Woman” and “It’s A Man’s Man’s Man’s World” and with Lara Fabian, with whom he was already cutting Foster’s “The Prayer.” “If you’re one of the people who believes that you should pay attention to the signs around you,” Bolton says, by then those signs were all pointing to a duet project.

For his new collaborators, Bolton says, “We found people everywhere in the world,” to the point where an expanded international edition of the album is planned. Collaborators include Brazilian artist Paula Fernandes, who joins for a samba-flavored “Over The Rainbow” and Rascal Flatts, whose energy Bolton likens to working with “three superballs,” and who gave him “one of the most enjoyable writing sessions I’ve ever had.”

Australian superstar Goodrem played Bolton “I’m Not Ready,” a song she had written about her soon-to-be-very-public split with fiancé and fellow artist Brian McFadden. The song wasn’t written as a duet, but a few hours after their meeting, Bolton found himself sufficiently moved by it to take a break from the filming of an EPK interview and start laying down vocals. “I called her the next day and said ‘I have to record it.’ She was very happy and excited and we finished in 48 hours. Then the poor thing was all over the news.”

EVA CONSTRUCTION

The most imposing collaborator for Bolton, he says, was the one he never got to meet. Bolton became a fan of the late Eva Cassidy after hearing her music through his new co-manager, Christina Kline. Once again, he says, the signs were there. “I asked if there was a way to reach out to the family and ask how they would feel about us turning ‘Fields Of Gold’ into a duet. Christina reaches out and this is one of those fortunate responses: ‘yes, they’re huge fans and they know you’ll be very respectful.’”

“Next thing, we’re sitting in front of David Foster and I said ‘have you ever heard of Eva Cassidy?’ and he lights up: ‘I love Eva Cassidy.’ And he says, ‘Do you know how I heard her? Sting played me her version of ‘Fields Of Gold.’ At that point, if you’re not in the right place, there is no right place.”

As the producer of Natalie Cole’s “Unforgettable,” perhaps the most successful example of a posthumous duet, Foster was on familiar turf. And yet, Bolton says, both producer and artist found the process initially disconcerting. “This is the first duet I’ve ever done where I can’t discuss what we’re doing with the artist. I can’t say ‘do you want the high notes?’ I was really tentative about not stepping on any of her notes. I got so choked up at one point that nothing came out.

“We didn’t want to alter the slightest tone in her performance so I sang a little higher than usual. I hope Sting isn’t upset with some of the alternative melodies,” he jokes. “At no point is there any vocal belting, it’s just me singing to her. Musically, it’s easily one of the most powerful and important moments that I ever lived… I still remember where I was when I got the text that the family was happy with the amount of respect we showed her. It was like a part of me could breathe again.”

RETURN OF THE CLASS CLOWN

Another Blackberry message led to a very different sort of collaboration. Bolton says that he and the Lonely Island’s Andy Samberg had been in touch for 10 months trying to come up with the right concept to work together—the right distillation of the comic artists’ edgy sense of humor that would still work for Bolton’s audience. (“At our first meeting, I told Andy, my daughters are going nuts that I’m meeting with you today, and he said, that’s how my mother feels.”) Finally, the “Jack Sparrow” script came across his e-mail. The video was shot on Tuesday and Wednesday and aired the following Saturday.

Bolton describes the Lonely Island team as “three of the friendliest, hardest-working people that I’ve ever worked with. And when I say that, I’ve spent 20 hours in one room with Mutt Lange.”

Has the “Jack Sparrow” video brought forth a new rush of possible collaborators? “I’ll let you know if anything actually materializes, but in terms of opening doors, yes,” Bolton says. “I told myself I wasn’t going to watch the view count [now over 21 million on YouTube], but I had friends who convinced me that it was okay to enjoy it. And a lot of industry people have seen it and are asking if I will do some more funny things.”

So has it surprised the industry that Michael Bolton can be funny? “People always think I’m so serious. I know where it comes from.” After 18 years of false career starts and the financial turmoil that came with them, Bolton says, “When I finally arrived and I got the chance to do what I had wanted to do since I was 10 years old, I got pretty serious about my work.” Despite that, he says, growing up, “I was the class clown… Nobody understands that unless they work with me.”

And it's not like he's exactly relaxing now. The next few weeks will find Bolton performing everywhere from New York to Niederhausen, Germany. It’s not exactly touring in support of the new album since Bolton has been in a “perpetual state of touring” in recent years, with 110 shows last year alone. Despite the uneven touring market, and global economic woes, Bolton says he’s very lucky that his concert following has remained strong. “After sitting in front of the TV news, you have a greater responsibility knowing that people are [still] coming to see the tour… People are still looking to arts and entertainment to step out of the intensity of life for a few hours. As an artist, I’m acutely aware of it… and very grateful for that.”