If the enduring popularity of the troubadour of gloom is a testament to the troubled times in which we live, then it should be no surprise that Leonard Cohen is to embark on a world tour at the age of 73. Perhaps he is a metaphor for modern life, always pigeon-holed as the master of misery when in truth things haven't been that bad.

That said, the reason for his return to the public stage almost certainly has less to do with his enduring creativity and more to do with money. In the 1990s, Cohen spent five years living as a Zen monk on Mount Baldy in California. It was later said in court that, while he meditated and cooked for his aged mentor, his manager, Kelley Lynch, had helped herself to $5 million (£2.48 million) of his cash, leaving only $150,000 in his pension fund. Two years ago, a judge found in his favour but it is believed that he has been unable to collect the $9 million awarded to him.

That Lynch was also a former lover will no doubt have compounded Cohen's sense of betrayal, a common enough theme in his lyrics, although in interviews he comes across as a calm and modest soul who doesn't bear grudges. For all his reputation for producing music to slash your wrists by - and periods of clinical depression - he is remarkable as someone who has survived the music business without resorting either to the emotional contortions of therapy or to self-destructive behaviour. There is no inner self, he maintains, and he has tried drugs and everything else but nothing worked.

He was born in Montreal, the son of an affluent Jewish haberdasher who died when he was 9 and left him enough of a trust fund to finance his early working life as a boho poet. After graduating from McGill University, he lasted a term in law school before dropping out; he was not picked up by the music industry radar until he was in his thirties. Initially he was a cult name for those who appreciated his laments about isolation and complicated relationships and, just as he has always agonised over his writing - a song can take two years rather than the 15 minutes of contemporary culture - so his success has always built slowly. He doesn't seem to mind.

He has never married, noting that he has always been too frightened, but has two children by the artist Suzanne Elrod. If much of his appeal relates to the erotic potency of his lyrics, he wryly plays that down too, although he has noted that the most beautiful thing in the world is a woman. In recent years he has been romantically linked with the jazz singer Anjani Thomas, with whom he also works.

All of which doesn't make him seem much like Eeyore. Rather, he has lived life on his own terms, dedicating much of it to seeking answers to emotional complexities.

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