There were a lot of questions I wanted to ask Michael Bublé.

There was the one about whether or not the 30-year-old Canadian vocalist — known for his swinging, big band-backed re-interpretations of everything from pop standards made famous by Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett to classic rock from Queen and Van Morrison — really just wants to write and sing his own music, and damn all the covers.

There was another asking if David Foster scared the heck out of him while working on his breakthrough 2003 debut disc the way the uber-producer seemed to freak out vocalists on "American Idol" this spring.

Then there were a few questions about whether Bublé's inevitable follow-up to last year's multimillion-selling "It's Time" disc might include retro-cool, gouda-free rearrangements of, say, U2, Elvis Costello or even Metallica.

But a chat with Bublé — in town tonight for his first-ever Hawai'i concert — is akin to meeting up with that friend many of us have in common.

You know the one. The good-natured, sort-of confident, sort-of goofily self-deprecating guy who talks a lot, barely allows you to get a word in, but who you don't really mind hanging with because he's at least always terribly entertaining. The buddy you allow to roll at NASCAR speed from subject to subject, while you squeeze in the occasional comment, gasp or exclamation letting him know that, yeah, you're definitely still listening.

That's Michael Bublé over 20 minutes of conversation — phoning from a Los Angeles hotel room, wearing only boxers, black socks and brown Converse sneakers. But more on that later.

A STORYTELLER, MAN

"I have ADD, man. I have an attention span the size of a gnat," Bublé said by way of explaining why he'll never stoop to putting on anything resembling a mere concert. "I've gone to tons. And the music is good. But I think to myself, 'Man, I could've just stayed home and got the CD.' You know what I mean?"

Bublé begins and ends many of his thoughts with the word "man," for emphasis. Soon enough, you find yourself doing the same.

Yeah, man, I answered.

"So I looked at this as almost a lost art — being a great entertainer," Bublé said of his choice of career. "I looked at old Elvis Presley shows or Bobby Darin or Sinatra, and there was this great showmanship that came with great music and great musicianship. ... When you're paying 70 bucks or a hundred bucks to come see a show, it should be a show.

"And I love that I'm able to do that, man. I think that it works part and parcel with the kind of music that I sing. I tell stories. Beautiful stories. And maybe I'm overly animated sometimes. But it's fun to tell those stories on stage."

Consider yourself warned, man.

A CROONER, MAN

Bublé's love of pop and jazz standards can be traced to the mixed tapes filled with Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Mel Torme, Ella Fitzgerald and other legendary interpreters of song his grandfather made for him as a teenager. Over years spent winning Canadian talent contests, working assorted touring musicals and playing the convention circuit, Bublé honed a part retro-swaggering, part mod-elegant, always-versatile vocal take on great pop, R&B and rock tunes that, while clearly reminiscent of his heroes, was all his own.

His life of gig-hunting ended for good when multi-Grammy-winning Foster offered to sign Bublé and produce his major label debut after seeing him perform at the wedding of former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney's daughter in 2000. Packed with stylish, impeccably produced crooner-with-a-big-band reimaginings of Sinatra, Peggy Lee, Bee Gees and even Queen covers, sales of that resulting 2003 disc, "Michael Bublé," slowly grew to more than 3 million worldwide.

Last year's more confident, also Foster-produced "It's Time" disc — this time boasting rearrangements of Stevie Wonder, Holland-Dozier-Holland, Otis Redding and Beatles songs alongside the Sinatra and Darin — debuted at No. 4 on Billboard's Top 200 album chart. Its biggest hit wasn't a cover song but the Bublé co-written "Home," which topped Billboard's adult contemporary singles chart and was forcibly retired from the chart after 64 weeks.

Two years of near-constant worldwide touring surrounding its release have sent sales of "It's Time" a couple of million discs past that of Bublé's debut disc. The tour's final shows in Ho-nolulu tonight and Maui tomorrow will pay for the five fun-filled days Bublé plans to host for all 45 members of his staff and family — from secretaries on the Mainland to his touring crew — on the Valley Isle as an all-expenses-paid "thank you."

Here, we rejoin our chat with Michael Bublé, still in progress.

A TOTAL MUSIC GUY, MAN

"I look at Bobby Darin and I feel a relationship with him because I see a guy who obviously loved a lot of different kinds of music," said Bublé, discussing one of his biggest musical idols. "He loved rock 'n' roll, loved R&B, loved gospel, loved pop ... really liked folk music. But because of the time he lived in ... you couldn't do that. You couldn't mix it up too much."

Bublé said he will not allow himself to be similarly restrained. Even if it means taking crap from his buddies — much less music critics or his record label — for covering what he called "pure-cheese pop" like the Bee Gees' "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart" or a personal fave like Lou Rawls' "You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine."

In concert, Bublé speaks humbly of trying to "continue the legacy of my idols ... and these songs" by doing what he does. But allow him to chat at any length and it becomes clear the guy is also just a big ol' music dork.

"I've got a girlfriend who's 23 years old, and it's amazing the questions she asks me sometimes," Bublé said of his paramour, British actress Emily Blunt, who's currently on screen in "The Devil Wears Prada." "I'll play her ... Aerosmith or Run DMC, and she'll go ... 'Who's that?' And I go, 'What? Come on! ... I played her a song called 'Crying,' written by Roy Orbison. ..."

She didn't know "Crying"?

"No. She didn't know 'Crying,' " Bublé said, glumly.

So why not load Emily's iPod with the vast Bublé musical knowledge that clearly needs to be imparted here, man?

"She stole my iPod!" Bublé said, laughing. "And you know what else? She laughs at me, too. ... I love, love, love '80s music. I go for a jog every day. And I load (the iPod) up with ... really bad '80s music.

"She hasn't heard half of it. And she's going, like, 'This is the worst cheese I've ever heard.' And I'm going, 'What are you talking about? This is so great!' "

AND FASHIONABLE, MAN

As suave, sophisticated and in control as he appears on stage, Bublé insisted he was a dork in real life. I broke in and demanded proof.

"Well, if you saw me right now, you'd think I was the biggest dork you'd ever seen. ... I'm wearing a pair of boxer shorts with black socks and a pair of brown Converse."

When it's suggested some of his fans might think otherwise, Bublé laughed hard.

"Oh, man! Actually, my girlfriend just left. She had to go to a meeting. And she just looked at me and went, 'Oh, my God, you're a dork!'

"If you saw me now, you wouldn't be arguing with me."

Reach Derek Paiva at dpaiva@honoluluadvertiser.com.