Veteran folk singer Leonard Cohen, forced back on the road after his business manager lost his retirement savings, will play his first U.S. concert in more than 15 years next month, a spokes-woman said on Tuesday.

The 74-year-old Canadian icon will perform at the Beacon Theater in New York City on February 19. Tickets for the show at the 2,800-seat venue will go on sale on Friday.

For those of you, NOT in the know, Leonard Cohen is one of those rare individuals that is revered by his peers amongst the poets, musicians and other artisans for several generations.

U2’s frontman, Bono raved, "He's an extraordinary talent, and anyone who's interested in music has got to be interested in him. He's the original rapper, you know, if you're interested in hip-hop," Bono continued. "He's a sexy man who made sexy music, who made music asking questions about God and girls and everything.”

"I first discovered Leonard Cohen's music back in 1978 when I was 17 years old," recalled U2 guitarist the Edge. "In those days we were listening to exclusively punk music. ... I don't know he managed to make his way under the radar into our circle of friends. He was different. He was welcomed, even though very few other artists were, and he stayed with me. And that's the thing about his work, it stays with you. If you become a Leonard Cohen fan, you never stop being a Leonard Cohen fan."

Cohen has led what could be best be described eclectic as he is a man whose life experiences had taken him from trust-fund baby to poet to novelist to acclaimed songwriter and eventual cult figure…..and that’s just half of it!

He is also a self-professed "Ladies' Man," rumored to have had trysts with women from Janis Joplin to Rebecca De Mornay by becoming a Zen Buddhist monk living on a mountaintop. No, I am not kidding! 

So, after living a low-keyed life these past years, he resurfaced in 2005, claiming that his former manager and lover Kelley Lynch misappropriated more than $5 million, reducing his retirement account to $150,000. A Los Angeles court awarded him a $9 million civil judgment, but he has reportedly not been able to collect from Lynch.

Leonard Cohen began his career as a writer publishing his first book of poetry in Montreal in 1956 and his first novel in 1963.

His first album, Songs of Leonard Cohen (1967), announced him as an undeniable major talent. It includes such songs as “Suzanne,” “Sisters of Mercy,” “So Long, Marianne” and “Hey, That’s No Way to Say Good,” all now longstanding classics. If Cohen had never recorded another album, his daunting reputation would have been assured by this one alone.

However, the two extraordinary albums that followed, Songs From a Room (1969), which includes his classic song, “Bird on the Wire,” and Songs of Love and Hate (1971), provided whatever proof anyone may have required that that the greatness of his debut was not a fluke. (All three albums are reissued in April, 2007.)

Cohen rose to fame in the late 1960s with his poems, songs and novels steeped in detached romance. His half-sung ballads such as "Suzanne," "Hallelujah" and "Bird on a Wire" have been widely covered by other artists.