Suddenly Rufus Wainwright, son of famous parents, singer of the most ornate pop songs, is everywhere. He tells Charles Hutchinson about the growth of his baroque music and reveals how he was saved by Elton John.

IF you want it enough, it will happen.

Rufus Wainwright was not content with one luxuriant album of wanton baroque confessions, so he has quickly followed up Want One with Want Two.

Rufus is ever the charming show-off, a competitive streak which can no doubt be traced to his being the son of folk musicians Loudon Wainwright III and Kate McGarrigle. Both have released records this spring and so too has sister Martha, completing a full family set that began with Rufus's Want Two in March.

So at last Rufus has gone from the 'Tit Man' of father Loudon's infamous song to It Man on the cover of all manner of magazines in this season's most stylish shirts.

"There are several elements to the story," says Rufus, as he prepares to play the Grand Opera House in York on Monday, as the final date of his extended British tour. "I think that my sheer tenacity has finally paid off. People have realised that whether they like me or not, I'm going to be around for a while.

"And I do feel there's been an upsurge in interesting music: Arcade Fire, The Dears, my sister Martha. This project for me, Want One and Want Two, has been a pretty mammoth undertaking and needless to say I don't know how many records are made like that any more.

"I've really had to work hard, and put my money where my mouth is, to deliver the genius work that I professed to do, so there was no margin for error," he says.

"As you glide towards your third album Want One, you know how to use the studio and what you're looking for, but after 9/11 the stakes really rose in terms of what a piece of work should try to do. I just felt that I didn't know how long we were going to be around here after the shock of being in New York at the time of the attacks."

Whatever the spur, Rufus Wainwright's ornate songwriting is improving with age.

"I prescribe to the thought that as you get older your music should get wiser and more interesting, and that's the classical music ethic, which is seen as diametrically opposed to pop, but I grew up always listening to opera and classical music," he says.

"I believe that you should get better as you get older. For the children of the Sixties who grew up through that whole tumultuous period, there have never been times like that, so on the one hand it was a blessing and on the other it was a curse and I don't think a lot of that energy can be transplanted to my era, but you should still be able to improve.

"It's harder now only because culture reveres youth so fanatically, and I don't think that it's absurd so much as it's sinister as there's no one who will always be young."

Indeed not, and Wainwright was at one point headed for the rocks all too young, pressing the self-destruct button when hooked on crystal meth in his "space odyssey summer" of 2001.

Prompted by telephone conversations with fellow gay piano man Elton John, Rufus booked into rehab. His five-course arrangements and flamboyant performances demanded he had to rein himself in. "I would say that one of the elements that did enable me to want to take care of my health is that my songs are so difficult to sing," he says.

"It's challenging but then life's pretty challenging, though I always feel that compared to your average Rwandan my life is pretty cushy".

Monday's show in York will be as lavish as ever. "It's the whole kit and caboodle. There's a whole lot of us up there, but then there's a lot to be doing, focusing mostly on Want Two's songs," Rufus says.

"Have I played in York before? Will it be York One or York Two, I'm not sure!"

Rufus Wainwright, Grand Opera House, York, Monday 7.30pm Tickets: £17.50 on 0870 606 3595.

Updated: 09:14 Friday, May 13, 2005