It's also a good fit because it pegs Connick as a regular guy, which, in fact, he is. Although the 30-year-old is famous around the world for his music and movies, he seems completely unaffected -- or unafflicted -- by his celebrity status. "People who aren't in the public eye and have personality problems don't have the public eye to blame," he drawls over lunch at a crowded barbecue joint. "But when people have personality problems and they're in the public eye, they blame their career. I mean, you've got people who are cool and people who aren't. It's about how you were brought up and how you were raised and how you treat other people, man. Everybody has bad days, but there's no reason to cop an attitude."

For Connick, not copping an attitude means bullshitting amiably in the dem-dis-dose patois of his native New Orleans about a wide range of topics, from the pleasures of fellow actor Benicio Del Toro (Connick thinks he's a badass) to the perils of being a vegetarian (he was one until a trainer on Hope Floats told him he needed more protein in his diet) to the challenges of maintaining some semblance of family life when he spends so much of his time on the road (he and his wife, Jill, the former Victoria's Secret model, and their two children live in Connecticut, just outside of New York).

It also means that despite the wave of "cocktail culture" that seems to have gripped a good part of the country lately, Connick has no plans to feed the monster. Sure he was the crooner who made his name more than a decade ago as a baby-faced incarnation of the great Sinatra, but Connick stays far away from the retro craze in his new album, To See You.

What do you think about the return of cocktail culture?
I think it's funny. Every generation tries to find its own identity. The problem is that this generation has no identity, so we're back to martinis and cigars and Sinatra. They think Sinatra was about cigarette smoking and hat wearing. They have no idea what this guy was all about. Years from now, when somebody tries to revive the nineties, they're going to find there's nothing to revive. I'm not into it. I don't ride any wave. I'm an artist. I work really hard at what I do.

Well, if not cocktail music, what or who do you listen to?
Nobody -- honestly. I just don't listen. I get real bored with it, real fidgety. There can only be two kinds of music: stuff that's better than me or stuff that's worse than me. I don't have time for stuff that's worse than me and I get real intimidated by stuff that's better than me. I mean, I'm gonna sit around and listen to Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong? It'll just make me feel bad.

Let's try this again. When you did listen to music, who were your influences?
Sinatra. As a kid, I used to listen to him. I'd hear him around the house. When I started singing seriously, I thought, I need to learn this crap; I need someone to look up to. So I studied him as a singer. I was interested in how he interprets lyrics, how he swings with a big band, how he knows how to do it. I used him more as a technical tool.

Did you ever get to meet him?
Yeah, I met him a couple of times, and he acknowledged who I was. He seemed real good, but I'll tell you, it was intimidating. He's such a great musician -- plus he's Frank Sinatra. It's hard to grasp how much he's contributed in a handshake.

Sinatra is another guy who was a singer but also an actor. How's the transition been for you?
You know, at least in the early days, I didn't have to take movie roles. I wasn't a full-time actor. I could take the movies that I liked and take roles that I really enjoyed, working with people I wanted to. It was an incredible luxury. Now I'm taking bigger and bigger roles, so people say, "Do you want to make a career out of it?" Well, of course I do, or else I wouldn't be doing it. And there is time for both. I don't have to pick or choose between music and movies. What's really important to me is doing quality work. I don't have to do things for money. I don't have to do them for any other reason.

What specifically got you into it?
The whole prospect of movie-making was very romantic to me, but I didn't know if I was going to like it. I mean, I love to perform, but that's not performing; that's acting. It's a different thing. But I happened to love the process -- I loved trying things different ways, and I loved developing a character. And it's all related to my music. As you become a little bit more solid in your decision-making process as a person, your acting improves, your music improves, you grow up, you learn about life a little bit more.

Watching your movies I can't help but think, This is how you must be in real life: a smart-ass.
Yeah. Even the part in Copycat wasn't that far removed from me, except for the killing part. But I am a smart-ass -- I'm a goof-off. There's no reason to eliminate your personality completely from the character you're playing. There are certain things about me that I like. I mean, if I'm playing Mahatma Gandhi, I'm sure that less and less of me would show through.

Do you ever feel that music ruins your rhythm as an actor, or vice versa?
You know, it's weird, coming back from a movie set and going on the road with my band and them not being able to relate to what I've been doing for the last three months. It's such a different life. Musicians are on the road all the time. It's not like some hobby. I mean this is what we've been doing our whole life, you know? I've been playing clubs in New Orleans since I was six. I started working on Bourbon Street when I was fourteen years old. I'm not saying I grew up in the projects and was a drug addict and alcoholic my whole life. But I've been doing this a long time. And the guys in the band have done it, too. It's like a fraternity out there. When I get on a movie set, they just don't understand it either. Movie people don't understand the music.

You've managed to make two careers work at once. Is this something to be emulated?
I think it's best to establish one career first -- don't try to build them both at the same time. Speaking from experience, establishing one first is the way to go, because each takes a lot of time and effort. If you try to do them both at the same time, you do 'em both an injustice.

So why not give up one or the other?
Because I really, really love them both. I met Dwight Yoakam the other day, and I said, "Dwight, how many times do people ask you if you had to choose, what would you choose?" And we both laughed because you can't choose. That's like eating or sleeping. There's time for both. It only takes three months to do a movie. Then there's plenty of time to go on the road. There's plenty of time to go into the studio. And there's time to be with your family.

Do you ever think that if you stopped acting and concentrated exclusively on your music, you might have a big hit?
I don't. I used to care. I used to want my records to sell. But now I've stopped counting how many records I sell. I'm never going to have a record that sells 30 million copies, or twenty or ten. That's not what I was meant to have. You turn on an old song by Donna Summer and it gives you that feeling, or by the Bee Gees and you remember your childhood. Nobody's going to remember their childhood by my songs because I don't have any hits. I've never had a top-twenty hit in my life. That sucks, but it's all right. It took me a little while to understand that.

And yet you wouldn't change a thing you've done?
Oh, no. And I mean, I've been presented with that opportunity. I don't want to make it sound like my main goal is to be the most popular person in the world, because obviously it isn't. Man, I'm happy. I'm comfortable with the fact that I'm never going to have a big hit. At this point, if you asked me, "If your record doesn't sell that well..." -- man, who cares, just document it. That's me. That's my art. All the satisfaction I need from an ego point of view comes when I step out onstage and see the people. That's awesome. I love that.