There's a point you reach before you're perverted and tainted by all the things that drag you into the music business, like avarice or a lust for fame. The original reason why I started was some feeling of community, equality, wanting to fight for things you believe in. Any kid who's gone to a state school knows what it's all about - bullying, racism. And you've just got to make a stand.

Has there ever been a musician of cultural significance who's been aware they're significant? Maybe it's a generation whose parents came from a working class e…

You can't get that feeling anywhere else. It's communion. It's like being washed away in the ocean, carried aloft on a wave.

I still do. It's changed a lot. It started off as something ancient and forgotten; and became something modern and real. I just couldn't swim. The tunnels get …

I was approached to do a film script for the Beatles. I said it would have to be an absolutely original script. Paul McCartney said do whatever you like. I sai…

A few honest men are better than numbers.

'Clive [Davis] tried to tell me that saying certain words in a song- or as he says, 'putting some balls into it'- isn't bad, it's just strong emotion. Well, th…