There is one thing I don't understand about Astral Weeks. Of all the records I have ever made that one is definitely not rock. You could throw that record at the wall, take it to music colleges, analyze it to death. Nobody is going to tell me that it is a rock album. Why they keep calling it one I have no idea.

Someone once described me as a maverick and that's what I would say. I'm a maverick not by choice but by conviction.

People think I'm eccentric, cranky. If I'm eccentric because I've never been into mainstream things, then I am eccentric.

Music to me is spontaneous, writing is spontaneous and it's all based on not trying to do it. From beginning to end, whether it's writing a song, or playing gu…

I don't even think that you can call Iron Maiden 100% real metal. Iron Maiden is beyond that and always has been. That is one of the things that America has al…

'I'm not crossing over from anything. I think of it as pop music with different influences. 'When I walk in the music store, [my] album is under classical/pop/…

They think they can say those words and take ownership of hip-hop. You can't. It's a lifestyle. It's a culture. It's not just music.