“There was a time in my 40s where I thought, oh, it's all over - not just work, but I'm never going to feel young again, I'm always going to feel like I know what's going to happen, I'll know what to expect. Looking back I don't know if that was a midlife crisis, I don't know - but I don't feel that now. There's possibilities. It gets better.”
“I'm not big on rap, to be honest. I just don't get it. It's angry people shouting. I like a song, melodies, people singing.”
“No one told Miles Davis or BB King to pack it in. John Lee Hooker played literally up to the day he died. Why should pop musicians be any different?”
“I'm fine with being thought of as a guitar player, and if I can get any recognition or respect for doing that, that's a pretty good thing for me.”
“The only time I ever really got into rap was back in the early '90s, and bands like A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Gang Starr. Musically, they were really interesting. But when hip-hop acts start sampling Sting or Phil Collins, then I just don't get it at all.”
“I get labelled as just being about one thing, but there's lots of layers to what I do.”
“I really enjoy playing America. I like the audiences there. It's the home of a lot of music I grew up with.”
“I was such a massive fan of all the '60s pop bands, but if I had to single out one band, it would definitely be The Beatles.”
“When I'm dead, I wanna leave a body of work, like authors or great painters do.”
“I kept the first Rickenbacker I ever got, a little short-scale John Lennon-type model. And I've got a couple of 12-string models, which are really nice, and I've got a Pete Townshend model, which Pete gave me a few years ago. But that's about it.”