“I got my first real bass guitar in my hands when I was 14 - a 1957 Fender Precision, which is still hanging on the wall in my front room. I loved the heaviness of it and the feel of the wood. I still do.”
“I haven't talked to any young artists for a long time. But if we did sit down, I'd definitely tell them my viewpoint. If it was Lady Gaga, I'd say: 'You're talented, and you've obviously got the goods... what the hell are you doing with your image? How can anyone take you serious?'”
“I jog every day, but I haven't had plastic surgery - though that's not to say if one day I look in the mirror and go 'Ugh!' I won't have something done.”
“I never wanted to model myself on a female singer, which tells you a lot about my character. I didn't have a female role model. There just wasn't anybody around. I played with the boys and beat them at their own game.”
“I never, ever saw myself as glam because I didn't wear makeup... my image is a plain leather jumpsuit, which is not glam at all. I've always seen myself as rock n' roll and not glam.”
“I was inspired by Billie Holliday, and I really liked Mary Weiss of the Shangri-Las because she wore tight trousers and a waistcoat on top - she looked hot.”
“I'd always been insecure. Being the fourth of five kids means attention is divided five ways, and to do this equally is impossible. I grew up feeling like the little orphan in the family, the one who didn't fit in.”
“I'm totally active. I am just this side of hyper. I jog and go to the gym every day. When I'm on the computer, I'm reading, I'm writing, I'm never quiet. My brain is very rarely not engaged. Every now and again I will fall asleep under the parasol in the sun, but that's a rarity.”
“My own musical ambitions were born when I was five, watching the Ed Sullivan Show on TV. When Elvis Presley burst on to the screen, singing 'Don't Be Cruel,' I felt my first sexual thrill, though I didn't know what it was at the time.”
“The bass should be the note of the bass drum, and then you've got the engine of the band that everything else builds on. Everything else, the guitar, the keyboards, is a colour.”