I was a big, big fan of Jimmy Burton. Anything with him on, I used to perk up and listen to it over and over and over again.
I've always been ready to embrace what's around the corner because it might be just the thing that I need to help me grow.
My philosophy is the thicker the wood the thicker the sound, the bigger the string the bigger the sound. My smallest string is a 14 gauge.
I used to be a mean maniac. Someone once threw a firecracker at a show and I jumped off the side of the stage and whacked 'em on the side of the head.
I can play every instrument there is, every horn, I've played all the saxes and trumpets and everything and keyboards.
In the Shao Lin temple, they never allow you to touch the skin of a drum until you can tongue what you're going to play.
I was told 'no' a lot when I first got to Nashville, but I'm pretty stubborn! That's one of my faults and qualities.
Elvis was, at least the times I was around him, Elvis was a practical joker. He was always, had some little mischievous something going.
I didn't actually realise what apartheid meant. I'm probably a bit naive, but I thought it was more of a vague segregation, like on the beaches and buses.
I ain't heard anyone play like I do in my band and I am very happy about that.
All my records have been written to be records, rather than writing a group of songs and seeing if they fit together.
Sometimes a song indicates that it wants to be about a certain thing. And then if you write it, you find that it is about something that you've done.
You read about somebody, and it doesn't really matter whether or not they really exist - the point is that you get into them like real characters.
We have a partnership deal with New Line Records, which is part of New Line Cinema, and... I worked on that.
I've probably gone a month or two without playing guitar, just because I've gotten so burnt on it touring all year or whatever.
Even though the album is an endangered species, can we try and make a coherent and good one, even if it's like making a horse and cart at a Nascar conference?
I love Top 40 pop, don't get me wrong; I just don't think that there's anyone in Top 40 pop that's 'real.'
Yazoo was Vince's sound ultimately. At the time Vince and I got together he had only recorded one album with Depeche and Depeche were to go on to greater things.
The thing is, any time anyone invades anyone on stage, the invader always looks really bad no matter what point they're proving - obviously that applies to myself too.
At the end of OK Computer we were playing big, big arenas and it wasn't right. You can do those things occasionally but at the time it didn't feel right.
'Clown' was written when I couldn't find anyone who believed in me as an artist. Maybe those labels will think twice next time a young songwriter comes along.
