Musician

I always think it would be great to play clubs again, and then when I do I don't like it because I just feel sometimes it's a bit too intimate.

The blues needs to be everything to you, otherwise it's not going to come across. That's what I think.

I mean, if you go to a rock gig and someone plays a ballad it can still really come across, even though there's a hundred thousand people there.

I didn't actually start to play till I was about 10. My father came home from work a Friday and he said: 'Would you like to learn to play the guitar?' I said: 'Yeah! I'd love to try!' But I didn't think for one moment that I'd be able to do it.

I didn't want to end up in Hollywood having facelifts and my hair dyed blond so I could appear on my own album cover.

I came in touch with music at an early age. My father was a show band promoter, who took me along as a little nipper of five and put me up on the stage with the musicians to sing.

I wasn't really worrying too much about what anybody thought: if you do that you shut yourself down.

When I was about 14, I went to see Cream play. I thought they were the best band in the world.

Most musicians make the same record every time, and that's fine. But the people I respected when I was growing up, like Jeff Beck - they weren't afraid to try something new.

I learnt fairly quickly that that was what I wanted to be - a guitarist - because it was the first thing I ever done in my life that really felt like it was something that I belonged to. I don't know... from the moment I picked it up it felt right.

When you get into the habit of leaving a space, you become a much better player for it. If you've got an expressive style, and can express your emotions through your guitar, and you've got a great tone, it creates a lot of tension for the audience. It's all down to the feel thing.

These guitar institutes and things like that, I think they take away people's identity and they're actually encouraging a lot of people to play who are not naturally good players anyway, but they're telling people that anyone can learn to play.

Heavy metal to me is this cartoon idiom where people have their hair stuck-up all over the place dyed blonde with black roots showing through and Spandex trousers and chains around their neck, eating raw meat on stage. It just doesn't mean anything to me.

I'm not as a studied, technically, as you might think. My technique has really evolved naturally over the years from watching other guitarists and trying to develop my own style.

I've been listening to a lot of dance, hip-hop, drum-and-bass, reggae, R&B - very rhythmical music.

My father was responsible for me starting in music. He's always stood behind me.

The idea of being 45 years old and wearing spandex just doesn't happen for me, you know?

A lot of guitar players, in every genre, are afraid to leave space. They're afraid to leave a hole, afraid they'll fall down it or something.

Most of the bands that come out of L.A. now have singers that all sound like Daffy Duck.

I don't wanna play like that anymore: Widdle, widdle, widdle, up and down the neck as fast as possible.