The music scene in the '70s was like the United Kingdom in the '70s - we had a lot of unemployment, we had inflation, we had a lot of strikes going on, on a national scale, and a lot of discontent. That was reflected in the music.

I can't understand why the front pages of newspapers can cover bird flu and swine flu and everybody is up in arms about that and we still haven't really woken up to the fact that so many women in sub-Saharan Africa - 60 percent of people in - infected with HIV are women.

When you go to Africa, and you see children, they're usually barefoot, dirty and in rags, and they'd love to go to school.

I think music is the most phenomenal platform for intellectual thought.

I have always been a very visual person and a keen observer.

To be human is to have a whole spectrum of these experiences that arise within us.

I wasn't trying to be a role model for anybody. I don't think that you can.