With the Rhythm Kings, I can involve myself in arranging and producing the music as well as the choice of songs.

All of my books are about researching. I do all the research and I give it to a writer who can put it in the written word better than I could.

I open events for museums and I do charity work and photography.

It's all right leaping about the stage when you're 20 but when you get to 25 it gets a bit embarrassing

Onstage I like to play with a an 18-inch speaker, which very few bass players do. I need that fat, underneath sound, which I've always had. It suits me admirably to do it like that, and I can imitate that sound by plugging directly into the board in the studio.

I'm not a musician, I just play bass.

You could put Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley on one side of the stage, and James Brown on the other, and you wouldn't even notice the others were there!