A ballad once in a while doesn't go amiss

For my 21st birthday, I think my mother wanted to give me a watch, or something, you know, some kind of traditional thing. And I said, "Well, if you're going to buy me something, there's a Gibson Melody Maker guitar advertised in the paper for 60 dollars. Do you think I could have that?" And I think that she was very disappointed that at 21 I was still messing around with that sort of thing. She didn't understand what it was all about. But now she understands it, and likes it.

Real success is not being on the cover of a magazine; it's knowing that you've done, and enjoyed doing, what you set out to do.

If you're purely derivative in what you do, then you could very easily get lost along the way. But for me, I might want to even do something else for a while.

Yeah, the industry has always been both the enemy and the best friend of the artist. They need each other. That's the bottom line.

The Clash were innovative, radical and helped drive a change in music that was ground-breaking. In comparison to some of the music today they sounded like they meant it. I still listen to their music today to remind myself what music made with commitment sounds like.

Once you stop drinking and smoking and stuff, it really gets on your nerves, all that nonsense going on.