Bands today have to learn their craft by putting the hard work in that we did when we were young performers.

I can't think of anything until I've got printed words in front of me. I never wake up in the middle of the night with a song in my head.

But you know, I have a pretty good relationship with the press and the paparazzi. It's just when they step over the line that, you know, enough's enough.

I’ve never had a writer’s block, but still I think: Is it going to happen this time? You never know what you’re going to get; you just put your fingers on the keys and hope.

I was incredibly confident on stage because that's where I loved to be. But offstage, there was no balance. I was a little shy kid that went onstage. And I always said, cocaine was the drug that made me open up. I could talk to people. But then it became the drug that closed me down. So it started out by making me talk to everyone, and then ended up by me isolating myself alone with it; which is the end of the world, really.

In my 20s I was so ignorant about drugs, and so naive. I mean, my band was smoking marijuana for years; I didn't even know what a joint was. And I'd never seen a line of cocaine in my life. And I don't know whether it was bravado or - OK, I'll join in. But my stupidity, I had a line of coke, and that started the whole process.

I guess that's why they call it the blues, time on my hands could be time spent with you.