He's been dead for so many years, but I'm still trying to impress him. That's what gave me my drive. 'Look at me, Dad, I've succeeded.'

Once I'd heard 'Modern Times' by Bob Dylan, it really changed the way I wanted to make records.

I never really made a full album in Los Angeles before.

I lived my teenage years in my 20s when I sort of left home and became Elton John success, then it became Elton John excess... Everything I couldn't do when I was younger I did 10 times over. I was having the time of my life. I was becoming the person that I wanted to be.

But until we get rid of that shame, then people are going to stay underground, they are not going to get tested, and we're facing an uphill battle [with AIDS].

We are all God's people; we have to get along and the [religious leaders] have to lead the way. If they don't do it, who else is going to do it? They're not going to do it and it's left to musicians or to someone else to deal with it.

After claws and feathers, he took skin and bone, shaped it like an hour glass and made the angels moan.