I'm really still a child of the Forties. I still think about it a lot, about the repercussions of armed conflict. Until 1953 we had rationing. We couldn't buy meat, we couldn't buy pleasurable goods like cigarettes and sweets. I didn't starve - my family were lucky - but I knew what it was like standing in line waiting for foodstuffs.

I may sing the same songs for over 40 years now but I always sing them in different ways in order to keep the excitement and passion alive.

I tried to reach the combatants with my music. I tried to turn my anger into something positive. Myself, and others like me, just tried to keep rock and roll alive.

On Memorial Day, I don't want to only remember the combatants. There were also those who came out of the trenches as writers and poets, who started preaching peace, men and women who have made this world a kinder place to live.

Recording - once something's done, it's done, there's not much you can do about it. It's out there and you just have to pray to the gods.

Everything changes and, somewhere along the line, I'm changing with it.

The basis of everything that I plugged into when I was younger was blues, and it always stayed with me.