The first band I saw were Mike Sheridan and The Nightriders, in their brown mohair suits, in 1966.

I think from the age of thirteen, I really wanted to be a producer and I've always thought that the producer was the top of the tree.

It was dark and misty for 2 weeks, and I didn't come up with a thing. Suddenly the sun shone and it was, 'Wow, look at those beautiful Alps.' I wrote 'Mr. Blue Sky' and 13 other songs in the next two weeks.

It was so simple in the old days. You put out an album, people promoted it, it got in the charts, and you had a hit.

It was a great thrill just to know Roy Orbison, so to play, sing, write hit songs with him and have him in The Traveling Wilburys was beyond my wildest dreams!

It all comes down to what you truly love doing, and what I love doing is overdubbing and making new sounds out of things that are sometimes quite ordinary on their own, but when you put them together, they make something new--or something that sounds new. Just discovering things like that musically is a pleasure.

I'm still getting thrilled with music even after 40 years of doing it professionally.