I think it was that we were really seasoned musicians. We had serious roots that spanned different cultures, obviously the blues.

There is no way I would play guitar like a tour de force like I did in Led Zeppelin. John Bonham, phenomenal drummer, young man with his technique, but do you think he would ever have the opportunity to play like that in another band? Of course he hadn't.

I'm obsessed - not just interested, obsessed - with folk music, street music, the parallels between a country's street music and its so-called classical and intellectual music, the way certain scales have travelled right across the globe. All this ethnological and musical interaction fascinates me. Have you heard any trance music? That's the thing.

I'm not a guitarist as far as a technician goes, I just pick it up and play it. Technique doesn't come into it.

I don't like being stuck in one situation, day to day.

I remember one particular occasion when I hadn't played a solo for, quite literally, a couple of months. And I was asked to play a solo on a rock & roll thing. I played it and felt that what I'd done was absolute crap. I was so disgusted with myself that I made my mind up that I had to get out of it. It was messing me right up.

I really don't like showing people how I play things; it's a little embarrassing because it always looks so simple to me.