What do you have to do to get people to take an interest? I'm not going to go out and cause a silly sex scandal just to sell a record!

Music is escapism from the grim realities of life. But then as soon as you escape into the music, from my point of view, I found I had to deal with the very things that I thought I was running away from. I wanted to hit those problems on the head and resolve them. So they didn't remain as issues in my psyche.

I've never said I'm a communist.

For me, I'll always stand up for the disenfranchised, and I'm going to make a big point of that. I'm not a protest singer as such, you know? After the endurance course of the early 70s and 60s, I don't want to become one of them twats. But you got to learn to speak the truth.

I think there's something basically wrong with the general public that they do need their icons.

I could take on England, but I couldn't take on one heroin user.

What do you have to do to get people to take an interest? I'm not going to go out and cause a silly sex scandal just to sell a record!