My template for most songs is 'Is this inspiring?' and with the blues it so often is.

John Lee Hooker became a friend of mine and I love all of his work. He was truly an icon. He lived the life. I miss him.

My template for most songs is 'Is this inspiring?' and with the blues it so often is.

To me, the blues is an infection. I don't think it's necessarily a melancholy thing; the blues can be really positive and I think I think anyone and everyone can have a place for the blues. It need not always a woeful, sorrowful thing. It's more reflective; it reminds you to feel.

I keep fit, I work out, I eat pretty damn well, I don’t drink like a fish, and all of those things are tempered with a holistic mind-set that you need to damn well respect the vehicle that you’re walking around in.

No matter what - rehearsed, under-rehearsed, over-rehearsed, doubts about rehearsing - the first gig is always the first gig, and you put on your little praying hat, batten down the hatch, and do what you do.

In order to run a great business, you must know that a bunch of really intrinsically unhappy people, that's not a recipe for success. Don't be anywhere you don't need to be; it's just like that.