When you've toured for about 10 years like me, you end up feeling like you're always waiting for somebody or something. The whole day is a drag

Sometimes if I'm not playing well on stage, I'll purposely play even worse; I'll tear it apart, because I'm so disgusted with what I'm playing that I'll go the wrong route: instead of trying to make it better, I'll go the other way and really make myself sound bad. Which is a kind of a strange outlook I suppose, really.

Ian Gillan, Roger Glover and I wanted to be a hard rock band - we wanted to play rock and roll only.

Johnny Winter is one of the best blues players in the world. He's very underrated.

Combing my hair doesn't make me a better musician.

The only way you can get good, unless you're a genius, is to copy. That's the best thing. Just steal.

I see someone like John Williams, the classical player, and the amount of discipline and the natural ability that man has is so frightening. That requires so much natural talent. And I think my talent came from just practising, and I feel a bit intimidated when I see players that good.