In my early days, I never used finger vibrato at all. I originally carved my reputation as one of the 'fast' guitar players.

Pete Townshend used to crash chords and let the guitar feed back. He's overrated.

I'm very moved by Renaissance music, but I still love to play hard rock - though only if it's sophisticated and has some thought behind it.

But you have to give your whole life to a cello. When I realized that, I went back to the guitar and just turned the volume up a bit louder.

Session work makes you more strict. You can't hit notes all over the place. You've got to make each one really count.

I don't put myself on Jeff Beck's level, but I can relate to him when he says he'd rather be working on his car collection than playing the guitar.

Most guitar players get a name because the band that they're in has become popular. That doesn't mean that they're particularly good, whereas conversely, you've got people like Albert Lee, an incredible player, one of my favourites who's not in a famous band, so he doesn't get into the popularity polls. I have to laugh at some of the people that do get into the popularity polls - some of them are so bad, but they're in a band that's at the top of the hit parade. I think people mix that up.