I love the feeling of letting fly, of pushing as far as I could go with my voice. The only way you can really graduate how you do it is by doing it regularly to people who don't have to be super impressed. You can do it in the studio all day long but you don't get the flashback that you get onstage.

I think I surprise myself.

I don't think that you can rehash music that was born in the Fillmore East and came from a whole different set of social and emotional circumstances. The situation has changed. Let's get real about this.

There's a similarity between European and North African folk musics.

I met Jason Donovan at RAK studios. He had jodphurs on and small riding boots as he jumped out of the cab. He looked just like me!

The way I see it, rock n' roll is folk music.

It's crucial that I kind of keep up, without drifting into the backslapping land of cliche and lifetime achievement awards.