The Stones were nasty and ugly and doing songs I was familiar with.

I was coerced into taking piano lessons in the early '50s. It was a quite unpleasant experience.

After I exhausted the blues thing, I got into jazz.

By many peoples' standards, my playing is very primitive but by punk standards, I'm a virtuoso.

I was 12 in '55 when rock and roll hit. It just completely transformed me.

Reading music is something that's inherently hateful to me. It makes music like mathematics.

It was just like Howlin' Wolf. Once you arrive at the point that you understand it, the emotional factor is darker than some of the saddest blues stuff.