Drinking was a big help with me making music, because drinking gives you courage. But it also makes you reckless, and that's the trouble.

I think the people who did well, or are happy, in a youth industry, they define themselves out of the business after a decade or so.

I stopped drinking a few years ago, and drinking was a big help with me making music, because drinking gives you courage. But it also makes you reckless, and that's the trouble. You can get away with that your 20s, but not in your 60s, and I'll be 70 next year. Life is a small space now, much more intimate. I'm not out there in the world anymore, but I'm watching.

What I like about popular culture is its accessibility, and I've covered popular songs because they are amazing things.

I prefer the mystic clouds of nostalgia to the real thing, to be honest.

The things that I draw on, and the world that I feel part of, aren't particularly youth culture.

There are singers that I have enjoyed, from Nina Simone and Ray Charles onward. But the music that made music the number one thing for me as a youth was jazz.