If you feel people getting on about what you are doing, it gives you a lift.
When you start believing you're something special, then you're not going to be striving to move forward.
I've got very strong hands from playing for many years.
I can't imagine ever going back to working with somebody else.
During my early period I had custom-made overdrive stuff because I didn't like what they were making at the time.
The first real thing I heard was Three O'Clock Blues by B.B. King. That's where it all began for me.