I am an optimist and I always think the good will come out

When you're in a band that's so big when you're young, you kind of lose your identity a little bit. You just become part of the band. I just needed to get away from it.

I've always been a fidget. I can never sit still for long.

After people like Lennon and Dylan, I think David Bowie brought a very modernistic intelligence and the necessity for change. I think he was completely positive, certainly through one and a half decades of completely overriding influence, in the best of popular music, and I take my bloody hat off to him!

We, as pop stars, are people not androids. We’ve got views. I’ve got opinions and I don’t see why I shouldn’t use a bit of my art to put them over. I think music is one of the most powerful media forces in the world today.

It's a nonstop schedule, really. I had lost myself somewhere.

No one really knew Freddie. He was shy, gentle and kind. He wasn't the person he put over on stage.