It simply works. You do it twice a year. Who cares? And it balances my smoking and drinking.

I can't stand stage mothers. It doesn't work. You definitely feel that with the new generation of pop stars right now they've all managed to work it out for themselves. You have to have confidence in that. When you're young, you know your market better than I will. I love having young people on the show because I can learn from them.

So I would only feel guilt if I misled somebody who was terrible.

I got good advice once. Someone said to me: 'Live in your money rather than look at it.

The object of this competition is not to be mean to the losers but to find a winner. The process makes you mean because you get frustrated.

I've always treated the music business as a business.

I have always hated celebrities lecturing people on politics.