Richard Ashcroft

I'm not one of those freaks who can't see anything past 1977.

If you judge people by what they've done in the past, you're wrong.

When I read about Gram Parsons' dream of this Cosmic American Music when I was in my late teens, that stuck with me: that idea, that ambition, to draw off the roots of music but take it somewhere fresh.

The greatest footballers take the sport into the world of art, of performance.

As a musician, I don't wanna put out political soundbites.

I'm very interested in Darwinism and how that affects us on a day-to-day level. But I also have a deep interest in theology and the spiritual.

I'm a strong person, but every man has his limits.

I've got kids now; it changes you radically.

People wanted me to become this cliched Keith Richards, Iggy Pop character. I wasn't expected to marry a beautiful wife and have kids.

Ed Sheeran? I don't like the fact he gets a lot of stick. I like the fact he works hard, and God knows how much money he pays to the tax man each year.

What happened in the '70s was albums and concerts began making a hell of a lot more money, and then the suits got involved.

There's always one character, I think, in every town who's the obsessive who steals money to go and buy records.