At the end of the day, you, as the player, create the tone coming out of the amp. The gear is part of it but by no means all of it.

My first memory of guitar was seeing my father play one.

I am the poster boy for brick-by-brick foundation building. Play a club. Put on a good show for 35 people. Come back. Build your market. Have people talk about you.

I've been lucky and very fortunate over the course of my career, and I try to do something good for people every day.

There were nine children in my father's family and eight in my mother's. My grandparents did the best with what they had. After the Depression, they were scratching out a living and working hard. They kept the family going.

To be dubbed by my sovereign is an absolutely wonderful honour for me and my family.

I have a very dear family and very dear friends. They're my rock. These are people who knew me from the beginning, you know, as a loser in a 1972 Dodge Dart with the bumper literally duct-taped to the body.

I've got friends and my family and people who've been around for years and years and years. And those people are never in doubt: They'd be my friend whether I was a homeless dude, or I had a hit single.