Before, I was terrified on stage. I only play guitar during the acoustic songs. After a while, you can elicit certain responses from the crowd, like Elvis. |
Girls are always running through my mind. They don't dare walk. |
I grew up in a show business family, so we've always had a great sense of balance, being so close to my parents. I've always known what is and isn't reality. Even my older brothers' early success 10 years ago didn't change me since there was such an age difference. I was moving about with my own gang, the skinheads, wearing steel-toed army boots and kicking in shop windows. |
I have been to hell and back. I had a very, very bad nervous breakdown. |
I have to take time occasionally to get away from the pressures of this business. If I don't, I think I would get stale, and that would show in my music. |
I just fell apart. I turned to drugs and did an awful lot of cocaine, which I no longer do... I gave up everything... I didn't care. |
I love the soul sound that the Bee Gees are into now, and that's the kind of feel that I want to have on all my records. Unfortunately, though, I don't write in that vein. I'm better at writing country-rock music because, while I was recording in Miami, the Eagles were working in the studio next door and I was heavily influenced by their sound. |
I respect the people who buy my records and come to my concerts. It's only fair that I always try to give them the very best that's in me. After all, I need them more than they need me. |
I wasn't eating. I wasn't sleeping. All I was doing was cocaine. I stayed awake for about two weeks, locked in my bedroom. I went down from a 142 pounds to 110 pounds. |
I'll have to get people to write songs for me right now until my own writing comes around. |
I've been working at performing for five years now. I've been working in Australia and Spain and England. When I was only 15 or 16, 1 was performing in bars; I could have had legal problems, but it's also the only way to get to know what music is all about. |
In 1973 we moved to the British Isle of Man, and I put my first band together for one year, named Melody Fair. |
Sometimes being with Victoria was like tiptoeing through a mine field. Put one foot wrong and everything is going to be blown sky-high. It was exciting, but often frightening. She had a terrible temper at times. |
Songs don't just come out of the air. They take time, but it's good fun, too. Maurice gave me encouragement. |
The most embarrassing thing for me was the day Bob Hope called me up and I was spaced out on cocaine. I was supposed to do his TV special, and I didn't turn up. Consequently, I was blacklisted by NBC for a long time. I damaged my career, and almost ruined my whole life. |