I know in my heart of hearts that Ritchie Blackmore is one of the great guitar players of all time. He's a fabulous technician, and he's got incredible skills, and he was a great showman.

I was an avid collector of Elvis' early stuff; for a young singer, he was an absolute inspiration. I soaked up what he did like blotting paper. It's the same as being in school - you learn by copying the maestro.

I'm not a writer; I'm not a novelist.

I've played football with George Best, the greatest footballer that ever lived. That doesn't make me a footballer. And I've sung a duet with Pavarotti. That doesn't make me an opera singer. I can write and I have a story to tell, but I'm not going to make a career out of it.

There's a wonderful woodland, spiritual song I wrote in Undercliff in Lyme Regis, and I used to walk up there with my dog and always come back with an idea.

I love extended solos. I used to like them in the old days a lot, because it used to give me time to go to the pub for a drink.

Purple - I mean, the music and the influence and the subliminal touches range from orchestral conversation to jazz to blues and soul and God knows what. It's a vast range of expressions.

When I'm writing with Tony Iommi, for example, still it's very easy. We go in, and I know exactly what his style is. It's very distinctive, and you know exactly what he's looking for, and we know exactly where we're going from the first chord.

We have been called old rockers, rock pensioners, and dinosaurs.

I've been in music all my life.

I sang 'Nessun Dorma' twice with Pavarotti, and he told me he'd heard 'Smoke' about five or six times, and every time was different. He was so jealous because if he deviated one jot from the traditional interpretation of the famous arias, he'd be crucified. We have the freedom.

When I picked up my guitar, I spent the first day learning the chord E, the second day A, then B7, and all of a sudden, I could play the blues.

We've never gone into the studio with prepared material... we never have.

I hate it in America where the protocol seems to be you are expected to tip regardless of the quality of service. I like to tip when it's not being demanded of me, and if the service has been good, I tip quite generously.

In the early Seventies, I bought a dilapidated hotel in north Stoke for about £100,000 and spent the same amount again renovating it, putting in a guitar-shaped swimming pool, painting the bathrooms purple, and installing gold dolphin taps.

My father was a storekeeper at a factory in west London.

I don't think happiness comes with money, but if you are hungry, you can't be as happy as if you aren't hungry.

I'm completely irresponsible, I'm afraid. I'm ignorant about money as a commodity - I have never really understood it.

We soaked up everything from Beethoven to Chopin to Jimi Hendrix to Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan.

I once wrote a song called 'No Laughing in Heaven,' which was about not wanting to go to Heaven due to the company I'd be keeping, and with a few exceptions, the Hall of Fame is pretty much the same thing.

If you think of a solo artist, you normally know them by their name; you don't normally describe their kind of music. You just say, 'It's so and so, or it's so and so.' But with bands, everyone feels an obligation to categorize them.

It's a fine line between self-assuredness and arrogance.

Singles - we hated it, going on 'Top Of The Pops' and all that rubbish.

I wake up every day looking forward to the concert that night. I don't think you need much more inspiration than that.