Quotes

My idea of a perfect folk song is something in a minor key with a tragic ending - preferably suicide or madness. Something with no chorus. Something with sex and violence.

All the mysteries of life come in A minor.

[on David Bowie] He's great. He's timeless and it's because he constantly reinvents himself, which I know is a cliché to say but it's actually true. I remember in the Seventies thinking he was interesting but not really being moved to buy his albums at that point but then in the Eighties I loved what he was doing. And then when I saw him live I have say I just fell in love.

[on "The Look of Love" by Dusty Springfield] One of the sexiest songs I think ever written and the way she sings it is just killer. I've tried to do covers of it myself live. I love singing it but there's just something about the way she phrases that's just really gorgeous and no one can sing it like she does. I've heard it said about her voice that she was a colonist and you can really hear that on this track. You can hear the shades she puts into all the meanings of the different words.

I think all artists are unusual. I mean you have to be to stand out.

[on "A Thousand Years" by Sting] This is a beautiful, beautiful track that I used to listen to in the mornings when I was trying to get myself up out of bed. It's so beautiful, there's a kind of longing and sensuality in the track and in how he sings it and just everything about it, I'm always mesmerized by this one.

The Smiths were a great bond between myself and my youngest brother. We were huge Smiths fans and we went to see them in New York at the Beacon Theater. We got there really early, I think my brother was running a fever so we were in a perfect mood to see Morrissey with the flowers in his back pocket. I mean it was just great. I love a lot of their early songs.