Quotes

[My favourite song on the album is Idlewild] because I'm not singing all of it.

We all lost it at different points. There were always three of us there to prop the other guy up. I would say for me personally it wasn't the most enjoyable time. I remember sitting on the sidewalk in Paris in the middle of this cyclone of press, having a cigarette and thinking, 'This is the first moment I've had alone in the last six months.' That was the moment where I reached Peak Travis, I think.

[So how does your Scottishness manifest itself?] Um, I think it's like modesty but not false modesty. It's this idea that everyone's equal. You treat everyone as an equal. You don't look up or look down. You're just eye to eye no matter who you're talking with, whether it's your bandmates or your dentist, whoever. I think that doesn't change.

No, I said the [music] industry is middle class [and not that it was more middle class than it ever was]. Full stop. I met that actor Clive Owen. He was at the Berlinale [Berlin International Film Festival]. He's working class, I'm working class and I said it feels like you're at these things and it feels like we shouldn't really be there. We got in through the back door because you are surrounded by people who had a different beginning.

When, Neil, you had that accident which I think to this day - although a moment that was incredibly unlucky for you - was incredibly lucky for us, because we had stopped looking at each other as friends and we had started looking at each other as work. We all went, 'Us first and the band second,' because we realised the success of the band wasn't all the No1s and the Brits. It was the fact we were mates at the core of it and that's what held the band together.

I don't think it's ever felt as good as it feels. It's 20 years now since we moved to London and when we came down there was a really similar feeling in the band. We were really focused and really together.

It's interesting. All those people you mentioned [Madonna, Michael Jackson, David Bowie] are attractive. But there was also some point to it. Now all you have to be is attractive in some way. I wouldn't say they [the Kardashians] are but that's what they're held up as. And that's it. There's nothing else that's important. [Andy Dunlop: Isn't being able to balance a champagne glass on your arse a talent? You've got to give her some credit.]

[Do you have a favourite Kardashian?] Definitely not. They're the epitome of what is possibly not right with what's going on.

[October 2010] Just got thrown out of a cab for cussing at a rude driver. His cab stunk of farts so I was glad to be out of there.

[2016] Found out the insanely burning German mouthwash I have been using isn't mouthwash but some intense alcohol which you apply to aching muscles.

Day 18 of new puppy. It's a 4 legged piss machine. Cute but needs to pee every 30 minutes!! Hardcore.

Whenever I hear Soul ll Soul Back to Life, like just now, I'm reminded of my first cat, leaping from our 4th floor window to his death. Really harsh because I love that song.

When I joined the band I stopped running so much and started drinking and smoking more, but in the last 10 years I've got back into it. My son Clay started saying: "Papa, you've got a jelly belly!" So I thought I'd better start exercising.

[on often hitting and kicking walls and furniture when he is angry] I think a good thing to have is a punchbag. Get rid of all that mad stuff.

[Your voice has always had a real clarity to it, but some of the vocals on this new record (The Boy With No Name) I think really come across as some of your best.] Thanks man. I've got to say for the vocals, maybe one or two of the songs I'm really proud of singing-wise, but most of the time I still have that feeling when you hear your own voice that you just can't believe that's what you sound like. But I do agree that it's gotten better without cigarettes.

[2013 interview, speaking of an earlier interview in which he appeared to criticise Alex Salmond] I certainly came across as pro-Labour but the truth is I'm not pro-anyone.

He [Niko Bolas] told us we were shit, took us in the studio for four days, and taught us how to play properly, like a band. He was ballsy, rude, and New York pushy. He didn't believe my lyrics and told me to write what I believed in and not tell lies. He was Mary Poppins, he sorted us out.