I never paid attention to what was contemporary or what was commercial, it didn't mean anything to me.

I think Paul McGuinness and U2 created the Irish music industry. It certainly wasn't there before that.

I went back to Belfast and started a club, the Maritime. No one had thought about doing a blues club, so I was the first.

I write songs. Then, I record them. And, later, maybe I perform them on stage. That's what I do. That's my job. Simple.

I'd love to live in Ireland but I'd like to live as me, not what someone thinks I am. People don't understand - I lived there before I was famous.

I'm not a rock singer and I don't want to be a rock singer. I'm not interested. It doesn't seem to get across.

I've never felt like I was born with a silver spoon at all, although I've felt like howling at the moon a lot of times!

If you're a pop singer, you don't need to evolve. You just get a set together, have some hit songs and play them over and over.

It was really strange for me when I started to play concerts in America where the audiences were all sitting down.

Large audiences did not suit my low-key approach.

My ambition when I started out was to play two or three gigs a week. And that's what I'm doing.

Skiffle was a name that was attached to what was, in essence, American folk music with a beat.

The first piece of music that captured my imagination was probably Ray Charles Live At Newport.

The future is keeping you out of the present time.

What you see is what you get.

When I started you were more in touch with the people you were playing to. There wasn't the distance or the separation that there is now.

You've got to separate the singer and the songs.

You can't stay the same. If you're a musician and a singer, you have to change, that's the way it works.

There is no black-and-white situation. It's all part of life. Highs, lows, middles.

I just need somewhere to dump all my negativity.