Some of the greatest blues music is some of the darkest music you've ever heard.

I was irrevocably betrothed to laughter, the sound of which has always seemed to me the most civilised music in the world.

We are the music makers. We are the dreamers of the dream.

Rap music's been around for too long now to be inspirational. The words are, but the music isn't.

What we don't need in country music is divisiveness, public criticism of each other, and some arbitrary judgement of what belongs and what doesn't.

From the beginning, I knew intuitively that if nothing else, music was safe, and that nobody could tell me anything about it. Music didn't need a middleman, whereas all the other things in school needed some kind of explanation.

With music, you often don't have to translate it. It just affects you, and you don't know why.

I try to devote my afternoons to making music in my home studio, but it's a lot more fun hanging out with musicians and friends, and trying subtly to influence a band than making your own stuff.

I happened to come along in the music business when there was no trend.

I dabbled in things like Howlin' Wolf, Cream and Led Zeppelin, but when I heard Son House and Robert Johnson, it blew my mind. It was something I'd been missing my whole life. That music made me discard everything else and just get down to the soul and honesty of the blues.