We weren't by any means like the Grateful Dead or something, who could just roll on and on and on.

Because Larry, by then, was a drummer, who would sort of get bored and tired, and rather stand up and blow kisses to people. So we needed the bass to sort of drive along.

I wasn't aware that Track Records were interested in the Bonzos.

It was just us lampooning our own peer group, saying, well hey, where did this stuff come from? And where does British guys get to be so good at it suddenly?

Ladies and gentleman, I've suffered for my music, now it's your turn.

I mean in recent years, I think you've only got to sell thirty or forty thousand to get a #1.

But I remember we sold nearly 18,000 records in one day.

But mostly, I wrote songs and Viv wrote songs.

But I mean, again, Zappa's far more musical than the Bonzos ever were.

In many ways, Viv and I were the only ones who were really songwriters.

In fact, Moon came on tour with us for a bit just before a big festival in Brighton, I think.

We weren't by any means like the Grateful Dead or something, who could just roll on and on and on.

So we used to look for funny songs, and learn them and play them. And we used to play them in pubs.

But we used to go to flea markets and things, and look for old 78 records that had silly song titles.

Eric Clapton always wanted to come out onstage with a stuffed parrot on his shoulder.

But Dennis was a really solid musician, and we really needed somebody who could play bass like him.

I think most musicians do like to have a laugh.

I see my role in the Bonzos as being the straight man, in many ways.

I suppose we all loved those kind of sci-fi movies where terrible things came out of swamps and came to Mars. And there's usually some poor girl. All the guys are trying to desperately handle levers and saying, go to something or other.

When we did Top of the Pops for the third time, we decided to do it as a television program here called Come Dancing, which is not as rude as it sounds.

I mean Gorilla was really our first sort of goes at songwriting.

We weren't going to play the show-biz game, and be obsequious.

I suppose Roger had the license to do anything that fitted the venue.

As I said, when we needed to move over to rock'n'roll, Sam and Vernon couldn't quite make the shift. So that's when Larry took over on drums, and we needed a bass player.

We then took a shortened version of what we'd been doing in the pubs, with the best gags and things like that, out to cabaret clubs and things in the north of England for six weeks. And we became a big success.

And Roger was crazy with his robots and everything.

Larry only ever wrote one song, and he wrote that with Tony Kaye, I think it was, from Yes.

Viv had this kind of stage presence where you couldn't ignore it. He walked onstage, he looked dangerous. You just didn't know what he was going to do.

I used to help Viv with the chords and melodies sometimes.

I love dark chocolate, but I will have a piece just occasionally.

No wishes are silly, no dreams remain dreams, for those committed to clear and definitive goals.

I'd hopefully work through all my issues with men first so then I'd be okay being with a woman.

I inherited the old family turkey farm, and I'm turning it into a fun place to go for my kids.

I cut 'Diamond in My Crown' in my home in Georgia, because I wanted to use an old 1848 pump organ that my mother-in-law had gotten for Emory for Christmas one year. His mother would be proud to know that pump organ was made use of.

But when I lose my temper, I find it difficult to forgive myself. I feel I've failed. I can be calm in a crisis, in the face of death or things that hurt badly. I don't get hysterical, which may be masochistic of me.

The design of a city is like a strange archeology.

Jazz and poetry both involve a structure that may be familiar and to some extent predictable. And then, you try to create as much surprise and spontaneity and feeling and variation while respecting that structure.

The finger lick is just a really bad habit - I do it all the time. My wife Ashley is going to kill me if I do it at dinner one more time. I look like an animal about to dig in.

I'd love to get my teeth into Shakespeare.

I think it is the fact that birds are two-legged, like us, which gives them something of our balance and gesture and makes them nearer to us.

I wish I had time to listen to music more.

When I work on my own stuff - and I think this is true for anybody - but when you work on something that you just completely own, you are trying to stay as true to your own storytelling voice as you can.

They call it “peace of mind” but maybe it should be called “peace from mind”.

Corporation a miniature totalitarian state governed by a hierarchy of unelected officials who take a dim view of individualism free speech equality and eggheads. The backbone of all Western democracies.

I am a musician. My passion for music has obliterated everything in its path for my entire life.

The Internet is one of the biggest advances ever in our world.

It was surreal to step out of my own existence and see how most American children experience things.

I am a big book collector. I love books.

I'm not saying I wasn't flawed or amateurish. But you can never say I did anything to appease the music business.