I have never been one for the over-the-top.

Yes, of course that's true but you know, the irony of all that is that before the accident, I'd pretty much lost interest in playing drums.

Before my accident I was a little too... selfish and self-absorbed and for me, to now be at the place where I can kinda give back and inspire people. I'm blessed. I'm really blessed.

I really don't feel any strong allegiance to any country.

America feels like home as much as it does here. Although it's a strange situation as I feel almost like I'm in no-man's land some of the time, because although I'm a resident, I still can't vote so I don't really have a say in what goes on where I live.

Thinking about what songs are coming next instead of just relaxing, breathing and playing from my heart. Sometimes it can get to be almost like the enemy.

We're probably doing better business than we thought we would do especially considering the disappointing way the record company has handled the album.

And more importantly, I wouldn't be the person I am today, I wouldn't be where I am now and I may not even have been here if it wasn't for the accident.

I have never been one for the over-the-top.

I prefer the rather old and battered, things with character, to the brand new.

I think at that time I obviously wasn't aware of what I really needed. But conversely, my wanting to prove something to everyone was beneficial 'cause if I hadn't done it then, maybe I'd never have done it.

At the end of the day, they're happy if you do the obvious songs towards the end of the set and you've got to try and make yourself happy by doing certain songs at the front end of the set.

Just the same way I'd say a prayer before going onstage, taking that even further and using the drum to inspire people. And using that as a vehicle for the intention.

Chasing the sensation. Whether it was drugs or sex or whatever. Those things had become my main focus in life.

But it's funny that now I'm in such a happy situation, I look more objectively at my own past and see what others have seen for a long time and I'm just so glad I've been able to get to this point.

Some people say that practice makes perfect but I just feel that the repetition works against me and I start thinking too far ahead during a show.

If we had loads of money as a family, things would be different and they'd come to visit more and I'd get to spend more time here. But I'm laying down roots in America so when I'm there, just being at home, it's harder to break away from that.

I wanted to be as far away from everybody as I could be. I found it difficult to be close to anybody, not just the guys in the band.

But I think that the most important thing was to really stop drinking.

My situation should have been a lot worse. By rights I shouldn't have survived the crash.

But the irony is that because the band isn't the focus any more, it allows me the chance to enjoy being a member of Def Leppard much more.

I think all of those things, but certainly the booze really brought out the really unreasonable side of me, and I just didn't want to revisit that place again.

I was happy in Dublin because it is very cosmopolitan.

I think my perception of my own life is different and the fact that Lauren and myself are together. I've never felt this free or happy and so that permeates onto my onstage persona and to my working environment.

But unfortunately, in my unrelenting drive to get back on that drum stool, the major casualty in all of it was that I really forgot about me.

'Cause I felt I didn't have anything else to prove as a musician... and boy was I wrong about that one.

I grew up in a conservative household. That was the life of the time in Egypt: a conservative, middle-class household.

It's so amazing to hear a crowd of people singing one of your songs. It's the best feeling.

Disease generally begins that equality which death completes.

I'm comfortable having a specific audience to write to. I like the idea that my audience doesn't see what I do as controversial.

Take pride in exactly what it is you do and remember it's okay to fail as long as you don't give up.

I woke up nights, worrying that Lotus was out of control - that no one would know what to do.

I'd like to think I would have signed the Civil Rights bill and wouldn't have had any issues with it.

I speak Urdu quite a lot, too, and I read a lot of Persian.

Beyond just writing about falling in love and out of love and wanting to do certain things and going out and partying and all the things that I grew up writing about, I want to write about deeper things.

I'm from a wrestling family, a wrestling dynasty. And as biased as that may be, I firmly believe I am from the greatest wrestling family of all time.

If human beings are fundamentally good, no government is necessary; if they are fundamentally bad, any government, being composed of human beings, would be bad also.

I don't even think about a retirement program because I'm working for the Lord, for the Almighty. And even thought the Lord's pay isn't very high, his retirement program is, you might say, out of this world.

Some people just don't seem to understand the concept of fiction. It is fiction; it ain't true, folks.

I react to stress badly. I handle it better these days. But I'm a very straightforward person.

Thats the difference between backpackers and holiday makers. The former cant help but invite hassle whilst the latter pay to escape it.

Seattle is like a global gumbo, a melting pot with all kinds of people - the rich, the poor, white people, some Chinese, Filipino, Jewish and black people - they're all here.

Growing up, I liked all the stuff that everyone else was listening to, like Motown, but the biggest group of all was The Beatles.

I think if Keith Moon was here today and you asked him to recall most of his early life or most of his life, he wouldn't be able to recall it.

I have a strong, inspiring, and professional group of women around me with Boels-Dolmans. We race and train incredibly hard as a team.

A good song is a nice set of chords and some good lyrics a great song is a song that reinvents itself over time. That you can always find something interesting in the more you listen to it it keeps revealing something to you.

Wine writers have been around for almost as long as there has been wine, but in the past, generally speaking, most wine writing was uncritical and emphasized wine as a romantic, historic beverage. Criticism and comparative tastings were eschewed for fear of offending the trade, which most writers depended upon for survival.

The lack of access to proper nutrition is not only fueling obesity, it is leading to food insecurity and hunger among our children.

I'd love to interview Mick Jagger, but that might be scary.