No, I was two years older than the other guys. I was a war baby. My family were a lot poorer than they were. I'd had to fight too hard for anything I had in my life and to smash things up for me.

I love Sell Out, I think it's great. I love the jingles. The whole thing as an album is a wonderful piece of work. The cover. Everything about it. It's got humor, great songs, irony.

You're better off being a brick layer if you're going to play guitar than a sheet metal worker.

In those days I don't' think they were even demos.

But contrary to what some people seem to think, I was never a bully. I was just a hard man.

We lived the life with Keith Moon. It was all Spinal Tap magnified a thousand times.

I call it fan fatigue. I went to see Bob Dylan last year, who I think is absolutely incredible, but he suffers from his audience.

I know without our fans and the devotion of our fans we wouldn't be here. I don't mean to put them down, but I'm just stating a fact that it is hard to play to people that see you all the time and it takes a lot of fun out of it in some ways.

I don't know many singers who actually do like the sound of their own voice.

No, I was two years older than the other guys. I was a war baby. My family were a lot poorer than they were. I'd had to fight too hard for anything I had in my life and to smash things up for me.

Monterey, I remember, but I seem to remember the Fillmore West, that we played the week before Monterey. That was much more memorable for me. The first time in San Francisco. They were good gigs.

I wanted to be in a band that shared ideas and were in it together.

We were too rough at the edges to be a pop group.

I don't think there's any way it could have failed. We don't know failure in this band. We didn't know failure. We got to know it a little after awhile but at that time there was no such word.

All you could do was to see them. We were backstage when the Beatles were on and you could just about hear a noise. It was just literally screaming.

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 don't like Tommy on Broadway at all. I like the music, I'm pleased with Pete's success but I don't like what they've done to it.

Part of the early Who career was all about knocking people's confidences out.

I always used to develop a cold going into the studio.

Well, for the My Generation album, there was nothing to be nervous about in them days. We used to take every day as it came. Every day was just a gig and I think we did the recording between gigs literally.

I think Pete did have a hard time as a kid with his appearance. But don't all kids have a hard time? God, I had a hard time, too. I was little with bow legs and rickets. I used to get picked on like everybody used to get picked on.

We weren't wealthy but we definitely weren't poor. We were incredibly rich because there was a wonderful community in Shepherd's Bush, where I grew up. All my friends were into villainy and crime.

First of all, you have to understand that I'm like anybody else. When I hear my voice on a record I absolutely loathe my voice. I cannot stand my voice.

My love for the band is still there. It hasn't changed, maybe that's why it's so painful these days.

European fisheries are a disaster. The American fisheries are well-kept.

Every generation of rock musician will understand that we wouldn't be anywhere without the support of teenagers buying the records.

Fifty per cent of rock is having a good time.

I can't retire.

I don't care what people say about me.

I don't have any illusions anymore. The illusion that rock 'n' roll could change anything - I don't believe that. I've changed.

I don't over-sing anymore, which I used to suffer from terribly because I couldn't hear myself.

I don't think you should ever say, 'This is the last time'. Music isn't like that. You'll be sitting there not wishing to get onto a stage again for maybe two, three, four, five months, or maybe a year, then suddenly you'll wake up and feel like you've got to do it again. It's in the blood, and I never say never.

I enjoy singing; being in touch with something that is inside of me.

I feel there must be an enormous amount of really talented songwriters out there who can't sing.

I had me jaw broken, and so my chin stuck way out. That's how I became tough - I learned to pick up anything and fight back.

I have deliberately kept singing because I have to at my age. If I stopped for even a year my voice would slowly deteriorate until it's not there at all. That's a fact about getting to my age.

I hope I die before I get old.

I know my faults, but I'm comfortable with me.

I live 50 miles from London and we've got some of the highest levels of teenage and childhood poverty in the country. It's disgusting. Just because it's a rural area, it gets forgotten.

I never understood that if you sweat as much as I used to every night, you drain your body of salts. So I got very, very, seriously ill. I got to the stage where I was almost hospitalized with serious problems.

I used to be a great blues singer.

I'm not always the most diplomatic person.

I'm not anti-fox hunting because, to me, shooting foxes is even worse and the results are horrendous.

I'm realistic about my age and realistic about the fact that there's an awful lot less in front of me than there is behind me. I've always felt that music is an art form that deserves to live the life of the artist.

I've always felt that music is an art form that deserves to live the life of the artist.

I've never wanted to be anyone other than who I am.

Imagine if you could go watch Mozart today, even if it's the last, crappiest show he ever played. What a thrill that would be.

My feeling was that I simply didn't have the enthusiasm to do reinvention.

Unless you've been touched personally, it's difficult to see, but there are millions of people who have no voice whatsoever.