Nostalgia is one thing. It's great to go and play the old songs. People know them and appreciate them. You got to give them what they want to hear.
Denny Laine
I was into all sorts of music as a kid. I was very curious about ethnic music and different styles. I loved Django Reinhardt. I loved Ella Fitzgerald. I was also influenced by all the crooners of the day, like Johnny Ray, Frankie Lane.
There's no real animosity, anymore... Me and Paul had a good team and we still are a good team. When Lennon died, Paul said he was never going to let that happen again, he was never going to fall out with anyone again.
I'm not oriented by money, to be honest. Everybody thinks we're in the music business for money all of the time. But that's not true for me.
One of my earliest inspirations was the 'Allan-a-Dale' character played by Elton Hayes in the 1954 movie 'The Story Of Robin Hood And His Merrie Men.' He was a wandering minstrel with his guitar.
I had to make a name up, and it came from one of my sisters; she was a fan of Frankie Laine. The 'Denny' thing, in those days, everyone had a backyard, and a den to hang out. I think I got that nickname there.
My sisters and my brother were all very much into music. A couple of them were dancers.
The thing is, I was more blues-oriented, more of a purist than in the pop world. That led me into a folk rock trio and to Ginger Baker before I started recording on my own.
I just keep to myself and live in the country and visit the cities.
Traveling around, coming down to Florida for a few days, it's fun! You go on the road, you get inspired to write other stuff.
Paul and I were friends, the Moody Blues toured with the Beatles on the second British tour. That developed into me working with Paul, whom I always admired.
I enjoyed the idea of going and playing live. My beef was always with Wings that we never played live enough.
Band on the Run' was pretty significant for me because two of the guys didn't turn up to record it. It was just me and Paul. The two of us had to go into the studio and make that album ourselves. With Linda of course.
I don't like not working.
I was part of that whole early Moody Blues transitioning from a sort of R&B-blues band to being more progressive.
Wings was one of the first bands in the 1970s to do stadium tours, as well as Led Zeppelin. We had all the most up-to-date equipment from monitor systems to a laser light show and that was like the biggest, most awesome experience for me.
Tribute bands have kind of taken over the market, and I don't want to come across as being that.
Paul forced the Beatles to work a lot harder than they would have otherwise, and he did the same thing with Wings.
John Bonham was a good friend of mine. I knew him a bit as a kid. I hung out with him quite a lot.
I don't have a normal job, so I don't consider retiring.
I don't really own anything. It makes me more fluent, er, fluid. More fluent, too, because I've learned a lot of languages by traveling around.
Paul knew I could sing, write and play, and so he rang me. It knocked me sideways a little because I wasn't used to being a sidekick. That was the first time I'd been with a band with someone more famous than me.
If you end up spending more time in the studio than you do on the road, that's not a good balance for me. Because I think when you're in the studio, you need to come off the road and go in the studio and that's when you're applying your best. That's when you've got the best attitude, best energy, all that stuff.
But I'm more of a recluse when it comes down to being a writer and being a creative person rather than being a celebrity.
The human voice is one of the most attractive things.
I wrote 'No Words' and 'Mull of Kintyre' with help from Paul. He was always like a big brother to me and a strong influence on my songwriting.
I've always been accused of being too clever for my own good.
My fondest memories are of being hidden away in Scotland or Spain writing and working on songs for Wings.
I can't even get people to spell my name right in my own biography!
I was doing something of my own after I left The Moody Blues, I went away, lived in Spain for a while.
I was brought up on listening to 78 rpm records from crooners to opera singers to solo piano players.
Early on I was more interested in gypsy jazz music until rock and roll came around and I listened to a lot of Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochran and skiffle singer Lonnie Donegan.
I began writing with Mike Pinder and eventually we went on to form a new band called The M&B, which later became The Moody Blues, what I would call a progressive blues band.
The Moody Blues were a blues band, so when we got discovered, we were taken to London. That's where we started to make it. That's where the record labels were. That's where the action was.
The Moody Blues was very big in France, because they liked that we were basically playing blues.
Although the Beatles were big to the world, within the business, we're all very, very equal.
And I had such a great working experience with Paul during the 'RAM' album.
Colin Blunstone did a cover of one of my songs, and the reason I liked it was he changed it completely from my version.
You can't get tied into your past. It's not fun for me. You can't just keep doing the same material forever. Some people just play the hits, and it's the same show every night. They're happy to do that. I personally am not.
Brian Jones was a big friend of mine.
You can't keep away from the public too much, but you had to be protected to some degree and I saw that in Paul a lot. People were obsessive about the Beatles. It's a hard thing to have to deal with being that famous.
When you go to a new country, you don't have the same facilities as you had in the one before. You adapt very quickly to the circumstances.
'Mull of Kintyre' was the biggest single of all time up until 'Don't They Know It's Christmas' by that big charity.
So I wouldn't see Wings as a band that would go into the Hall of Fame, to be honest.
In the studio is one thing, but playing live is the important part, I think.
I like to live in the future.
Music is progressive, you get out, you experiment with new people and you grow.
I really like to do small venues. They're more intimate.
I like being in a band where everybody's equal.
I'm not just a Sixties act.
