Live music is where you get the inspiration and the creativity.
Paul Rodgers
I got the idea of meditation from The Beatles. It was a fad, but I've found it beneficial in my crazy life.
I had a band when I was 14, and we would play around in my hometown of Middlesbrough, and we'd go to the club afterwards, which was the Purple Onion then. There would be live bands playing, and in between that, the DJ would be playing records.
I saw The Jeff Beck Group at the Marquee Club in 1967, when he was with Rod Stewart, and holy smokes, they were amazing.
I enjoyed playing with the guys in Free Spirit so much because they really dug into Free material, and I really liked how they expressed it. They have a lot of dynamics.
I got the idea of what a band should be from listening to Booker T and Otis Redding.
When I was 14, I heard Otis Redding in a club local to me, and I was blown away. It leaped out at me and went straight to my heart. I set my sights on singing like that.
You go through periods of times where bands are calling the shots, and then sometimes, you've got the record companies calling the shots. I think it has to be a bit of both to make the thing work.
When we formed Bad Company, I looked around and asked, 'Who is the biggest rock band in the world?' The answer was undoubtedly Led Zeppelin. Peter Grant was their manager, so we got him to work with us. That made the difference for Bad Company.
The first record I bought was actually Booker T and the MG's 'Red Beans and Rice.'
I have a lot of analog. I think a lot of people do. There are a lot of people that are re-discovering it. I still have a lot of my old records from back in the day. It's a joy to play things like Junior Wells' 'Hoodoo Man Blues,' and John Mayall & The Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton. There's a warmth that you can still feel.
I look at John Lee Hooker and Muddy Waters, guys who had a fantastic longevity, and I learned something from them. They didn't try to sell records. They weren't saying, 'Ok, what can I write, what can I do in the studio that will sell?' They were just doing their thing, and people picked up on it. I like the idea of that.
'That's How Strong My Love Is' carries a message that resonates with the broken-hearted, and most of us have been there.
There are just so many people making music out there. I've always promoted the idea that everybody needs to make music. I think the more music there is in the world, the better, but it does make it highly competitive.
With Free, we had phased out all of the blues material and wanted to phase in all original material, and the only song that stayed from our blues past was 'The Hunter' by Albert King. People just loved that. And I said, 'We have to write a song that will top that - otherwise, what are we doing here?' That was the birth of 'All Right Now.'
I've always been a Jeff Beck fan. Who isn't? He is in a league of his own.
When I left Free back in 1972, I didn't play 'All Right Now' until about 1996, when I was touring with Jason Bonham, and we were supporting the tribute record we had done to Muddy Waters.
One of my dreams was always to have a piano - a room with a piano overlooking the ocean or a lake.
If not for music in my life as a young person, who knows where I would have focused my energy.
The Skynyrds and I go back to the '70s and the days and nights at the Hyatt House on Sunset in L.A., aka the Riot House.
I just try to keep an open mind, and that's the way a lot of good things happen.
I loved the 'Free Spirit' tour and the guys who helped create the magic: Pete Bullick, Rich Newman, Ian Rowley and Gerard 'G' Louis.
It's important to me to be able to hit the notes and just be able to fly when I sing.
I get a bit quick-tempered sometimes.
I met Paul Kossoff for the first time when I was playing in the back of a pub room in Finsbury Park in London in 1967. It was kind of a blues thing going on, and he came up and said, 'I'd like to have a jam.' So he came up and jammed with me, and I just loved his playing right from the start.
I didn't really like the '80s, to be honest with you. There was some good music that came out, but it went a bit disco for me.
If you look at my history, my history is that of forming bands rather than joining them.
Nobody should attempt to do Freddie Mercury impressions.
I have a secret weapon. My wife Cynthia is very good at keeping me in shape. She's very good for me. She's the best thing that happened to me.
I like following whatever's right for me at any given time. I could have stayed with Free for 40 years, but it becomes a corporate entity after a while, and once I become locked into it and governed by it and am expected to do a certain thing all of the time, I tend to want to move on.
I've been influenced by so many great people , like Sam Moore, Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding, John Lee Hooker, B.B. King, so many great blues and soul artists that I completely revere. So it's strange for me, actually, to hear somebody say, 'Oh, I was deeply influenced by your music.'
When I was in my teen years and in my 20s and even 60s, it was okay to drop everything and disappear and become a road warrior for all those months. But after a while you get... y'know, one likes to have some home life.
I'm a big fan of Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac.
I tend to want to form bands and then create new music within them. Queen was an exception, and we joined forces because it just seemed to work when we played together.
Horses are such a powerful part of human development and have been since the early ages. We humans owe them so much.
Without music in schools' curriculum, there is a void for young people to express, explore, and experience music.
There is magic on earth.
Only Freddie Mercury could do Freddie Mercury. He was absolutely brilliant - I loved him to pieces, and I had a great deal of respect for him.
One overindulges when you're younger, and you pay the price in later years. But I always realized how important it was for me to take care of myself and my voice if I was gonna have a voice when I was older.
With any band, there's two sides - there's the image, and there's the music.
When I play solo, that's when I put it all together. I go through all of the songs that I've written wtih all of the different bands; that, for me, tells its own story, and the DVDs really enforce that.
I think it is tiring to listen to digital music for too long.
As a performer, the thing that I love is to see people come together.
I love it when people come from all over the place in separate vehicles, and they all come to this venue and become one energy. When that happens, it's a very magical thing. I think that helps the world go around, and it's what we do as performers - bring people together.
I always think the audience should be part of the show.
The one thing I loved about blues and soul was the way they taught the world how to express such deep feelings.
I was brought up in a fairly emotionally repressed kind of society in Northeast England where one didn't express emotions and was expected to keep a stiff upper lip.
Ann Wilson has an amazing voice and is a brilliant songwriter.
Songs do write themselves through you; I know people find it hard to believe, but it's true.
I toured with Lynyrd Skynyrd as a solo artist, many years ago. I love those guys.
