I always got great respect as a bass player.
I'm not an upfront person. Being upfront is not my forte. I'm quite happy to stay in the back there with the drums, where I belong.
I always say that I am very proud of the work that I did with the Rolling Stones and that I am also proud of what I have done with the Rhythm Kings.
Because of the fashion, the young people don't have any access to the history of music, unless people like me revive it. There are very few people to revive it, because you can't earn any money doing it.
You could put Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley on one side of the stage, and James Brown on the other, and you wouldn't even notice the others were there!
I had a wonderful time with the Stones but after 31 years, I thought it was time to move on.
There are things that I am very proud of and there are things that you are not so proud of. But I think that applies to any musician.
I'm not a musician, I just play bass.
You're always frustrated, you don't have the chance to do a song on the album, like the Beatles did with Ringo and George, or like Led Zeppelin, where everybody was given a chance to contribute. There never is a chance with the Stones.
Onstage I like to play with a an 18-inch speaker, which very few bass players do. I need that fat, underneath sound, which I've always had. It suits me admirably to do it like that, and I can imitate that sound by plugging directly into the board in the studio.
But why is it that in music, anything more than 5 years old - apart from a few hits - is never played on radio to the young public?
I didn't want to stay in the Stones, and be stuck in a position having to play a music I didn't like anymore and that restricted me from doing all the others things I'm interested in because of time.
It's all right leaping about the stage when you're 20 but when you get to 25 it gets a bit embarrassing
I was listening to music long before rock 'n roll.
When I record in a studio I don't use an amp. I go directly into the board, so I can get that very fat, full sound - which is my favorite sound.
All of my books are about researching. I do all the research and I give it to a writer who can put it in the written word better than I could.
Companies spend twenty, thirty, forty percent of revenues on advertising to brand their product and to get, essentially, acquire customers cheaply. You get a lot of exposure on something like this.
I'm always shy in front of an audience, so I'm always at the back, in the shadows, just doing it. I don't like the front, the adulation.
I don't make any money.
The Stones always tried to do the odd smaller gig when they could.
You never know what your next dig is going to find.
I always listen to a lot of different music when I am working on a project.
I have very interesting hobbies like archeology and photography.
Everything had to be done in-between Stones time.
I can't really sing and play live, because I can't play bass efficiently and sing at the same time. If I concentrated on the vocals, I'd mess up the bass, and if I concentrated on the bass, I'd forget the lines.
