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“If you can get through one show, you can get through hundreds."

STARTING OUT

“They looked at us like we were martians. Complete strangers, and they all hated us and wanted to beat the shit out of us."

“We’d seen all the screaming chicks … and couldn’t wait to hear them scream for us."

—on seeing the Beatles

“We went to a gig and then a riot started and the kids hit the stage and the only big deal was how the hell are we getting out … climbing over the rooftops with chief constables who don’t know their way … getaways down fire escapes, through laundry chutes, and into bakery vans. We ended up being like the Monkees without even realizing it."

“A recording contract … as remote as God talking to you."

STRENGTH and SUFFERING … and

WALKING THROUGH the FIRE

“At the end of the day you don’t mess with me. There’s no point in doing it."

“I wanted to come back and prove that what I had gone through had made a difference, to justify this kind of suffering."

“Heroin … It’s a mug’s game, just because of the things you have to go through to get it. But when you’re off it, it’s a fucking comedy, really. Once you’ve been through it and out the other end, then you can afford to laugh at it. It’s only when you don’t make it out the other end that, y’know, you can’t laugh at anything."

“The strong guys are gentle, always. It’s only weak guys that come on strong."

“I said to myself, ‘Okay, the experiment will now come to an end. This is a laboratory, and we’re closing the laboratory down.’ ”

SUPERSTITION

“I never went in for superstition."

“Nobody wants to go near something that has a jinx on it. But you have to take the jinx off, take the voodoo away, and have another look."

SURVIVAL and BOUNCING BACK

“I don’t think about surviving. I just expect it."

“You know, I got a feeling this town’s gonna make it."

—to a New York City audience

at a 9/11 tribute concert

“Cold turkey is not so bad after you’ve done it ten or twelve times."

“If surviving means getting old, yeah, I’m a survivor."

“Everybody wants to make like, ‘Oh, I’ve been to hell and back. ’ You’ve only been halfway. Nobody’s been there and back."

“I’ve been in car crashes where … I’ve watched it from above, saying, ‘This is it. No way am I going to survive …’ You just disappear and suddenly when it’s time for you to be back inside yourself … you’re there."

“The answer is not to keep asking yourself how you do it. As long as you do it. I don’t try to analyze it."

—when asked how he continues on

“Once you’ve survived a Liverpool or London crowd, you can take care of yourself anywhere in the world."

“Doctors all over the world want my body when it finally goes. Apparently I do have an incredible immune system. I had hepatitis C and cured it by myself. Just by being me."

“What’s so hard? What’s so difficult? Everyone has struggles in their life. I had a baby die. Been busted, threatened with jail and death and all kinds of things. But … who hasn’t, in one form or another? That’s life. It was other people’s projections that I was at death’s door … That’s why I’m still here. Really, number one on the list? Look out, cock, I’ll be around!"

“I’ve only fallen over twice in fifteen gigs. But still kept playing."

TALENT

“Everybody has a talent. But how many get to find what their talent is before they’re sucked into the system? I mean, it usually ends up as their hobby, which is probably what they’re really good at … They’re working their guts out doing something they don’t really like to do … and at night they go home and on the weekends they have a hobby. They are working to get those few hours to spend on their hobby, when that’s the area they should really be working in … If you get to find out what your talent is before you’re sucked into doing something you don’t want to do … that’s the big fuck-up. If people were doing things they really wanted to do, they’d do it ten times better."

TECHNOLOGY

“Cellular phones … It’s like sticking your head in a microwave oven … Alexander damn Graham Bell, I’d shoot him."

“Synthesizers and the Internet