Quotes from Denny Laine

John Bonham was a good friend of mine. I knew him a bit as a kid. I hung out with him quite a lot.

And I had such a great working experience with Paul during the 'RAM' album.

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.

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.

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.

The human voice is one of the most attractive things.

In the studio is one thing, but playing live is the important part, I think.

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.

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.

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.

My sisters and my brother were all very much into music. A couple of them were dancers.

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.

I'm not just a Sixties act.

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.

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.

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.

Tribute bands have kind of taken over the market, and I don't want to come across as being that.

In the sixties when Paul was with the Beatles and I was with the Moody Blues, we shared the same bill and tried to blow each other off the stage.

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 was brought up on listening to 78 rpm records from crooners to opera singers to solo piano players.

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.

I've retreated to what I was originally, which is an individual songwriter.

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.

The Moody Blues was very big in France, because they liked that we were basically playing blues.