Quotes from Ian Brown

I never wanted to be a pop singer, but I always watched pop programs and knew I could do better than the people I was seeing.

I actually was able to give up shopping in February '99.

We started out to finish groups like U2 - that was what it was all about.

I went to a friend's 40th in Manchester, and there was a karaoke machine, and no one was having a go. My mate said, 'No one's singing because you're in the room.' I said, 'Who am I, Frank Sinatra?' They made me sing flipping 'My Star' to a backing track that sounded like '80s Roxy Music. It was pretty embarrassing, but I did it.

My wife is Mexican, and she's really influenced me: She's got an impressive collection of Mexican music.

People tend to settle for the fiver rather than going for the pot of gold.

I love karaoke - I usually do Blondie's 'Heart Of Glass,' or 'Try A Little Tenderness.'

'Psychedelic' means mind-expanding.

I was really into punk when I was about 14.

Just because I'm a successful singer who's loved and has been loved for years doesn't mean I'm sitting behind electric gates in my own fantasy land.

It takes time for people to fall in love with you....but it's inevitable

Getting a grey beard's not cool.

I liked him, that Jarvis Cocker. I like the fact he was androgynous, he could appeal to everybody. He wasn't just a lad pretending to be a thug.

One person might perceive me as godlike, and the next might think I'm a northern thug. I don't think I've done myself any favours... but I swear I've not had a proper fight since I was 14.

I'd never been paid for the first Roses LP - it was 2002 before we received any royalties.

Love resolves. Love. Love's deeper than the hurt.

I can't think of anyone who's reformed for art's sake. That's why the Roses will never reform.

It's a horrible name, Coldplay. It doesn't conjure up any positive thoughts.

Permacultures - where you use the immediate environment to grow food - should be mandatory.

When the ravens leave the Tower, England shall fall, they say. We want to be there shooting the ravens.

I used to be one of those kids who couldn't keep my mouth shut.

We're against hypocrisy, lies, bigotry, show business, insincerity, phonies, and fakers.

Even on songs we've got that are about a girl, there's always something there that's a call to insurrection.

We wrote 'Stellify' for Rihanna, but as we got to the end of writing it, I thought, 'You know what? I'm gonna keep this for myself. We'll give her another one.' She'd have probably sung it better, but it is too good for me not to do it.