Quotes from Chris Rea

I've had nine major operations in ten years. A lot of it is to do with something called retroperitoneal fibrosis, where the internal tissues attack each other.

Being on the road isn't hell - it's pure pleasure now.

If I'm ever stuck on the M25 - the 'Road to Hell' - I'll wind the window down and start singing, 'I'm driving home for Christmas' at people in cars alongside. They love it. It's like giving them a present.

I have found out who are my real friends, thanks to the illness and hospitals.

You can't have F1 without Ferrari - you just can't have it. It's part of the theme that is the red car, and a lot of it is to do with the colour.

That is the music that I have always wanted to play: real, genuine guitar music.

I've always felt that if people just came to one of my gigs, all would be revealed.

Nothing was ever clean enough for my father. You could never clean as good as he could; you could never clean as fast and as thorough as he could.

Touring is easy. My wife will be with me a lot of the time. We get spoilt rotten, and all I have to do is go on stage in wonderful places and play music.

I remember my first day at grammar school, being the only person who was me. Everybody else was like everybody else, and there I was, tanned, in a freezing cold playground in the middle of Middlesbrough, wondering what on earth I was doing there.

The record companies didn't want 'Stony Road,' and it ended up being a gold album. They didn't want 'Blue Guitars,' and we did 165,000 books.

I'm never happy with anything I've done! If you sat me down and played everything I've ever recorded, I'd just sit there going, 'No... that could be better.'

I feel I've had three careers in one, really. There was the 'Benny Santini' stuff; that came with a general sense of, 'Who the hell is he?' And then there was 'The Road To Hell' stuff, and now there's the blues stuff.

None of my heroes were big rock stars, and I thought, 'This isn't how it's meant to be.' It wasn't about making music so much as selling it.

Rock n' roll was my art school. For many people from working-class backgrounds, rock wasn't a chosen thing, it was the only thing: the only avenue of creativity available for them.

I never got the chance to put drums on 'Watersigns,' because the company was in a rush to release it - and me.

Five times a week, I do two hours running and gym work. That's to help with things like blood circulation. Also, it is good to be in shape in case I need to go into hospital again.

If the heads of all the music companies had known about music and about Chris Rea fans, they wouldn't have worried about 'Stony Road.' My regular fans have always known that side of me.

I live halfway between London and the airport, which means I can operate my European career and get home every night. It costs a lot of money, but it's worth it.

Once I faced the fact I was going to deal with illness for the rest of my life, I got on with what I really wanted to do.

It's impossible for a couple to bring up two children without having lots and lots of arguments.

I'd never intended to write a Christmas hit - I was a serious musician!

The Italian side of my family were gypsies, and we are little hard so-and-sos.

Back in 1997, I got to race a Ferrari at the famous Monza circuit in Italy - a dream come true.