Quotes from Chesney Hawkes

I'm a massive fan of Ben Folds, I have been for ages.

When I was 16 I told my dad I wanted to be a pop star. He told me, 'I'll give you until the end of the summer. If you're not earning money by then, you're going back to school.'

I got married, had two kids, watched a lot of football, drunk a lot of pints, etc.

I've worked with the company - James Dean Events - on several occasions and their festivals have always been really successful and well run. I've even got to know the people that own the land. It's always a really warm crowd and a real community spirit.

I absolutely love sushi.

In fact one of the main reasons I head out to Los Angeles quite a bit is because they have the most amazing sushi bar in the world.

I remember there was days when I would do six, seven countries in a day, you'd just be flying around and I'd get up in the morning and not know what I was doing. In one day I'd fly to Belgium and then off to Sweden and then do a gig in Leeds, I literally didn't know what I was doing from day to day.

I've never really been that into cars. Maybe I just thought that's what pop stars do. They buy flash cars. I was just playing it up a bit, being flash.

I like posing in cars, with my shades on. That's what cars are for. They're not to get you from A to B. They're to pose in.

I have dabbled in management but I found it a little too all consuming.

By the time I was 17, I was in a band, writing songs and playing solo piano at weekends, in pubs or at weddings.

My day job is that I write songs for other artists and if I'm not on the road I'm in my studio.

My day job these days is I am writing, producing and developing young artists here in the States, in between working on my own stuff.

I have to say that talk of me living as a tramp at one point is completely false and I think that's been added to my entry in Wikipedia, but I have been asked about that quite a few times.

I was only a young whippersnapper at that point. I was in pubs playing Barry Manilow songs. I didn't know what to expect.

Over the years I've worked in everything from R&B, pop, country to rock 'n' roll to heavy rock, alternative... if there's one thing that my manager tells me off for, it's that I am a little too eclectic, that I have trouble focusing.

When I look back at old footage of me back in the early '90s, it almost looks like a cartoon character, or something.

I've worked with a lot of 'American Idols' over there and I've worked with the 'German Idol' winner and had songs on 'Australian Idol.' It's a place for songs. 'The X Factor' U.K. is the holy grail.

I enjoy doing my gigs and I keep my hand in by putting records out now and again. You can't really get over the buzz of playing live though.

I'm sure I was a cocky git.

Of course I had a good family, so that kept my feet on the ground.

My wife tells me off as I'm always coming home with either skateboards or guitars.

I still get knickers thrown on stage, but not as much as they used to. In fact, I get bloke's boxer shorts thrown on and someone rolled a coconut on stage the other night.

Originally a promoter came and asked if I fancied doing a few student gigs. I was a little nervous. I thought they wouldn't know who I was and, worse still, not care. The first gig was in Lincoln. It sold out. I had knickers thrown on stage and people were chanting my name. I can't remember having a reaction like that - even in '91.