We always work at least a month to six weeks before we go on the road, usually for something like eight to 12 hours a night. It took six weeks to do it this time. We just play virtually everything we know.
When I was a kid I never learned to play. I actually got in bands through watching people play and copying them.
To be able to play as slow as Al Jackson is almost impossible.
The world of this is a load of crap. You get all these bloody people, so incredibly sycophantic.
You need better technique than I have to play jazz, but what you have to do is the same thing, isn't it?
You'd imagine Mick would be the happiest person in the world, and yet a lot of the times he isn't.
When people talk about the '60s I never think that was me there. It was me and I was in it, but I was never enamoured with all that. It's supposed to be sex and drugs and rock and roll and I'm not really like that. I've never really seen the Rolling Stones as anything.
Usually I can hear the pianos, the saxophone, and usually I can hear Ronnie. But I really need to listen to Keith and Mick. The rest of the band is sort of an embellishment to that.
I didn't know what the hell Charlie Parker was playing... I just liked the way he played.
People say I play real loud. I don't, actually. I'm recorded loud and a lot of that is because we have good engineers. Mick knows what a good drum sound is as well, so that's part of the illusion really. I can't play loud.
Mick's not good on his own problems, but he's very good at other people's. He's been wonderful over the years. I don't mean I ring him up every week, but he's fantastic.
It's been years and years and years I've been playing the drums, and they're still a challenge. I still enjoy using drumsticks and a snare drum.
It doesn't really change, actually. I think The Rolling Stones have gotten a lot better. An awful lot better, I think. A lot of people don't, but I think they have, and to me that's gratifying. It's worth it.
I'm very strict with my packing and have everything in its right place. I never change a rule. I hardly use anything in the hotel room. I wheel my own wardrobe in and that's it.
For some reason at 12 or 13, I just heard Gerry Milligan and fell in love with that, whatever it was called.