I've thought of putting together a dream concert involving three of the greatest names in heavy metal in one show - Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, and Judas Priest. Who'd headline? Would it matter? It'd be pure metal heaven.

Queen were an incredible heavy metal band.

[on shaving his head] I was going bald, I didn't want to go out looking like that guy from Marillion, or Phil Collins - fuck that.

[on his trademarked moniker of Metal God] I don't want anybody else to be the metal god but me.

I feel a bit like Quentin Crisp these days, I've become the stately homo of heavy metal.

Freddie (Freddie Mercury) is my ultimate hero. The closest I ever got to Freddie was in a gay bar in Athens on the way to Mykonos. We kind of glared at each other across the bar, in a kind of smiling, winking way. When we got to Mykonos I was determined to track him down, but I couldn't because he'd rented this huge yacht. It was festooned in pink balloons and it just kept sailing around the island. He's someone I wish I'd really met.

I've been a huge Queen fan since they began. I actually went and saw some of their very, very, very early shows in England, and they just blew me away; I just couldn't believe it. These guys were doing extraordinary things for that time in rock and roll.

The music lives longer than we do.

There will only ever be one Freddie Mercury.

[on the Judas Priest 2011 tour] As far as having the 'Spinal Tap' (This Is Spinal Tap (1984)) accoutrement - the Harley, the smoke, the fire, the lasers, the costumes - it's full-on 'Spinal Tap' times 12.

My iPod is with me wherever I go. My iPod is all over the place - it's got Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Vivaldi, Wagner, and then it goes into Slayer, Emperor, everything by Sabbath, everything by Queen, Tool, Pantera. I could just go on and on. I'm just a chameleon when it comes to music - all kind of music touch my senses.

There are two kinds of music - heavy metal and all the crap they play on radio and show on MTV.