I have the most enormous gong in the world; it's bigger than Neil Peart's, and it's bigger than John Bonham's. If Neil has a revolving kit, then I have a bigger gong. I play other instruments as well, mind you, but drums are my main thing.

I didn't say I was religious. I'm a big fan of the Old Testament and the perfidy it contains. I read very little fiction.

[in 1980] We've broken all existing records as far back as The Beatles, at this point, in terms of speed of record sales, the kind of hysteria. There hasn't been such a clear lead for one group, ahead of all the rest. The last group who had a clear lead were Queen, but we're bigger now than Queen were then. We're probably bigger than Led Zeppelin too, because they never had any teen appeal or hysteria. I suppose the Bay City Rollers had hysteria, but they didn't have any music.

I have great respect for rap artists. In fact, not for the rap artists, but the people who make the music over which they rap. Rap music - the music itself is incredible - but [the people that make the music] are hardly ever credited. The guy who gets the credit, whose picture is on the album cover, is the guy who's making the unpleasant noise with stupid lyrics that don't mean anything to me. But the music underneath it is really important and really creative. Those guys never seem to be credited.

In our day, we were The Beatles of the '70s or the '80s or whichever...and we were the biggest thing since whatever and then six months after we broke up, Duran Duran were the biggest. After that, somebody else was and, six months ago, Oasis were the biggest. Now the Spice Girls are. So it's kind of hard to take any of that seriously.

The film composer has the widest skill set of any musician because he has to go to places that his instincts wouldn't take him. I learned all kinds of useful stuff that I now apply to my own artistic vision.

I was not a big fan of opera. I didn't really "get" the first few I saw until I saw a David Hockney production of "Tristan". That was en education as to what it's all about with opera: the power, the majesty, the kick-ass of a big orchestra and a big story.

I am a crusader, educating musicians who have the depth of talent for large-scale enterprises. I encourage them. It's really a lot of fun. It's magnificent when you hear the orchestra pump it out. Learning to score a chart is easier than learning French. There are fewer words and, being musicians, the people I'm talking about already have that covered.

When I was a film composer under a deadline those instruments would gather dust. And any time I spent hooting away on my bass clarinet just for the fun of it felt like time wasted. Then I came to the realization that it's not goofing off, that's what I'm here for.

Classical music was always going through my head. Even when I listened to Hendrix [Jimi Hendrix] I imagined strings around him. I was never into opera, though. I had a problem with the singers. That exaggerated vibrato. It obscures the melody. Then I saw Wagner [Richard Wagner]'s "Parsifal" and I got it - overwrought dramatic subjects and overwrought dramatic music sobbing with emotion. When the opportunity to write one came, I thought, "There's nothing wrong with opera that a good opera wouldn't fix".

Smile my friends, in show-biz you have to take the rough with the smooth.