I saw what Purple meant to people and I still hear it now when I'm in Europe. I'm always shocked that I'm still asked about Purple because it was such a long time ago.

I think we have two very important missions in life. One is to find out who we really are and the other one is to taste as much of life and experience as much of life as we can.

I would hope it's better, but I'm actually acknowledging now that I want to explore all these levels from a whisper to a scream with this gift I've been given.

The other thing that was very noticeable on that tour, not so much in the video, was the new young element that were coming to our shows... I started to see some very young people in the audience... maybe 14, 15, 16 years old.

When certain bootleg companies started off and they would take maybe ten per cent of whatever they got and help fuel new bands, which I'm cool with, I think that's a good idea. Most of the record companies are not doing that.

When I was very, very young, seven years old, I heard there was school where you could go to learn to draw. That was my absolute driven passion, to become an artist or a painter. So the romantic realist in me, I studied to be a graphic design artist and an art teacher.

Whitesnake more than most rock bands would get a very significant percentage of women in the audience and those were the ones I'd hear the voices because from where I am on stage is a pretty good spot.

With Whitesnake it would have been inappropriate for me to have played Deep Purple songs, although I did at the beginning because I didn't have enough Whitesnake songs.

What anybody else thinks about you is really of no consequence. It's what you think of yourself.

The audience will make you feel like a demigod. But when you leave the stage, get back to being human.

In the last couple of years I've been facing down a lot of the demons of the past and trying to find out, who I am, It's something I think I'll be doing for the rest of my life.

I'm the last person to ask 'what do you remember' from a particular time period... I like to learn from the past... not 'live' in it.

Amateurs in professional situations make me very impatient.

Artistic development is a thing of the past, sadly.

Hard rock may have faded from the media for a time, but I've always been able to make a living, if not in America, then in the rest of the world.

I don't avoid confrontation, people should know that.

I stand by every decision I've made throughout my career and my life, good or bad, up or down.

I take care of my voice; I'm working out the way I would do my body, so that stays in shape.

I've always loved music, very simply, as a vehicle to express myself and that hasn't changed.

I've always thought live albums were cop-outs.