Personally, I think you can put any interpretation you want on anything, but when someone suggests that Can't Buy Me Love is about a prostitute, I draw the line. That's going too far.

Love Me Do, the first song we recorded, John was supposed to sing the lead, but they changed their minds and asked me to sing lead because they wanted John to play harmonica.

Working with Love and Death on 'Let Me Love You' was sort of a supernatural experience. I was mourning the loss of a loved one when I recorded the song.

A song is a mantra, something you repeat over and over. We need peace, we need giving, we need love, we need unity. I want the whole world to sing this song.

I get an audience personally involved in a song - because I'm involved myself. It's not something I do deliberately: I can't help myself. If the song is a lament at the loss of love, I get an ache in my gut. I feel the loss myself and I cry out the loneliness, the hurt and the pain that I feel.

Each song is a child I nourish and give my love to. But even if you have never written a song, your life is a song. How can it not be?