"What’s my fifth favorite movie? Now there have been quite a number of them. See now I’m sort of in no-man’s land, because I’m thinking Bonnie and Clyde, I’m thinking Chinatown… I’m just wandering around now. [laughs] One of my favorite books was Black Beauty; I read it when I was eight-years-old, and I’m trying to find if there was a movie, like that, that sticks with me. Oh, I know! Moby Dick. Yes. Now that was filmmaking. John Huston. Call me… Ishmael. I read the book, and there are very few books that I have read and seen the movie and liked the movie. Gregory Peck was in two of ’em: Moby Dick and To Kill a Mockingbird. Gregory Peck was one of my favorite actors. Gregory Peck and Gary Cooper and Humphrey Bogart, those guys."

"Also, I would say probably Taxi Driver, just as a piece of acting and just fabulous scene-setting brilliance from Scorsese and characterization from De Niro. That’s one of those films I just watch in awe of all of it, because it’s just so uncompromising. I saw Avengers yesterday, and it was such a fun romp and really entertaining and decently done. That’s the kind of film adults watch today, when in the 1970s, when Taxi Driver came out, that was the kind of film that adults would watch. That and French Connection and Godfather and Bonnie and Clyde. Anything pre-Star Wars, really. The preserve of grown-up cinema in those days were genuinely grown-up movies, and that goes for everything I’m doing as well, from Star Trek to Ready Player One or even Mission: Impossible. They’re pure entertainment rather than think pieces, which is what film cinema used to be in the mainstream."

"This art form, and it is an art form, which winds up being tagged as blues, is largely made up of expressions so genuine that they come straight out without second- or third-draft revisions. There's a resonance that's magnetic, kind of a compelling entity of its own. Shemekia Copeland, her dad is also from Houston, and released a couple of regional hits under the name Johnny 'Clyde' Copeland. As teenagers when we had the garage band we attempted playing – and the word is attempted – his great record 'Down On Bending Knees'. Talk about compelling – that was a great record. 

Unknown to me, Shemekia recorded a ZZ Top song, 'Jesus Just Left Chicago'. Her people asked if I'd consider playing a guitar figure and I said I'd really enjoy it. She didn’t know that I treasured the work her dad gave us. I said, well what's this for? A single? ""Well, we think it'll be single-worthy, as part of an album."" An album? Well I gotta hear it."

"I'd heard this record off and on over the years and I was more familiar with stuff like 'Bonnie And Clyde' but the thread through a lot of these records is that I look at the sonic value. And I've always loved Serge Gainsbourg's production, be it the bass sound or the drum sound and so I really don't give a shit that it's sung in French because that's part of the whole package. My brother and his wife bought me the vinyl version about five or six years ago and it reinvigorated it for me and it reignited how I felt about Serge. When you put that record on, whether it's making Sunday lunch or having a few smokes at the end of the night, it just delivers what I want at that moment and that's the thing about great records. You may not love them all the time but there are the times when you do. But this has got a really cool poise that I enjoy."