"The first times I tried to listen to this, I couldn’t do it. I thought “This is horrible. They’re out of tune, the guys can’t play, the way that he’s singing …” I just thought, “What is this?” Then I started seeing it around more and more and then I finally met Don and there was something very peculiar and interesting about him so I thought, “I have to give this record a chance.” We deprive ourselves the opportunity of appreciating something that is artistic, by making certain claims and being dogmatic or snobbish about it. So I listened to it a bunch and really started to get it. What I really appreciate is when somebody works completely outside the box with confidence and that record is all about that. These guys didn’t care what was going on and that made me think “Why does music always have to be in tune?” and “Why does music have to be rhythmic?” It doesn’t, we’re just conditioned to think that way and you will rarely hear somebody create something that’s brutally unique. The ways these guys do wildly different things with abandon resulting in a willy–nilly brand of controlled chaos, made me think it was all very interesting. It’s like liberation."

"Oh my gosh, that was another pivotal moment. Queen – for me – is the most unique rock band in history. I love Deep Purple, Zeppelin and all those rock bands from that time but nobody sounded like Queen and nobody could sound remotely like that. There was a magic to them – almost like the band was blessed with something. That band was such a perfect storm because with Freddie Mercury, how could you even quantify his confidence? You couldn’t –it was boundless and he just expressed that constantly in the music. The way Brian May approached the guitar was absolutely unique. You can compare me to other guitar players, you can compare Page to other players but you can’t compare Brian May to anybody because his touch on the instrument had a life of its own and the way that he heard the songs and was able to apply this unbelievable touch to serve the song – as opposed to just saying ‘here’s a guitar solo’ –meant he was the sound of Queen. In fact everyone in that band was the sound of Queen. When ¬Queen II came out it was the most musical, aggressive rock record of that period, for me."