"I had the great privilege of working on the sets of Fellini’s Satyricon and Roma. Fellini is for me one of the greatest of all filmmakers—he embraced life with his unique vision and genius. La strada, made in 1954, is the poetic and very moving story of a poor young woman who becomes a clown in a tiny, two-person circus. Her name is Gelsomina. A brutish gypsy, Zampanò, buys Gelsomina from her mother and takes her on the road with him. He trains her to be a clown. She falls in love with him even though he is abusive and cruel. What transpires is a tragic love story with the background of a magical traveling circus. This film surely influenced my interest in and love of the circus."

"It was kind of weird because I had forgotten how much I listened to that album. I was introduced to Ronnie [James Dio] at an early stage, loved his voice and Ritchie [Blackmore], as a guitar player, was someone who was just beyond the grasp of my little mind at the time. He was so unique. When you go through all the different eras and songs, there's such variety. Songs like 'Kill The King' were interesting, but by far my favourite was 'Gates Of Babylon'. It has such a hypnotic, dancing gypsy riff. The singing and all the production is just tremendous and if you can copy Blackmore and master what he's doing, it'll take your playing to a whole new level. Not many people have done it either. Yngwie [Malmsteen] did it very well of course, but Yngwie is the master and was influenced by not just Ritchie."