"I rekindled a fondness for hip-hop having spent so much time in Houston, Texas, which lately has been revealed as the unexpected destination to make rap and hip-hop records. That's due largely to the presence of the Geto Boys and Bushwick Bill, Scarface and even Destiny's Child. When ZZ Top were recording the album Rhythmeen our studio was undergoing a facelift so we went into an alternate studio, John Moran's Digital Services, where many rap records have been made. There was the left room and the right room, adjoined with the shared group lounge area. I was trying to figure out how the hip-hop guys and rappers got such great-sounding backbeats. And of course what they didn't have was this kinda bluesy guitar. To this day ZZ Top aspires to keep some crunch and grit as part of the fabric. What started the ball rolling back in that direction was the movie Straight Outta Compton. All of a sudden I'm watching the genesis of NWA and what really started such a robust scene. I'd watch that movie ten times. And I probably will [again]!"

"Bill Forsythe film, Scottish and unassuming. He came to the states and he worked with Peter Riegert and you’ll recognize Peter Capaldi as a very young man named Donnie. It’s so sweet, and yet savvy, and I think that’s the same thing with Local Hero — it’s a comic film that captures a tremendous amount of sadness and that’s really hard to pull off, to have a character who’s fundamentally sad, and then finds something wonderful and risks it being taken away from him. That’s the complication of the film. He’s the oil man that comes over from this huge air conglomerate in Houston and his mission is to come over to this small town and buy the town and turn it into an oil refinery. It was a precursor to things like Northern Exposure. Instead of having aggressively quirky characters, all of these characters are people I’ve met when I’ve been to the British Isles and Scotland, and yes they are that eccentric. Peter Riegert is wonderful in it. It’s slow and it’s soft, but it’s hilarious, and the music is by Mark Knopfler [of Dire Straits]. I’ve never shown this to anyone who regretted seeing it."