"My older sister was obsessed with this record and played it to death. I had a guitar and was in the middle of struggling my way through Iron Maiden tab books. I figured out that I could work out the chords on the Counting Crows records by a process of trial and error. I did that mainly to please my sister. We had a guitar at home, and you can’t really sit around the campfire playing Megadeth songs. So I started playing Counting Crows We had a guitar at home, and you can’t really sit around the campfire playing Megadeth songs. So I started playing Counting Crows. In the process, I got into it. Looking back now, I think it’s one of the most important records in my own musical development. It taught me pretty much everything I know about songwriting, song structuring and arrangement. I vaguely know Adam [Duritz, vocals], and he was wearing one of my t-shirts at a gig the other day. That was my life coming full circle right there."

"The first book that really made an impression was The Story of Dr. Doolittle by Hugh Lofting. An English country doctor who lived in Puddleby-on-the-Marsh who was taught how to speak to animals by his parrot, Polynesia. His amazing household ranging from Jip, the dog and Whitey the white mouse to Dab Dab the duck who took over as housekeeper when the Doctor’s sister left in a huff because he would have animals in the house and she found mice nesting in her linen cupboard…Mum got it for me from the library – we could not afford new books. I read it at least twice before it had to go back. In fact I loved it so much that Danny (my grandmother, with whom Mum, my sister Judy and I went to live after war broke out and my father joined up in the army) gave it to me as a great treat for Christmas, 1944. It was one of the most exciting presents I remember – my very own book!"