Top 72 Quotes & Sayings by Shakin' Stevens

Artists have different stages in their career, from George Michael via Wham! to people like Kylie. A change of perception is what's needed.

My fans go right across the board. They come to my concerts in family groups.

To this day, I don't know how our mum managed to put enough food on the table.

I always used to sing in the house and I went to school at Hywel Dda Primary School in Ely. I think they had a puppet-type show there and word got around I could sing. I sang at that puppet performance and used to sing in school. From there, it was in my blood. I didn't want to do anything else but sing.

There's more to me than 'Green Door.'

There's nothing wrong with being mad.

Life is never a bed of roses, but it's not all doom and gloom either.

I was in several bands, and we just started off doing the clubs and dancehalls in the valleys - and eventually moved on to the colleges and universities.

I had success in Canada, all through Europe, Poland, Czechoslovakia.

We've had Salvationists in the family for more than 150 years.

When I was growing up, there were 13 children - it was different times then.

I mean, I didn't know that my dad was married before he met my mum. He was married for a year and he had a son. Even when I was grown up, that secret was still not let out.

Mickey Gee will be remembered for his guitar playing by the public and true fellow musicians.

In the Eighties, I was everywhere. It was hard, because you didn't see much of your children. I missed out on that. People make sacrifices - doctors, long-distance lorry drivers - and that was mine. I wasn't left money, I had to go out and earn it.

In Australia and New Zealand I had big, big success.

Someone can have a heart attack at any age. That person may only have so much time, so if there's a chance to help people in distress we should take it.

Look at Kylie. She's changed and adapted but still kept her fans. That's what I want to do.

The Salvation Army do a lot more than sit around the Christmas tree with a band.

I did feel a bit of an outsider in the Eighties. But there was a market for me out there. New Romantics were totally different.

Mum was absolutely tremendous, a wonderful woman, one in a million.

I have done big festivals all over Europe with hip hops acts and everything else.

The early Shakin' Stevens and the Sunsets gigs were wild.

I've been using slide guitar, banjo, stuff like that for yonks. But if people haven't seen me live on stage, they wouldn't have heard me with these instruments.

People have got a preconceived idea of what I look like, what I perform and what my shows are all about. I can understand that, because all they can refer to is 'Top Of The Pops.' But those who come to my shows know better.

I don't think I look like him at all. There is only one Elvis and there Is only one Shakin' Stevens and I'm getting sick of people asking me that.

We had a wind-up gramophone long before I came along, and it moved on to a Dansette record player. That's how I heard the records as I grew up.

I have had some great interviews and some not.

My health had always been pretty good.

As you get older, you do try to be a bit wiser.

I came out of the punk era in the late Seventies. There were the Stray Cats, Matchbox and myself. I was able to hang on and it makes you think how I fitted in with your Spandau Ballets and Kraftwerk.

As for Glastonbury, it's the biggest festival there is in Britain, and I'm very pleased to be asked to do it.

To be honest I was never much of an Elvis fan myself.

I used to go to Caerphilly with my brother Les, two years older than me, with my mother to see her sister, Gladys. When they wanted to talk we'd have to leave the room. She'd say to her husband Stan 'take them in the front room and play the piano.'

I knew about my grandmother's husband who died in the Albion coal disaster. But I didn't know a brother died in the same disaster because of the health and safety, which was terrible.

When I started we were travelling in vans, at that time we couldn't afford B&Bs, so after the gig the band would all climb in the back of the van with our fish and chips and then wake up in the morning - six sweaty musicians, all the gear around us, and you'd think 'oh god.'

I had a heart attack and it was touch and go. I was in intensive care, my body was frozen. I had an ice cap and had to get a pacemaker. I was in hospital for nearly two months.

I've been asked that question lots of time before, why wasn't I on Live Aid? And quite frankly I don't know. I was riding high in the charts and the styles of music they had were quite varied from Adam Ant to Status Quo to Queen. I would have definitely fitted in.

I was a guy who was born in Cardiff and thought, there must be more to my history than that.

With the Echoes tour there was quite a lot of people who came to the shows that were attracted by the music and the sentiment on the album.

All families have lies and secrets, I don't mind sharing ours.

I had a positive remark from Johnny Rotten, would you believe? He said I was a fantastic singer. Not a lot of people know stuff like that.

To write a song is one thing, to get it to No.1 is another and to have a respected artist cover it is incredible. It's great to know my songs will be around for a long time.

DJs used to mickey-take, have a real poke at Shakin' Stevens.

I love the Wilburys, but what made them special was the make-up of the band.

I feel like I'm a skittle. If I'm knocked down, I'll get up and try again.

Freedom is not a God-given right, we have to earn it.

Dad was in the First World War in the Royal Field Artillery from 1914 to 1918, as well as uncle Leonard.

We had three small bedrooms. There were five boys in the back, top and tail, the girls in the front. Me and Leslie, the two youngest, were in with our parents. I was very happy but when they all got married and moved out Leslie and I thought we were kings.

I'm so tired of all that teeny-bop stuff. It was years ago. So twee. I'm not into all that.

From country rock to Cajun, classic rock to Latin, and blues to Americana, I've had the pleasure of re-discovering the 'jewels' from my repertoire that are so well-liked.

I don't wear white shoes any more.

I always thought it would be nice to have a Christmas number one. If nobody remembers you for the rest of the year, they'll remember you at Christmas.

Brave people such as my Uncle Leonard were willing to put themselves at risk to preserve what they valued in life and young men and women today continue to make those sacrifices for our country.

I knew dad was born in Yorkshire and mum was from Mountain Ash.

I still love being on the road. I've been doing it since I left school. It's in my blood, it's in my bones.

I don't like to do interviews, to be honest. I hate interviews.

My older brothers would scour the railway tracks for lumps of fallen coal to keep us warm and we'd sleep, top to tail, three to a bed. So we were seriously poor in every way except for one. We were rich in love.

I'm not a spendthrift. It's hard enough to earn!

I've met an 18-month-old baby whose dad says the child likes banging his toy hammer on the furniture when my songs are playing and I've met grandmothers who've bought all my discs.

I couldn't go on an '80s package show or anything like that. I have a lot more to give. If you go down that road completely I think you'll stay with a certain type of audience. Again I'm not knocking it. People go for the fun of the hits, it's what they've grown up with.