Michael Geoffrey "Mick" Ralphs is an English guitarist and songwriter, who was a founding member of rock bands Mott the Hoople and Bad Company... (wikipedia)
When I did it, I was a starving musician in London in a basement flat, but a simple tune with the right singer or the right situation can become very well liked and accepted. I'm only too pleased to say it happened with that one.
One of my big inspirations was Chuck Berry, and his playing was always about the rhythm and the lyrics. So I've always been that way in my playing, really.
I think that as you get older, you mellow out a lot more. Having been through the ups and downs in life, I feel more qualified to play the blues.
I suppose people wouldn't think I played the keyboard, but I enjoy exploring the keyboard. I mean I only play by ear like I do guitar.
The parrot's so funny. He imitates me and I don't even realize he's doing it. I'm walking around the house talking to myself and whistling and the next day he's said something I've said... it's scary you know?
English people are so boring, they tend to stay where they were born and never go anywhere... 'cause England isn't that big anyway.
I've never had a plan - it was just to try and get with the people you like to play with, and try to do the best you can.
Bad Company is not a priority in his life, and it's always been in my life. When it's not there, I haven't got a lot going for me.
This kid's excited because he's with Bad Company and I'm excited because I'm with Chuck Berrys' son.
I'm not a country picker, really - I like a nice, beefy, raunchy sort of sound.
Because I've always put them down, I generally tend to get music more than I do lyrics... when you get the two together, you've got a good song.
Chuck Berry just put fours across the shuffle. If you try it, it really works. It's quite amazing, you'd think it wouldn't work but it's great.
That's what I find with any good song, you just have to let it happen. Out of about twenty songs you might write, one of any significance. It might be thirty or forty, but I just keep churning them out and churning them out in hope that one of them will stick.
Guitar is great for a certain thing, but a piano is so much more expansive.
I've got a Range Rover. It's brilliant actually but it's manual.
I have been playing a lot of keyboards, especially in the last five or six years. I suppose it gives you more scope than the guitar, although it does tend to make you write a different way.
But I find that the keyboard is the complete instrument you know?
I'm ready for some rock 'n' roll action.
I've had Range Rovers for a few years actually.
It's funny, when I'm not on the road or doing stuff with Bad Company - or whatever- I've always written songs galore... a lot of stuff people don't even hear.
Put me on stage and I'm happy.
Santa Fe is a great place which people don't get there often, but it's like a unique place.
Since I've got on the Internet, it's opened a whole world of wasted time for me. My wife says she's an Internet widow.
That's me. I can be me a bit at home, but I'm kind of like a square peg in a round hole.
I didn't like Los Angeles very much but I like San Francisco.