A big highlight was meeting Michael Jackson. I spent fourteen hours on a plane with him once, and I did have a chat with him. I'm such a big fan, and that was quite awesome, meeting him.

-In December, you're touring again with Quo, doing an arena tour, so are you looking forward to that?
Well we're doing the UK in December, but we work all the time. I'm going to Czec Republic tomorrow, then we're doing Switzerland. All sorts of shows. Then we're going away for a month in Germany and France, and then we do the UK.

We work all the time. It's just that people in the UK think, "oh they're playing in December. I wonder where they're putting their feet up now?" We're not. We're working our arses off!

-Is it hard being on the road that often then?
Well, it is hard, but this is what we do. One learns, over the years, what are called road skills, how to actually survive on the road after the first 20 years. It's quite tough, you do develop certain tricks, if you like.

-How's life on the road changed over the years?
On paper, it's become more comfortable. I used to try and save every bean I earned, but now it doesn't make any difference to me if I go to a really expensive restaurant or a burger bar. It doesn't bother me, so that's nice. I'm fortunate there.

Things are supposed to get a bit more comfortable, but then outside influences affect it. Flying is no fun. It used to be the quick way to get somewhere, now it's the long way. It's uncomfortable and inconvenient due to all the security. Things do change.

-With it becoming more difficult, is touring still something you enjoy, or is it just a necessity?
Oh no, we enjoy it. This is what we do, it's our job. If you've got a normal job that you enjoy, you might not enjoy every day, but you enjoy your work.

There's job satisfaction, more so than in any other job. When you see 5,000 people jumping up and down singing more lyrics you wrote, it's really quite cool. It's great. We still get a kick.

-You mentioned how busy you are up until the end of the year. Looking past that, what do you have planned?
To be brutally honest with you, I don't look past Christmas. I'm not going to look past Christmas, until we get past Christmas. Then I'll get a plan of what's going on. I'll probably get one before then, but I won't look at it.

-Are there any plans for live dates around your new album, or are you concentrating on Status Quo?
I was going to do a couple of showcase songs. I decided to do a video instead, and see how the album goes. If it goes well, then yes, I will look into doing some dates.

I would absolutely love to, but from a standing start, no. I don't think anybody would come, because they wouldn't know what to expect, would they? They just think I play the piano. Of course, they're wrong their because I can't!

It's show-business. Nothing is what it seems.

-Thank you for chatting to us. Good luck for the Quo tour.
Thank you very much. We're looking forward to it, because it's the first one we're doing that's just arenas. Instead of 38 shows, we're doing 12 I think. It's quite easy going for us, we just hope it works.

Female First - Alistair McGeorge

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