I'm not in the business of becoming famous. And that's the advice I give to younger aspiring actors. Work onstage and do the little roles. In the end it's not important to be seen. It's important to do. There's a lot of disappointment in this business but my family keeps me grounded.

Touring is tough. You're almost in a haze because you don't really know where you are half the time: You're in a hotel room one moment and the next thing you know you're onstage performing for 60 000 people then you're back on an airplane. It's very hectic and I couldn't do it without my family.

I'm not trying to be romantic. I think you can tell when people are trying to be sexy onstage. When I was doing 'All the Way ' I was really thinking about my wife. People don't know my personal experience but they can tell it's an honest interpretation.

My dad tells me that he took us to a pantomime when I was very very small - panto being a sort of English phenomenon. There's traditionally a part of the show where they'll invite kids up on the stage to interact with the show. I was too young to remember this but my dad says that I was running up onstage before they even asked us.

I've always been into guitars... we want to put keyboards on but keyboard players don't look cool onstage they just keep their heads down. There has never been a cool keyboard player apart from Elton John.

I'm not saying I look cool but every single time I go onstage it is a fail if I don't feel like I'm going to pass out at least twice.

I speak onstage to try to establish some method of communication. The songs are supposed to be a way of communicating. But speech and drinks and sometimes chocolates are also a way of communicating.

It was in San Diego and I was onstage and couldn't remember how to play the guitar properly. I was in terrible pain and my nervous system was just going wild like somebody had just run a car over me.

I have had fans make me the big picture collages of the photo books I have had fans send me birthday cakes... sing to me on my voicemail. I have had fans flash me. I have had older fans give me their bras and underwear onstage.

That's an amazing feeling to walk onstage and you're not thinking about anything you're not thinking about your lines or what you're supposed to do - your body your brain knows so there's freedom. There's not fear there's not nerves.

My size has helped make me an amazing performer too. The cliche of the Funny Fat Friend: I absolutely was that character - I am that character... It's a complicated bag of tools I acquired and I've put them all to work onstage.

I'm actually not an exhibitionist at all. When you get onstage and you get under the lights playing music I feel more hidden and more alone than anywhere else. You hide behind your music and let your emotions come out through the music.