What got you started?
Hearing David Bowie sing Starman. It came on the radio one morning before school, when I was 12, and I knew straight away that was what I was going to do. From that moment on, music absorbed every second of my life.
What was your big breakthrough?
The Bunnymen's first gig at Eric's Club in Liverpool in 1978. We only had one song, and the drum machine didn't work for the first 10 minutes, but that was the night a star was born.
Who or what have you sacrificed for your art?
There are people I've let down or not given my complete self to. But all those people have gained by being in my songs.
Which songs would feature on the soundtrack to your life?
Bowie's Starman, because that's where it all began; The Killing Moon, because that's the Bunnymen's best-known song; and Nothing Lasts Forever, because it's possibly the best song I ever wrote.
What's your favourite cultural haunt in Liverpool?
The Pier Head. It has the Liver Building, with its birds protecting the city, and the wide Mersey stretching out before it like a sheet of silver.
Are you fashionable?
I am fashion.
What's your favourite film?
Midnight Run, with Robert De Niro and Charles Grodin. It's about everything - man's soul, his honour and his dignity. I watch it and think, that's how I want to be.
What's the greatest threat to music today?
People thinking that songs are something to listen to while they're doing the dishes. How can the lyrics not be the first thing that grabs you?
Complete this sentence: At heart I'm just a frustrated ...
Black soul singer in a white man's underpants.
What was the last album you enjoyed?
Want One by Rufus Wainwright. I thought nobody would be able to reach the places I went to with The Killing Moon, but every track haunted me.
What advice would you give a young singer who is starting out?
Never be afraid to find your voice. I listen to old Bunnymen records now and think I sound cringe-worthy and over the top. But that's a process a singer often has to go through.
Is there anything about your career you regret?
Slagging people off: I was really good at the one-liner putdown. I realise now that I was applying too much criticism to other people, and not enough to myself.
In short
Born: Liverpool, 1959
Career: Co-founded Echo and the Bunnymen aged 18 in 1978; released his first solo album in 1989. The reformed Bunnymen play in Liverpool: the Musical at the Echo Arena, Liverpool, on Saturday. See liverpool08.com
High point: "I'm excited about the new projects I'm working on with the Bunnymen."
Low point: "The day our drummer, Pete de Freitas, died, in 1989."