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I was still 15 when I met John Lennon at a village fete in Woolton, in Liverpool.

I was in 30-plus clubs when I was 14 years old.

I met the Santana band when I was 14. By the time I was 15, I was a member of the band.

Growing up I played in garage bands and cover bands with my older brother, and he got us a gig opening up for some hippie jam band. I was 15. I felt like such an adult!

I wasn't a child at 13, were you?

At 13, when I was a runaway, I was taken in by the most amazing drag queens in Portland, Ore. We didn't always know where our next meal was coming from, but there was so much camaraderie and love. Not to mention, those girls could paint a face, and I learned how because of them.

I was in a military family, so by the time I was 13 I'd lived in six different places.

When I was young, I was everywhere.

I was a quiet, nerdy kid living in the Bronx. I spent most of my teens in my room, taking apart electrical items to figure out how they worked before putting them back together, and listening to the music my four older sisters and parents played.

I was dyslexic and uneducated and left school at 14. I grew up in Finsbury Park, which was a pretty bad place where you had to fight and be beaten. It was just a constant roundabout of violence.