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I have always been a sucker for ballads, but you have to be careful these days, you can't overload people.

I think that ballads are always something where I can really become one with the audiance.

Maybe you could put it out there that I don't have a built-in dislike of ballads. That was kind of the reputation I had back in the Seventies. But I've come around. Ballads have become something of an acquired taste.

I tend to gravitate toward ballads and mid-tempo songs.

I just love ballads. I am obsessed with them, so I've written a lot of those. They just kind of touch on all the different types of emotions. Though, I think poppy, feel - good songs are underrated and not seen as artistic enough.

Not necessarily, a lot of my songs are firmly tongue in cheek.

People call me for the ballads. Apparently that's where I've been pigeonholed. But it's really interesting and really fun. It's my favourite part of the job, writing.

In nearly all ballads, the words set the mood and meaning, while the music intensifies or enhances them.

The Border Ballads, for instance, and the Robin Hood Ballads, clearly suppose a state of society which is nothing but a very circumscribed and not very important heroic age.

I love theatrics and have a huge imagination: Why would I want to sit onstage and sing a bunch of ballads back-to-back?