Joe Elliott quotes:

To be honest, I'm a bit of a snob now; give me a Four Seasons anywhere in the world and I'm happy. Also, they've just opened a Ritz-Carlton in County Wicklow, Ireland, which is stunning and has great views.

I saw the Stones three years ago at the Wiltern Theater in L.A. and that was mind blowing.

Manhattan's always fascinating, too, just a big, stinky, smelly conglomeration of numbered avenues and streets, but it's just got a vibe that's hard to beat. I shouldn't like it, but I do. I can't put my finger on it.

With Los Angeles, it's kind of a love-hate thing. Sometimes I think it's marvelous, and sometimes I think it's a dump. It's so fake and I can't deal with how fake it is.

That's why 60,000 people go ape when the Stones play 'Satisfaction.' The songs are part of their legacy, and you fall back in love with them over the years.

The Vatican takes your breath away.

I love the fact we're still on the road. I was born to be a factory worker really, so for me the chance to get on stage at Wembley 30 years after we started is amazing.

Even Crazy Horses is a good song, by the Osmonds. I've known many bands who have covered that. It's just a great song. I bought it in a brown, paper bag because I didn't want anyone to know I had it.

There were incredibly few rock songs making it out to the airwaves until the '80s came along.

The best holiday I ever had was the first one I went on without my parents, when I was 17.

I've always liked traveling around Europe and seeing the architecture. The buildings in capital cities have been there for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years. Some look better than the new ones.

Humor is an amazing way to talk people down off a ledge.

We used to have our own plane with the band's name on the side. It was a dream come true. You drive to a local airport. There's none of this checking in stuff; you just get on the plane.

Writing a song is actually quite easy. Writing a good one is very, very difficult.

If you can't handle the responsibility of a hit single, don't write one.

In England, rock music very rarely infiltrates the charts, but country music even less so.

It's big production. It's huge. It's using studio technology to your benefit. You don't go in and play live and then just take the tapes and get them mastered. You have to create.

The most frustrating thing for musicians who want to play stuff from the new album is when everyone goes out to buy a beer.

If you don't physically age gracefully, it's a bit sad. I think Steven Tyler can get away anything, because he still looks like he did in '73. Especially from row Z backwards in an arena. As long as the Stones keep their hair and don't get fat they'll get away with the wrinkles.

Every town in America had at least one, two, or maybe three radio stations that played rock 24 hours a day. In England, we had a rock specialist on for two hours a week.

If you're driving, don't forget your car.

I wanted to write a song that's known to the world as a classic, stadium-rock anthem.

I don't really feel any different when I get up on stage.

You don't just go with a majority because it's the majority. You go with it because it's right. If it feels right, do it. As long as it's legal.

Music and soccer. They would be my two major passions.

Any idiot who knows five chords can bang a song together. But it's probably going to be rubbish.

We just wanted to put a smile on people's faces. That's all we ever wanted to do.

As much as I am a huge soccer fan, music just kills it when it comes to importance. I could go to a desert island without a football and survive happily, but if I had to go without music, I think I'd end up killing myself. It fuels my soul. It always has.

When we try to write a pop song, we go for standard pop arrangements, even to the point where we will go to the key change at the end, which is really cheesy.

You see mock death in movies every day, but when it really happens, you're not used to it. Most things in life, you get better the more that you do them, but this is one of those things you don't really want to get any better at.

Just follow your gut. If you seriously believe that something is the right thing to do, if you are so convinced that your stomach is knotting up every time someone suggests an alternative way of doing all this, take a deep breath and just say, "You're wrong."