The love for the Stone Roses is massive, and it has grown through kids getting into their parents' records. We were fresh at that time, and I think that freshness has stayed.

Tribute bands earn me about three grand a year from the Roses' songs they play . . . that's a holiday to Thailand, that.

I wanted to write a book about when I went to jail to put my side of the story across. I wanted to write about what it's like to be known and be in prison. As far as I know, I'm the only guy categorised as category D that has served his full sentence in a category A prison.

During my time in Strangeways Prison I learned that prisons are full of kids from kids' homes, dumped on the street at 16 where they fall into a life of crime because there's no one to look after them and they've had no love. Ninety per cent of them are junkies . . . if they're not junkies when they arrive, they soon are.

I've been offered a few gigs in Tel Aviv but, to me, Tel Aviv is like Sun City, so I've turned them down so far. Israel is an extremist state . . . they keep offering me more money to play there, but I won't do it, which is a shame for all the innocents who live there.

Liam Gallagher copied his stage persona from me. I take it as a compliment because he was only a 16-year-old lad when he saw us and we wanted people to get influenced by us, that was why we were doing it. The fact that someone did, and then took it massive, I get a buzz off it.

If I write a song and it sounds like somebody else, I drop it straight away.

A lot of the bands that sing about miserable things seem to do really well. I never had that teen angst, me. But it's an easy thing to sell, heartbreak.