IMELDA MAY

I think I'd like to be one of those eccentric 80-year-old women.

I love people with strong convictions, because we are living in a very PC world. You can't crack a joke without it being in the headlines.

Don't lie - when you are 105 years of age - on your deathbed, thinking, 'I should have done a few things!' I would like to think I tried as much as I could.

I'm not a feminist that hates men by any means.

I know exactly what it's like to not have a penny. I know exactly what it's like trying to get a job. I know exactly what it's like having bloody one tin of Ambrosia left in the cupboard. But I know I can survive.

I never miss a vote; I think that's the power of the people. A lot of people fought and died for us to have votes, for women to have votes in particular - your vote is your one weapon.

When I heard Elvis and his 'Sun Sessions,' I went mad for it. I was about thirteen.

Thrashing about on stage is my exercise for the day!

When I was a teenager, I had a record company after me. They wanted me to be a pop act. They said they wanted me to be the next Sonia. I was 16 at the time. I said, 'No thank you.'

In a way, I'm lucky that I was never classically trained and never went to a music college. I'm just from a normal working class family and happened to get obsessed with music as a teenager.

I'm a big believer in 'pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start again.'

I love punk rock, The Clash, The Ramones, The Cramps. I love where it all came from, and music for my ears now, it has to have that same electricity, adrenaline and danger.

I couldn't think of anything worse than hating your own music and having to play it every night. It would be a nightmare.

I got my first leopard print coat when I was 15. I nearly got beat up, but I was happy with it.

American audiences are great. They get what I am doing, but as my band will tell you, nowhere tops the Irish audience. They are just brilliant. They are very open, but the Americans and Spanish come a close second.

I'm not filthy rich! I'm not as rich as people think. It's funny, isn't it?

I even sang once at the opening of a supermarket. You name it, I've done it.

I like to escape; I like to write when I go on a walk - I'm kind of very fairy that way. I get inspired by the wind. Or when I daydream, that's when I write.

Ooooh, I love Nashville! It seems like everywhere you walk, there's great music coming out of every wall.

I was from a tough neighborhood, and we didn't have a lot of money, but my dad worked hard, and my mom is good at budgeting things. That made me appreciate things.

I was one of those annoying kids that loves singing and entertaining.

At school, I'd refuse to take part in biology lessons when animals were being dissected. One time, the teacher announced that we would be gassing worms. So I ran around the room, gathered up all the worms and set them free in the fields. I just loved animals and couldn't bear the thought of them suffering.

I went to a Catholic all-girls school, and we would play cassettes of music we liked, and when it was my turn, they would laugh at my choices. I would play Billie Holliday, Elmore James and Howlin' Wolf, but it was fine; if I had to listen to their choices, they had to listen to mine.

I never co-write. I've tried it before, and I just can't do it.

I have no big career plan. It is better for me that way.