The pressure is always stepping on stage with actors who are just so well-established. It's a scary thing. I haven't been around the block that many times, especially not on big projects. Dialogue makes things easier. When you start bouncing dialogue off of other actors, it becomes comfortable; it becomes conversational.
I learned from Jimi Hendrix. They all wanted him to do the tricks, and at the end of his career, he just wanted to play. I lived longer than he did, and I can see how those pressures can really play with your head.
When a performer doesn't get nervous, that is when you have to give up.
It's hard for a person to try to keep his stuff together being nominated for something and then performing onstage.
Stand-up comedy is a very hard thing on the spirit. There are people who transcend it, like Jack Benny and Steve Martin, but in its essence, it's soul-destroying. It tends to turn people into control freaks.
I developed in my head that I'm never any better than my last concert or the last time I played, so it's like an audition each time. You get nervous just before going onstage. I still have that, but I think it's more like concern. You're concerned about the people - like meeting your in-laws for the first time.
If I'm playing a gig in London, it feels so important. The adrenaline rush here is bigger than anywhere else. I kind of like the pressure that London puts you under.
Maybe if you're playing in London or America, you don't feel that pressure quite as much.
During those years with the Iron Maidens, I felt I had to be great and really prove myself at every single show.
It's the worst feeling, coming back after a performance when you are on a real high, and you go back alone to an apartment or a hotel room. People think we sit in hotels and eat bon bons. But the lifestyle can be very stressful.
I call it fan fatigue. I went to see Bob Dylan last year, who I think is absolutely incredible, but he suffers from his audience.
Performers are the neediest people in the world. Unless you've been in that goldfish bowl - nobody can judge unless they've worn those shoes.
Oh. Yes. There. Is. A. Lot of pressure. As a solo singer. Absolutely.
My experience for myself as a performer is not one of high expectations.
When I'm up there, and I know the show's coming to a close, in my head I'm saying to myself, Oh man, you gotta get off and be a normal person again. That's what I don't like so much.
Fans feel they know me, so they want me to be on-the-spot funny, and it's hard to fulfil their expectations.
To do a musical takes a tremendous amount of energy because you have to act and sing at the same time. And everything has to be precise. Because you can't forget the lyrics because the band keeps playing, you know, and you're under a certain amount of pressure.
I love pressure in a different sort of way; I enjoy the pressure of getting out and performing for the public. Being compared and judged doesn't seem quite right to me.
When you're on tour too much or on stage too much, you feel like you have to deliver and get this super-hyped vibe going.
There's a pressure regardless of that to do a good show.
Adolescence is a tough one to be a child actor.
I like it when I'm on the stage, but honestly, I would be very happy if I could cut it off, just enjoy my life when I wasn't performing.
I'm not one of those artists who doesn't want to play their most popular songs.
I don't want to scream 'Immigrant Song' every night for the rest of my life, and I'm not sure I could.
A little bit of neurosis is OK as a performer, but untethered, it can tear one apart.
