Imelda May
There have never been so many women in the music industry, but they're doing ballads and pop. Where's the new Joan Jetts and the Wanda Jacksons and the Debbie Harrys, all these strong women? I wanna be the woman that rocks.
I don't do grey. I like my colour, my style.
Everybody told me that if I insisted on doing rockabilly music, I'd never have a chance of selling any records. In fact, I lost count of how many people told me to ditch it all together, in favour, I guess, of sounding like everybody else.
If you ask me, rockabilly has had a raw deal for far too long. People never shunned the blues or jazz the way they do rockabilly. But it's the original punk-rock, and it changed the way people looked at music for ever.
In 2008, I was in a London park when I came across a fledgling crow that had fallen from the top of an oak tree. A woman happened to be passing, and she said that she rescued animals, so she invited me back to her house. It turned out she was the wife of Jeff Beck. Jeff was there, and we ended up jamming together.
I'd watch old movies with Judy Garland, Shirley Temple and Bette Davis and long to be part of that glamorous world. A lot of that glamour is gone now. In my own small way, I hope I'm bringing some of it back. But it would be great if I could inspire women to dress up.
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'm in no hurry to get old. But when I do, I'll be out to enjoy every last minute. I see myself at 90 in some nursing home, waving my walking stick about as I jive to Gene Vincent records.
I would love to work with Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits, B.B. King. I'd love to do something with Arctic Monkeys, Miles Kane, and The Last Shadow Puppets. If I got a call from Juliette Lewis or PJ Harvey, or Chrissie Hynde, that'd be a thrill.
I had a big time punk-rock phase and psychobilly phase. I used to go mad for the Guana Batz.
I tried to be a goth for a while. I'd pour baby powder on my face and paint my lips black, but that didn't last long. I thought I looked cool at the time. But then you look back and wonder, 'Why did anyone let me out of the house looking like that?'
I'm not comparing myself at all to him, but I like the idea that Ernest Hemingway always wrote about certain things he knew, he knew the ins and outs, back to fronts of what he was talking about. I love that as an inspiration for myself, to keep it true to what you know.
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.
The Spanish and the American audiences are lunatics. They are very passionate and, like the Irish, they don't have as many inhibitions. If you are playing somewhere like Austria or Sweden, it takes them a little while to come out of themselves.
Ireland and America, music-wise, are very closely related. The Irish came over with their fiddles in hand, and you can hear it in the bluegrass and rockabilly. I love it when music from different countries combine.
I have no big career plan. It is better for me that way.
I always loved the bad girls in the movies. I loved Bette Davis; I loved Katherine Hepburn. I loved Ava Gardner.
I'm not a feminist that hates men by any means.
I'm not saying that women shouldn't pursue careers, but if it is going to be equal in the workplace, it should certainly pan out to be a little bit more equal in the home, too.
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 love to cook. I love having friends over and family. I am definitely a feeder - I feed everybody. I am jumping around the kitchen like a crazy woman.
I love to have no plans. It is amazing where your day can turn when you have no plans: meeting people or just going to a little pub on the side of the road.
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 love to look back, but I don't want my music to be nostalgic. I want it to have the same vibrancy that the music I love had when it came out. I'm trying to get that electricity.
With great artists like Elvis, sometimes the songs weren't the greatest thing about him. When I tried to perform some of the songs, I noticed some of the tunes weren't all that brilliant, but it was the performance that sold them.
I started singing in church with my sister Maria when I was four, and I've been pretty much singing ever since. There's never been anything else for me to do.
I even sang once at the opening of a supermarket. You name it, I've done it.
I've used a stylist twice, and that was when I didn't have time to go shopping or pick up an outfit for a photo shoot. I think you should dress yourself, have fun with it - it's only clothes.
I wash my face and put moisturiser on; I've never had a facial, and I don't get my hair or my nails done. I just do it all myself.
Thrashing about on stage is my exercise for the day!
My music is a mix of everything, mostly my own life. I just write about things that mean something and that I can write about. There's no point in pretending.Collection: Writing
Oh my god, it's good to be alive!Collection: Alive
There's no point in bringing together a talented band if you don't let them do their thing.Collection: Together
Burlesque is beautiful: It's art, it's fun, it's done with a lot of comedy - an awful lot of big wink-wink and nudge-nudge.Collection: Beautiful
I like the idea that Ernest Hemingway always wrote about certain things he knew, he knew the ins and outs, back to fronts of what he was talking about. I love that as an inspiration for myself, to keep it true to what you know. I'm always writing little lines and saving them for later.Collection: Inspiration