When a fan buys a ticket, we learn an enormous amount about them: What bands they like, where they live, how much they are willing to spend. Someday, a fan will be sitting in a bar and his cellphone will text message 'Sonic Youth are playing tonight. Do you want to go?' He'll buy his ticket over the phone and walk to the concert.

Part of calling ourselves Live Nation was about starting to shift the way we think, to be first and foremost fan-focused.

The touring business is obviously critical to selling records, building fan bases, selling T-shirts, fulfilling sponsorship commitments.

We can't say to a Ticketmaster venue that says they want to use a different ticketing platform, 'If you do that, we won't put shows in your building.'

I want the audience to walk out of the theater feeling they got their money's worth. Every movie that I enjoy, I leave the theater with something to take with me.

At 24, I was probably making more than 95 percent of my friends. I was burning through money.

I blew about pounds 70,000 on stupid things - a very expensive car which got written off, and nightclubs. I'd always pick up the bill. It's very easy to spend a lot of money in a short space of time, going out.

Fashion wasn't a label back in the '70s. We made our own clothes because we had no money.