I live in the day. Yes, I make plans for tomorrow, but I don't get so consumed by it. The time you spend with your family and friends, whatever you could be doing, enjoy them now. I live in the day.

You have to give an element of performance on television.

I have always loved broadcasting - as a child in Liverpool, I would wake up and listen to Morning Merseyside on BBC Radio Merseyside and wonder, 'How do they do that?'

I was terrified about people knowing I was gay. I'd cringe inside at the idea that they'd be talking behind my back.

My dreams of taking the West End by storm as a dancer flickered but then faded; my father’s ambition to see me in a steady office job was tried and abandoned. But I had won a national speaking award, had stood for election to the local council, had begun to travel and took a job working for the Labour Party."

When you're a touring musician, you're always turning over new rocks, and there's always a certain level of tension in your life. The music business, and the travel that comes with it, is stressful, challenging, redundant, exhausting, exciting, and often very depressing.

A lot of leading countries in the world, including the United States and Russia, have to take their responsibilities much more seriously to ensure we are back on the road to peace and stability.

I went to every sports contest for my kids. I turned off my cell phone at 8 P.M. I did have to travel relentlessly and had some nights at black tie events. But when I was home, I was home.