I remember my dad who coached football would buy some of his players football shoes when they couldn't afford it.

I recruited my dad to be my bass player and fired him on several occasions. He stayed on as a bus driver.

Well my dad was a pretty good player at one stage and my two older brothers played golf as well. So there were always golf clubs flying around the house.

I started playing ball when I was a kid. My dad was a pro ball player and he passed on his knowledge to me.

And you know my dad would show me some things sometimes but the best things that I got to do were to actually see really good players play up close. That gives you an idea of fingering and technique and what not.

My dad was a football player - a soccer player - for Manchester United and I loved playing football but I also happened to be the guy in class who was pretty good at sight reading. My teacher gave me scripts and I was very comfortable.

My dad taught me to play bass. He's a bass player he still plays in a band in Michigan to this day. He taught me to play bass when I was about 6. I used to just go to band practice with him and whoever didn't show up for rehearsal that day I would take their spot.

My dad had a commercial film company so he had a videotape player before anyone. So he got Mel Brooks movies or Citizen Kane or some classic old movies. And every summer the revival house in Evanston would show the great films from the '50s and '60s and '70s.

I've always been into guitars... we want to put keyboards on but keyboard players don't look cool onstage they just keep their heads down. There has never been a cool keyboard player apart from Elton John.

One of the great bands we opened up for was Priest back in '89. That was really great because at that time we had never met them never toured with them before. They were a big influence on Slayer so to open up for them was really cool.

A female piano player is always pretty cool to me.

The worst thing I could be thinking is how could I be a cool bass player.

I was asked to do a test commercial shoot for an Apple product which didn't mean much to me at the time. Some music player that holds all your songs. Sounded cool to me and I never gave up an opportunity to work especially with the possibility of it turning into a national commercial. Coolest job I did in that time.

I was in a really crummy pop-punk band. I think we did a whole bunch of Blink-182 covers and we were on the fringe of losers and jocks. So we invited all the cool kids to come watch us play in our bass player's brother's bedroom. And it was terrible but everyone thought we were so cool.

The ballplayer who loses his head who can't keep his cool is worse than no ballplayer at all.

I don't think there has been enough communication between the players and the tournaments. In one sense it's just as much the players' fault. Players talk between each other and in the locker room about things that can be improved and then when the time comes to talk and really do something about it they stop.

I can't be a hypocrite as a coach because as a player that's what I wanted. I wanted feedback I wanted communication from the boss. I showed up for work you can yell at me if you want but I want input. So that's the kind of coach I want to be.

My sporting hero was Drazen Petrovic the NBA basketball player who was killed in a car accident in 1993. He was a good friend an unbelievable player and I dedicated my Wimbledon win to him.

Man coaching is a hard job and it requires a lot of time... I hear stories from coaches who tell me that players call them in the middle of the night not knowing where they parked their car.

The biggest thrill a ballplayer can have is when your son takes after you. That happened when my Bobby was in his championship Little League game. He really showed me something. Struck out three times. Made an error that lost the game. Parents were throwing things at our car and swearing at us as we drove off. Gosh I was proud.

The bass player's function along with the drums is to be the engine that drives the car... everything else is merely colours.

You know what I really love? The CD players in a car. How when you put the CD right up by the slot it actually takes it out of your hand like it's hungry. It pulls it in and you feel like it wants more silver discs.

The owners don't win by having a lockout. Shutting down your business is not good for anybody and it's certainly not good for the players it's certainly not good for the fans. And that's most important to us.

I've always wanted to be the best in the world as a baseball player so when I started to think about opening a business it was with that mindset.