I would have been about seven years old when the formative years of my competitive football education began. I was playing in the local leagues around Manchester playing against lads from tough areas who had been taught they had to fight for everything.

In the 1960s we were fighting to be recognized as equals in the marketplace in marriage in education and on the playing field. It was a very exciting rebellious time.

I am playing the violin that's all I know nothing else no education no nothing. You just practice every day.

Education levels the playing field allowing everyone to compete.

Looking back video game design seems a natural fit although there was no such thing when I was growing up. I built a Tic-Tac-Toe playing machine in my teens which went up in smoke on the night it was scheduled to go to a science fair.

I was in two episodes playing Christopher Reeve's character's emissary. They wanted to have my character announce Dr Swan's death which I thought was exploitative.

It's certain that the death of an actor can be on a television screen playing the same thing every week.

I love this pedal to death. The only way you could keep me from playing one is by chopping off my legs!

Good music comes out of people playing together knowing what they want to do and going for it. You have to sweat over it and bug it to death. You can't do it by pushing buttons and watching a TV screen.

I also turn down what's probably a good amount of coinage to be made out of playing dads an incredible number of obnoxious dad.

I love playing a dad. It's hard to find family dramas that are genuinely funny.

My dad and grandpa were in the army and as a country singer you're constantly playing at military bases all across the country and meeting soldiers and their families and hearing their stories.

The best advice my dad ever gave me is that acting is believing. Acting is not acting. It isn't putting on a face and dancing around in a mask. It's believing that you are that character and playing him as if it were a normal day in the life of that character.

I started off playing the clarinet after I was inspired by listening to my dad's Benny Goodman records.

My dad has always been very proud of me but I think I have exceeded his expectations. When I told him I wanted to be an actor and moved to New York City I think he assumed I would be playing the guitar on the subway and collecting spare change in my guitar case. The fact that I'm not doing that means that I'm a huge success.

I had always loved music. I grew up listening to classic country Waylon Jennings Merle Haggard. My dad loved Vern Gosdin and Keith Whitley. So I kept going to class and started getting totally into playing guitar and teaching myself these songs.

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

Well Steve Vai joined my dad's band right around the time when I actually started playing guitar. So he gave me a couple of lessons on fundamentals and gave me some scales and practice things to work on. But I pretty much learned everything by ear.

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.

And my dad wanted me to play the trumpet because that's what he liked. His idol was Louis Armstrong. My dad thought my teeth came together in a way that was perfect for playing the trumpet.

I never really saw my dad around when the Iron Maiden and the AC/DC were playing. But he knew what I was doing. I was just absorbing music. So he just kind of left me to my own devices.

Playing music has always felt very natural. You know you do try to do other things and you do learn lessons that way but eventually - well... if your dad is a plumber you become a plumber. It's the family business and I felt like I was taking over the family business.

My dad was a carpenter and I would work with him during the summer and umpire on the nights I wasn't playing.

Baseball is the president tossing out the first ball of the season. And a scrubby schoolboy playing catch with his dad on a Mississippi farm.