Peace Train is a song I wrote, the message of which continues to breeze thunderously through the hearts of millions of human beings.

It was important for me to duck out of the fast and furious life I'd been living as a pop star. I was in a different mood.

In those days a concert was a personal experience. I wanted to be as close as possible to the audience, and of course big stadiums didn't enable you to do that. It wasn't my style.

If you want to sing out, sing out, and if you want to be free, be free, cause there's a million ways to be, you know that there are.

I've studied various schools of thought... I acknowledge that some Muslims consider music prohibited, but I've found a lot of evidence from the life of the Prophet to show that he allowed certainly, but even encouraged, music at certain times.

I looked at some of the statues of Jesus; they were just stones with no life. When they said that God is three, I was puzzled even more but could not argue. I believed it, simply because I had to have respect for the faith of my parents.