Q: You announced your "Finale: The Farewell Tour" and subsequent retirement in 2019, after revealing your BMI diagnosis. You resumed performances in late 2022. What happened that made you realize you could continue to tour? And is it muscle memory, mental determination, exercise, or all three, that enables to you keep playing?

A: It's the love of guitar, the love of my music, first of all. But in 2019, I had a really bad fall on a boat in Maui and I broke some bones in my back. I was with my daughter, Mia, on the last day of our holiday. I went straight from Maui to New York to find a publisher for my (2020) book ("Do You Feel Like I Do? A Memoir"). I was with my manager in a taxicab, and I said: "I don't know how much longer I'll be able to play at this level, and I don't want to play when I'm not at my peak. So, that's what drove the "Finale: The Farewell Tour." I felt I was still at the top of my game, which I was."

Q: What happened next?

A: Then, I stopped. But with my love of playing guitar, I had to give into myself and say: "I don't care if I'm not at the top of my game — my band can't notice the difference, so maybe it's OK. Because I was adjusting, I thought: "I'll go back on my promise to myself that I wouldn't go out and play when people said: "He's not as good as he used to be." Well, I'm getting people saying I'm playing better than I used to, which I don't understand. It was a reassessment of what's important to me: to not play and be able to get that (previous) level of enjoyment, or to play and be slightly different. I made that decision, and I said: "I don't think we can plan a year ahead." But when my agent came to me with another concert date offer, I said "Yes," and that was two-and-a-half years ago.

Even though I'm sitting down now when I play, I'm having the time of my life and people are cheering me on. I think the audiences know what is going on — not all of them, but a lot of them — and know I'm a fighter and that I'm not giving up. Everybody likes a fighter. I do. So, it's pretty incredible, the warmth and love I get from the crowd at each show is indescribable to me. It's very emotional and I can't thank them enough... I'm not one to toot my own trumpet, but I'm doing great!

Q: How has the way you phrase and inflect on guitar changed, or has it?

A: I don't think people notice too much. I never used to be a constant shredder. I used to play a little faster than I do now. Each note I play is so much more important to me now. A guitarist might know or might see certain things, or be able to tell there are certain (differences) in my playing. But what I've done in the adaptation of my fingering is working, and I do what I can. Sometimes, I go for things I can't quite do and that's probably when another guitarist might note that something is up.

I'm professional enough to know what I can and can't, do. But I don't think many people notice. My band says to me: "It's a different way of playing you do now; it's more mature, more selective." And for me, it's just as enjoyable.

Q: Your set list this year, and in recent years, has included a number of songs from your days in the band Humble Pie in the early 1970s, including "Four Day Creep" and "I Don't Need No Doctor." Those are both pretty high-velocity songs. How similarly or differently do you play them now?

A: With the same intensity — I haven't lost that! We kick into another higher gear for those two Pie numbers and that's no problem for me. It's built into me. Some nights, I do a little speech to the audience to thank them. I tell them I was worried about my playing, and that, yes, my hands are being affected. But the truth is, when I pick up a guitar and sit down and put my hands on it, my fingers know what to do. This is my 60th year of touring, so they better know!

Q: Are you surprised by the longevity of your career? Even the Beatles thought they would only last as a band for five or 10 years.

A: I've always been a person who lives in the moment. That applies to my guitar playing, as well as the way I regard life! I live in the now because yesterday's gone —and, tomorrow, who knows what's coming? I don't want to know what's coming. I have never thought: "How old will I be when I stop?" Wait. Is today the first of April? So, this interview is taking place April first? This really isn't an interview! It's a joke! Ha ha ha ha. I don't think ahead. I'll always call someone at the last minute, and say: "Aren't we supposed to be doing...?" Ha ha ha ha!

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