Don Letts: ‘Punk is not mohawks and safety pins. It’s an attitude and a spirit’

I was born in 1956 and can remember playing on postwar bombsites in Brixton, where I grew up. Summers seemed to last for ever then.

Creativity came out of how little we had, not how much. My kids have TV, iPads, laptops and tell me they’re bored. I can’t understand it.

Not everybody can be on stage. We have to start seeing the art in other things. Music won’t feed your kids or build your roads.

Punk is not mohawks and safety pins. It’s an attitude and a spirit, with a lineage and tradition.

John Lydon took me to Jamaica for the first time, when Richard Branson was starting a record label. They love John there. He was public enemy number one – and Jamaicans love a bad man.

Draw fast, shoot straight, and don’t hit the bystanders. I saw that in a western, and it struck a chord. I don’t take it literally.

These days, people get into music to be part of the establishment. The most fuck-you guy around is Justin Bieber. What does that mean? There’s no counter culture – only over-the-counter culture.

Bob Marley would always try to pull my girlfriends. The last time we spoke I had bondage trousers on, and he told me: “You look like a bladclaat mountaineer.” Three months later he wrote “Punky Reggae Party”, so I figured I got the last laugh.

If you want to change the world, you have to work toward things you might not see manifest. That was a devastating realisation.

I have a habit of not always being right, but never being wrong. It’s a bad habit.

I used to have a ferret called Bryan: Bryan Ferret. He was with me when I got busted once.

People say multiculturalism can’t work, but it has to. In some parts of England it still feels like the 1950s.

Amy Winehouse and I were close. Even saying her name brings me down. I heard the news just before I went on stage at Royal Festival Hall. It brought me to my knees.

Technology is great; people are shit. Look at the Arab Spring, or Africa, where technology is a vital lifeline. How are we using it?

Everything’s easier if you play the game, but it’s not as exciting. Any worthy struggle is a hard road to take.

I collect beavers. What started as a bad joke between my wife and me 30 years ago has grown into a great collection.

My generation believed in standing for something, and not falling for anything.

You’re not only as old as you feel. Trust me, rasta, there’s a time when you’re as old as you are.

I don’t believe things were better in my day. There’s always righteous shit going on. 

Don Letts presents a weekly show on BBC Radio 6 Music, on Sundays at 10pm. He will be broadcasting from the 6 Music Festival on Tyneside from 20-22 February (bbc.co.uk/6music)