Gary Numan
Gary Numan
Gary Anthony James Webb, better known professionally as Gary Numan, is an English singer, songwriter, musician and record producer. Born in Hammersmith, London, he first entered the music industry as the lead singer of the new wave band Tubeway Army. After releasing two albums with the band, Numan released his debut solo album The Pleasure Principle in 1979. Most widely known for his chart-topping hits "Are 'Friends' Electric?" and "Cars", Numan achieved his peak of mainstream popularity in the late...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionPop Singer
Date of Birth8 March 1958
Time heals nothing, it merely rearranges our memory.
I'd been a Bowie fan before punk and used to get no end of trouble. I was always getting knocked about and having to run up the street, getting chased by people. It was horrible.
I'll be the in to your sane.
It seems no matter what you say and how politically correctly and carefully you say it, you offend someone. Or at least I always do.
Here in my car, I feel safest of all, I can lock all the doors.
I was a loner as a child and happiest at home, launching toy rockets and aeroplanes. When I started causing trouble in my third year at grammar school, Mum was really surprised. My parents sent me to a child psychologist, who suggested I might have Asperger's syndrome.
When you decide to do this kind of music then you just accept the facts.
I think if you are creative then it's an unstoppable thing. It just keeps coming throughout your entire life.
I have a condition called Aspergers Syndrome, which is like a mild form of autism It means I don't interact properly in certain social situations.
I never call myself a singer, ever. I never will. I've always been really embarrassed about my voice. I've never been confident about it. I think it's a little bit better now than when I first started. There are people I admire who are genuinely brilliant singers and I know the difference between what they can do and what I can do.
I much prefer touring to anything else. Studio work is great, and can be hugely satisfying, but live work has the excitement and the lifestyle that I love.
I'd see an old person on the street and start crying. I couldn't understand how people could cope, knowing they only had so long left. It would be like dominoes and then the last one fell and I'm a little heap on the floor. Doctors put me on anti-depressants for a couple of years.
It was a great feeling the first time I got to No.1 with Are Friends Electric? in 79.
The industrial thing came about mainly through giving up trying to write pop songs in the early '90s. I don't think I was ever very good at pop music and as soon as I stopped trying, and started to write more the things I loved, it became much heavier and more aggressive.