I was the black sheep of the family, and my mother never really understood me.
When I was 4 or 5, I attended my father's concerts. He very often played Strauss waltzes as encores and I saw something happening with the audience.
The classical music world is so snobbish.
When my twin grandchildren, Linda and Lyeke, were born two years ago, it changed me. I felt it was the essence of what life is about, and I cried all day. When my son Pierre, their father, was born I didn't cry like that.
I am a showman in the traditional sense, but modern, too. I like to use sets and lighting to create magic.
The waltz is a very important part of my life. It's a very important way for me to express my positiveness, bringing humor to the world.
The waltz can be sad and at the same time uplifting. You have to see life from both sides, and the waltz encapsulates that. If you're in my audience you give yourself to me and the waltz will grab you.
It is my personality alone that has brought back the waltz and made it a global craze.
Where would I be without Johann Strauss's beautiful 'Blue Danube?' Without this piece of music I wouldn't be the man I am today. It's a tune that brings out the emotion in everyone and makes them want to waltz.
It is a real piece of art if you can make a waltz sound like it is the easiest piece of music to play, because it's really not.
