RoxetteBlog.com#PerGessle in one of the best ever interviews with him (Australia, 2012): ”When I was a teenager of course I was the biggest David Bowie fan in Sweden. I started actually writing songs, I couldn’t play any instruments. I started writing melodies in my head and writing lyrics. And I was really influenced by persons like Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen and that kind of stuff as well, but I didn’t really dare to play until the punk movement came. You know, when it was like OK to be bad. Sort of fit me perfectly.” /PP
Stills are from the video interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1_b32JxM2s&feature=youtu.be&t=4m22s