RAY DAVIES - DAVIES: 'NEW SONGS INSPIRED BY SHOOTING'

Rock legend RAY DAVIES was so traumatised after he was shot by a thief, he used the incident to inspire an upcoming album. The Kinks icon, 63, was shot in the leg while chasing a man who had stolen his friend's wallet in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 2004. And the singer was determined to take positives out of the terrible experience. He says, "I was on a drip, waiting and watching them (the medical staff) talking to an orderly. I started writing notes which I've still got on a hospital pad. I haven't changed the words much and the song is basically the same as it was written at the time. "Maybe I wouldn't even have finished a record because I was on the verge of moving to New Orleans. If nothing had happened to me on that trip, I probably would have stayed there. That gunshot put me on a course."