Everyone is talking about comedians making music. You've got Flight of the Conchords winning an Emmy and being unbelievably hip, and Noel Fielding of the Mighty Boosh and Russell Brand looking like they should be fronting bands. In fact, Noel says he's going to do a real album.

In the early Nineties they said that comedy was the new rock‘n'roll, but it all goes much farther back. Steve Martin started out playing with bands and that's how I got going too. I was able to give up my day job when I toured with Billy Bragg in 1985. I eventually appeared with Paul Weller at the Hammersmith Odeon, although I did wonder if the roadies chose me because I had less gear than another band. Norman Lovett played with the Clash. Keith Allen opened for Dexys Midnight Runners.

There has always been a symbiosis between bands and comedians. The Stones loved hanging out with comics such as John Belushi and comics loved hanging out with the Stones. You'd always see a comedian at rock parties. Now you see Noel Fielding at every bloody party. When I started going to gigs I remember seeing John Cooper Clarke supporting Siouxsie and The Banshees. He was a poet but he had a Bernard Manning-esque patter that Siouxsie's fans loved

The best musical comedians are the ones that really focus on the music and don't just add new lyrics to old melodies. That's what makes Bill Bailey so good. And it is why I've always loved the Sixties stars the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. They were great because they had two geniuses in the band - the late Viv Stanshall and Neil Innes were their Lennon and McCartney. Neil was very precise; Viv was a force of nature.

Standing in for the Viv when they reformed was like fulfilling a dream. There were me, Stephen Fry, Paul Merton and Ade Edmondson all onstage. It shows you how brilliant Viv was; it took four comics to replace him. I'm currently in a play but after Friday's performance I'm going to run to the Astoria to go onstage with them again.

I've been really lucky to front some of the funniest rock bands. Ian Dury wrote truly funny lyrics, so to sing Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick with the Blockheads is fantastic. You've got to lay the blame on folk music - Mike Harding, Jasper Carrot, Jake Thackray and Billy Connolly writing songs with words that rhymed with “bum”.

This summer I'm going to be doing comedy at Glastonbury and the Latitude Festival in Suffolk. Comedy is massive at festivals now, with the Mighty Boosh headlining their own open air gig on July 5 then appearing at the Big Chill in August.

I think it works really well. Fighting with bands for the audience's attention sharpens you up. If you are going to heckle a comedian in a tent you are either completely off your face on drugs or extremely confident. Probably the former.

Ultimately, whether it's bands or comedians it's all about being the centre of attention. We are all fractured egomaniacs. The brilliant thing for me is that I got being a rock star out of my system years ago. Harvey Goldsmith asked me to do a gig with The Who at the Albert Hall in the Nineties. I thought I'd be introducing the band but he put me on in the middle of The Who's set. They walked off for the interval and I had to go onstage. I was understandably booed off. Which was a salutary lesson that maybe rock'n'roll and comedy do not always mix.

Phill Jupitus is in Lifecoach at the Trafalgar Studios, SW1 (0870 0606632; www.theambassadors.com), until June 14.

He was talking to Bruce Dessau

Editor's choice

• The 100 Best Films of the Decade
• 70 facts you didn't know about Marvel
• The 50 Biggest Movies Of 2010