Paul Weller thinks the coronavirus pandemic has prompted people to reconsider their priorities.

The 62-year-old star has insisted that material possessions don't ensure happiness, and that the ongoing health crisis has encouraged people to look at their own lives through a different lens.

He said: ''I look at my family, and I'm grateful for all the money and privilege we've got, but materialism doesn't really make you happy.

''It's always more, more, more: the latest iPhone, or whatever, marketed to us as though we need it, when people are struggling to pay the rent or put food on their plates.

''We all need to take a really hard look at that as often as we can, I think, and I'm glad that at least some of us finally are.''

Paul also revealed he feels encouraged by recent protests and campaigns.

However, the music icon thinks his own outlook has remained fairly consistent over the last 30 years.

He told the Daily Beast: ''I find myself saying the same things I've said, or that I have been saying, for the last 30 years, and that feels pointless.

''I don't mean that people speaking out is pointless - because what we're seeing right now in reaction to our governments' incompetence and greed, especially from young people, is fantastic - but for me to say the same things in songs that I was saying in 1979 bores me.

''Besides, I write songs for people. I'm not writing songs for politicians or those sorts. I'm trying to connect more with people on a different level anyway.

''I've no agenda, politically, anyway, and I'm not of any part of them at all, or any party.''