Zitat des Tages von Mike McCready:
I have lived most my life with chronic inflammation and constant pain with immediate diarrhea.
My life would have been different without Paul Stanley or Ace Frehley. They would have to be the greatest on my list as an influence to my life at 11 years old.
I think our fans are bigger and better students of Pearl Jam than we are.
When you're really young, dating girls, and trying to explain Kiss, they just look at you like you're kind of crazy. I think they got so big in the Seventies and were such a phenomenon - they did the 'Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park' movie, the solo records - some people only know the merchandising stuff.
Until Mad Season, I didn't have that confidence to write songs, and I really got it, playing with these guys. It meant the world to me.
Throughout my life of having Crohn's, I've been on and off prednisone when other stuff was not working.
But KISS inspired me personally to pick up a guitar and go for it.
I don't know if you could call me a natural-born runner.
It was by design that we mostly used pictures that you could not necessarily see what was going on, and that didn't really focus in on the band, but instead focused in on a theme.
I remember, after the New Year's Eve 1991 show, somebody running onto the bus and saying Nirvana had just hit No. 1. I remember thinking, 'Wow; it's on now.' It changed something. We had something to prove - that our band was as good as I thought it was.
I'm born, and I die, but in between that, I can do whatever I want or have a strong opinion about something.
That's what music has always been to me: a feel. I've listened to the Stones many times and it still makes me have that feeling of joy every time. They are still around and put on a really exciting show. We also give it 120 percent.
It's hard enough just staying in the present. I can't tell you what's going to happen tomorrow.
I'm sober now and very happy.
When our band took off, we were all in this microcosm of a hurricane or whatever it was. It was a crazy, crazy dream come true with nightmares floating around it, and all sorts of stuff was happening, and my Crohn's was happening.
At this point, because we have stayed the same course for so many years, I feel like we are freer to make choices that are motivated by what feels right creatively at a given point in time.
Recording 'Ten,' we probably did 'Even Flow' 30 times.
I am constantly amazed at their support over the years.
There are some people who have stayed with us our whole career, which is pretty cool too.
I think, as an artist, you want to keep going - you want to keep taking challenges; you want to be pushed, in a way - and I think Sonic Evolution does that, it makes me feel a little uncomfortable and get out of my comfort zone.
You get some confidence in your songwriting abilities and go for the essentials - guitar, bass, drums, vocals. Those are the basic band essentials that have to be in place before you go any further.
Actors want to be musicians, and musicians want to be baseball players.
I try to dig deep into my soul to figure out something positive in the pain. I think I go to certain places when I play to heal.
I think our relationship with Epic had run its natural course, and it happened to coincide with the fulfillment of our contract. We decided not to resign with them.
And watching Ed, he's really coming into his own doing some new things onstage I've never seen him do. He's really getting into it, putting 120 percent into the show. We feel comfortable and excited.
Tom Petty sent me this amazing 12-string Rickenbacker, and 'Not for You' was the first time I used it. It was like a Christmas present. One day, it just showed up at my door. I called him up and thanked him.
Every Crohn's and colitis patient is different, and they all respond to different things. That's the craziest thing about it.
Am I really an author if I just put pictures in a book?
There's times when I go, 'We should have done a bunch of videos.'...Regardless of mistakes we've made, we made 'em, and we own 'em.
Crohn's patients differentiate their diet. You know, what I can handle and tolerate, another person couldn't, and what they can, I can't.
I'd love to have Jack White up. I think he's just a phenomenal guitar player. I'd love to see him play up close because he's got a killer voice, and he's a great lead player, too. That would be exciting to me.
The average life spans of many bands are not that long, up to five years if they are lucky.
Chris Cornell painted in song the darkness and beauty of life in Seattle.
There are moments in South America, in Brazil, where you look out, and there are literally thirty, forty thousand people jumping up and down at the same time.
Reason why we've lasted so long is we write music; we get very intense. We go away from each other, do our own thing, and then we get back together.
There's a Kiss through-line to a lot of the music that came out of Seattle, and it hasn't been talked about a lot.