Quotes from Mike McCready

I still believe guitars will be around as long as there's rock music.

At some shows, the set list gets changed while we are on stage. I know Ed thinks about the set very hard throughout the day in order to make the best show possible for the fans and for us.

We value doing things grassroots, even at this level. That means no real high ticket prices or meet-and-greets and all that kind of stuff.

It's extremely important to have a loyal fan base and be receptive to them.

It's always push and pull with a record company.

Recording 'Ten,' we probably did 'Even Flow' 30 times.

My favorite rocker is Go because it is heavy and chaotic.

There's no time for regrets. You've just got to keep moving forward.

We're always working on our communication, which is something that's important. Instead of going through managers to discuss things, we will sit down and have meetings about things. That's a process. And you have to be able to be honest with each other as much as you can.

As a band, we just don't tolerate any kind of abuse or intolerance of any kind of LGBT people by any kind of government.

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.

Honestly, I'd rather do regular interviews. It's more interesting to talk about whatever... anything other than guitars. I'm not into being a tech-head.

I play 'Rock Band' with my friends' kids, and they completely beat me senseless with it. I feel like I'm holding them back. I try to play the drums, and I just can't play the drums. I think I need to work on my skills.

I've met a ton of new people who have colitis or Crohn's. Talking to them has been probably the most healing thing: to hear other people's attitudes on how they deal with their disease and how they stay positive.

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.

Some people are still not into us. That makes sense. We haven't really done a lot of press. We haven't put ourselves out there in ways that a lot of people would know we are still around. Unless you tour or record, they don't know you are around.

I love playing with Jeff. That's something I never really say in the press, but he's my favorite bass player. I've played right next to him for 10 years.

That's a fantasy of mine. We could do every record in a residency. It would be so cool. We could play the B-sides along with the album and get really creative with it.

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.

I've been denied coverage two times in my life - and it's after I've been in a big successful rock band. And I've a lot of met people who've been denied coverage who don't have the resources to fight the insurance companies. And they shouldn't have to do that.

I think I bought into that whole rock n' roll lifestyle, and all that does in the end is kill ya. So I don't recommend it to anyone.

I wanted to start doing more music, doing more things than just playing guitar. I started taking singing lessons and piano lessons. I need to learn more things, to be an artist or whatever, and then transfer that back into writing songs.

Jeff Ament, the bass player, plays basketball. He ultimately wants to do music, but he's really good at basketball, too. We all want to do what we can't do, maybe.

'Black Diamond' blew my mind. Ace Frehley came onstage and did it with us at Madison Square Garden a few years ago, which was a total high watermark in my life. When I was 13, I never thought in a million years that I would even talk to him; I'd probably pass out. And here I am playing with him!