Quotes from Mike McCready

After Mad Season, I started writing my own music for Pearl Jam and brought it in. 'Given To Fly' came out of that, and so did 'Faithful' - those were on 'Yield,' which came after Mad Season.

I've always wanted to have keyboards in the band.

I'm sober now and very happy.

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.

When we're not doing any Pearl Jam stuff, that's when I'll probably think of doing something else, whether that be scoring - hopefully more opportunities will come - or doing a solo thing.

Crohn's doesn't define who you are. You are a human being; you are special and a great addition to society. Crohn's is just a part of your life. Try to be positive and proactive - therein lies the solution.

When we did our first record, my mindset was this is all going to be over tomorrow.

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.

Soundgarden are kind of the masters of writing songs that aren't pop cliches.

When they're singing the guitar lines of songs in South America? Never heard that before. And in Canada, when they're singing all of the lyrics to every song - that blows me away. I don't know all the lyrics to every song.

We'll go to South America and play to 60,000. It's insane.

We want to push boundaries musically if we can and come at things from a different direction.

I should never, ever try and grow a mustache again.

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.

When you're in a band, you're just trying to do whatever you can to keep your band together. You're thinking very inwardly, very myopic.

Whether it's Neil Young or Johnny Rotten, a band has to have someone like that: someone who you listen to and know that he believes what he says.

I'm the kind of guy who wants to be involved in everything concerning our new baby. I don't want to miss a thing.

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.

'Even Flow' is the best to play live because of the long solos. It starts out slow and builds, and, depending on what the audience does, I can reflect that in the solo.

I'll hear us on classic rock radio stations, and I'll go, 'Oh, my God, we're getting old!'

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.

There are some people who have stayed with us our whole career, which is pretty cool too.

It's hard enough just staying in the present. I can't tell you what's going to happen tomorrow.

People will steal ideas and put them into songs.