Quotes from Mike McCready

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.

I used to sit for hours and copy every lick on those early AC/DC and Kiss records. From there, I went on to Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughan. After a while, you kind of develop your own style.

I really liked Stevie Ray Vaughn, so hey - I tried to look like him.

Everything I know, I stole directly from Ace Frehley, Angus Young, and Keith Richards. That's how you learn.

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.

I honestly grew up listening to the Stones more. But that doesn't mean I don't love the Beatles.

Throughout my life of having Crohn's, I've been on and off prednisone when other stuff was not working.

Playing onstage, I'm always aware of where the bathrooms are. When Crohn's hits, I have to run, or it won't be pretty.

I would love for people to enjoy our music and have feelings from it. That's all I can hope for.

I like to have a lot of different creative outlets.

I was reading an article with Stevie Ray Vaughan a long time ago, and the number '1959' stuck out to me for some reason. So I started searching those out as the band got more popular and I could actually afford one. And I found this one in Los Angeles. That's what introduced me to the whole world of 1959s.

I'm amazed that people are even still wanting to listen to us.

We can go to Australia and play to 30-to-40,000. We can do that in certain places in the States, but not everywhere.

Am I really an author if I just put pictures in a book?

I've always had this term 'mad season' in my head.

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.

Other bands gave us lip service, but when it came down to it they kind of backed off. That was a little disheartening. But I respect them. That's their business.

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.

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

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.