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 have had Crohn's for about 19 years. It is a debilitating disease that affects my colon.
I like 'X-Files'-type shows with government conspiracies and extraterrestrials and all that.
I have lived most my life with chronic inflammation and constant pain with immediate diarrhea.
We try to keep everything as in-house and small and as punk rock and do-it-yourself as we can. That's part of our way of doing business.
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.
We came out of a very provincial city that was not very supportive of music, and we had to do our own thing and flyer everywhere.
I hold Mad Season very fondly to my heart, and there's a lot of sadness in that, too.
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.
Everything I know, I stole directly from Ace Frehley, Angus Young, and Keith Richards. That's how you learn.
I've always wanted to have keyboards in the band.
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.
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 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.
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.
I never play as well without these guys; the best I have ever been creatively has been with Pearl Jam.
I think our fans are bigger and better students of Pearl Jam than we are.
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.
In the early days of Pearl Jam, we were caught up in such a whirlwind that I was just trying to keep my head on straight and play music. I didn't have the kind of confidence that other guys in the band did.
Pearl Jam sit down and have conversations about Kiss all the time on tour.
