Quote

When you're in a band that's so big when you're young, you kind of lose your identity a little bit. You just become part of the band. I just needed to get away from it.

When you get together in a group, it becomes like a family, with the different personalities and the politics that comes with being in a band. It's different than bringing something in by yourself.

Being in a band is a really magical thing because you've got a family and you operate as this one entity. It's very democratic; everyone is involved in the output. But within that, there can be a lot of disagreements and strife.

When you form a band, you form a real relationship that's like a marriage. It's an emotional connection, especially when you're young... because you don't know what's out there.

A band's only unique thing is its chemistry, especially if none of you are prodigious players or particularly handsome. The one thing you have is your uniqueness, so we hold on to that.

When bands got really big and sold a lot of records back in the day and did really well on the road, everyone developed a certain ego. And there's a certain entitlement that comes with that. And it stops people from communicating the way you used to communicate when you were in a band together and it was all for one, one for all.

I'm not into bands for the sake of being into bands. I've grown past that. There was a time in my life when I was that guy.

The greatest thing about being in a band, and the strength of having companionship and collaboration, is also the thing that makes a band break up because then you begin to feel confined. Like, who am I as an individual, as a writer, as a performer?

In the late summer of 1986, the band I had been in for five years stopped playing. Suddenly, I was on my own. This new state of bandlessness was, at first, traumatic. When your group breaks up, a lot of broken parts hit the ground.