Mike McCready

Mad Season changed my life in a million different ways.

Chris Cornell painted in song the darkness and beauty of life in Seattle.

I hope we've lightened up over the years. We're fairly comfortable where we are, living-wise, and we're excited, honestly, just to still be around. I think we're less earnest than we were.

My life would have been different without Paul Stanley or Ace Frehley. They would have to be the greatest on my list as an influence to my life at 11 years old.

To just meet people that have Crohn's or colitis and to hear their stories gives me a lot of hope and a lot of courage.

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

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.

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

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.

I never play as well without these guys; the best I have ever been creatively has been with Pearl Jam.

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.