To be appreciated by a whole 'nother generation of fans, all of a sudden discovering you, it's kind of what I did with the classic bands I love - the ones that influenced me.
As I've gotten older, I've found that I'm not afraid anymore to throw my influences into making a record.
It seems like everyone's got an agenda, and the agenda seems to be selling magazines or air time with sensational stories.
I prefer to break new ground, but it gets harder and harder with the territory that's already been walked on.
Who you are as a performer is one thing, but when you're making records, you're dealing with musicians' tastes, their goals, their wants, their needs, everyone's individual pride.
I tend to get my hands into all these other things and all these distractions, and after a while I start feeling depleted.
I had a period in my life in the '90s where I was definitely young, dumb, and full of even more dumb.
Great classic music that I've been turned on to has not only inspired and influenced me, but it has had an effect on my songwriting.
To be a great band it's like you have that telepathy. You know when the bass player's in back of you without even looking. You know when your guitar player's coming up to you to lean up to you and sing into your microphone. You just know these things. You feel it. You feel the energy of it.
Eventually I want to subsidize my income with other creative outlets that are going to not keep me tied to the road so much.
Music, as many people have said, is the universal language. Of course points are made which make you think about things, but ultimately it makes you feel. And that's why people remember more songs that have meant something during their life than films. They start to define periods in your life, and that's kind of the beauty of it.
Writing the songs and producing the songs and arranging them and recording them is your canvas and your palette and your brush.
But at this phase of my life, I want to write and not have to think about whether a song is going to be a hit. I want to explore the music that inspires me, and I don't want to ape myself.
Any time you're stepping out on a limb as an artist, it's scary, especially when you have a lot of success. When you're reaching a lot of people, the masses, it's easy to stay in that niche, you know? Especially when you're making a lot of money and you know there's a formula, it's easy to stay in that rut.
There was a period when STP and I weren't making music - we weren't getting along very good at all. But I had my studio, so I was writing and recording a lot of music. But something told me not to put it out. It was all stream of consciousness; it was clever, but it didn't really have substance.
Anytime I feel squeezed into a box, I just lash out. My gut reaction is to strike. It's a different character onstage: there's a whole dark sexuality that's completely different from me. You know, I don't let anybody know who I really am.
Bowie is probably my favorite all-around songwriter and performer and personality. His ability to change over the years is such an inspiration. I love 'Young Americans' and 'Fame.'
I really didn't get obsessed with Bowie until my freshman year in high school. I remember listening to 'Starman' and thinking it sounded like it was a song for kids, like a lullaby. The Thin White Duke is my favorite look that he created.
I was just a kid in 1987 when I heard of the Pixies, the year after I graduated high school. But I had my band together, and my best friend at the time, Corey Hickock, who was the guitar player in the band that would become STP, Mighty Joe Young, turned me on to the Pixies.
Not sure how I can be 'terminated' from a band that I founded, fronted and co-wrote many of their biggest hits. But that's something for the lawyers to figure out.
I really have paid no attention to social media. It's never been something that I've done. There are people that put up tour dates and basically say what's going on, but I need to get more involved, because I hear about rumors that are absolutely ridiculous.
I see love, like art, as an obsession. Maybe that's an overly romantic view of human existence, but I'm an overly romantic human being. If love, like rock and roll, doesn't consume me 24-7, it's not love. It can be respect, appreciation, admiration, wonderment, it can be a world of glory and a lifetime of peace, but I can't call it love. Love burns me and confuses me. Love's a light that can't be extinguished.Collection: Appreciation
Rock and roll doesn't allow you to grow up - especially if you're not trying very hard to.Collection: Music
You are only as big as your experiences.Collection: Bigs
It's a beautiful thing to be that committed to something that you get so much joy from, but it is like a sick addiction, because sometimes it's incredibly volatile, incredibly painful, and very frustrating. A man shouldn't be defined by his work, but I am.Collection: Beautiful
When you're really looking forward to something, you don't feel the sense of pressure.Collection: Pressure
When I'm not completely loaded, it's a much more vulnerable place. I can feel the music, I can feel the energy and I really have to put it out there. When I was loaded, I was just oblivious.Collection: Energy
It's got big riffs and really it's a rock and roll album. I think Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver fans will relate to thatCollection: Thinking
I'm not sober. I haven't done drugs in 3 1/2 years, so I call myself clean.Collection: Years
I've changed the way I look at things. When I put out a record or single I don't allow myself to set up expectations like, "This song must be a number one hit. Its got to sell X amount of records." I have fallen into that trap before.Collection: Song
It's better to not set your expectations high. And that's what happens when you have a long career - not every album is going to be record setting.Collection: Careers