When I've tried to reinvent the wheel, I get bashed for not doing the familiar things.
I don't have any sentimental notion about how people are going to remember me.
Rock & roll is not about what you play, it's about how you play it.
Gish was the best representation of where we were at the time.
Actually, I was having dinner with Michael [Stipe, of R.E.M.] when our second album went platinum, which up until that point was the highest success we'd ever had. And he turned to me during dinner and said, 'Welcome to the deep waters, kid.' I'll never forget that.
Rock and Roll is still asking people like me to live up to the old guard's concept of what success is but it doesn't mean anything.