I'm going to keep thinking about topping myself every time. I can say very confidently that Alice In Chains have done that on every record. It surprises me. I don't go in there expecting that, but I do go in there hoping for it.

There's not a word that describes us. We’re not alternative, metal or grunge - we’re not any of that. We’re just what we are.

I'm doing the best I can with what I got and that's all anybody in my band is doing.

To me not one thing is better than anything else, I'm completely proud of everything I've written and recorded.

In '98, I locked myself in my house, went out of my mind and wrote 25 songs. I rarely bathed during that period of writing; I sent out for food, I didn't really venture out of my house in three or four months. It was a hell of an experience. The album is an overview of birth to now.

That's always been a dream for me, to be able to collaborate and make music with the people that inspired you to make music.

I'm going to keep thinking about topping myself every time. I can say very confidently that Alice In Chains have done that on every record. It surprises me. I don't go in there expecting that, but I do go in there hoping for it.