We weren't put here to be miserable. We were put here to do the best we can, and we should take our energy and improve our state of being.

I knew Slash in high school, but not very well. Just knew him as this kid that used to hang out in the hallway. Pretty much looked then the way he does now.

I basically camped out for a year and a half in an Airstream trailer on the beach out in front of the studio. I had no idea what I was gonna do, what kind of album I was gonna make - all I knew was that I wanted to sit there and just take in whatever came.

If you heard my records and no one told you, I don't think you'd know whether it's a band or one guy.

I don't think about the styles. I write whatever comes out and I use whatever kind of instrumentation works for those songs.

The image is an image.

If you go to Japan, they're still buying vinyl, and they want the education. They know who's playing on what tracks from the '60s and the '70s - who the guitar player is, who the drummer is, who the producer was, what studio it was recorded in. That's how I grew up listening to music. We bought albums. We read the liner notes. It was important to know the whole history behind it.