I'd wear nice clothes and brush my teeth more often if I cared about what people thought.
Mark Lanegan
I was listening to punk rock in the '70s as a young kid, but all by myself; I never met anyone that listened to that kind of music. Just by chance, I was in detention, and one of the guys in the class was Van Conner... I started talking to him and found out that we listened to some of the same music.
The first music I heard that made me put away my comic books and make music was original punk.
I was in Screaming Trees - I wasn't really interested in playing quiet music in a live setting. But I would get asked quite often to do a show or open for somebody, and I always said no. Finally, I was asked if I would open for Johnny Cash, and Johnny Cash was one of my dad's favorite heroes. So that's why I started doing solo shows.
I grew up a Seattle Sonics fan, in Washington state.
I've learned that sticking around counts for something.
I had a lot of jobs when I was younger. Where I grew up, there was a lot of agricultural jobs, so I worked on a lot of farms. I worked in the pea fields, harvesting peas.
Soundgarden are good friends of mine.
Have I tried a black pudding? I'll eat anything - I'm not finicky - but that's not to say it takes any courage to eat black puddings because I find them delicious.
Nothing seems too weird to me anymore.
It took me quite a while to find my natural voice. I'm glad I stuck around long enough to see that happen.
When I was a kid in the late '60s and early '70s, my parents and their friends would play the records of Andy Williams, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, and Perry Como, music with string arrangements and men singing songs that sounded sad whether they were or not.
I guess if you live long enough, anything can happen.
Whether I live there again or not, Seattle will always be my home.
I don't think I've ever gotten to the point where I sent out Christmas cards! But if I did, they would have to feature my pets, that's for sure.
When I do something, I do it for the specified amount of time, and then I do something else.
I like Jamal Crawford. He's from Seattle, went to high school there, lived up there. He's fantastic.
The Trees was four complete nuts. We didn't have a damn thing in common except insanity. So we fought a lot. And we had two brothers - who fought like brothers.
I think I've just matured over the years.
I grew up in a small, rural community, where my extended family were mountain-folk type people, and some were very religious.
Collaboration is part of what keeps me interested in music.
Talking about myself is difficult for me. It's anti my true nature.
It was really difficult to sing; nobody showed me how to do it. I remember early Screaming Trees shows in the '80s when I'd walk away with a pounding headache from trying to sing way out of my range.
I'm about creating a body of work and moving on to the next thing.
I've always been haunted by the devastating voice and beautiful songs of Tim Hardin. I can't imagine anyone hearing him and not feeling the same.
The Warriors team with Baron Davis, Matt Barnes, Stephen Jackson - that was an incredible team.
One of my very favourite poets was a Massachusetts poet named Robert Lowell.
I enjoy my own songs, but I can never love them in the way that I can love someone else's song.
I worked as a breakfast cook in a lot of different restaurants.
Yeah, well, I guess Andy Williams would be considered by some to be schmaltzy, but to me, he's one of the greatest singers of all time. Just absolutely amazing. And if anyone doesn't believe me, just YouTube him. He's just one of a kind.
I like to fool myself into thinking that whatever happens is OK.
I've had songs that were spread out over a number of years, and I've written some in ten minutes, and everything in between.
Usually I get asked to do stuff that's cool, and if I ever can't do something, it's usually, because of logistics, I don't have the time for it. Rarely do I get ask to do something that I'd rather not do. I usually do it if I feel that it's something I can do.
If I have one hero in music, it's John Cale.
'Gargoyle' was inching towards a more accessible record.
Me and Kurt Cobain were both listening to a bunch of Lead Belly and diggin' it. We thought, 'Let's do an EP of all Lead Belly songs.' We did a couple, and both of us were like, 'Nah, this is a bad concept.' We set it aside.
I was never super comfortable playing music in front of people anyway. Now I enjoy it, but it wasn't the easiest thing to get past.
I played 'Angry Birds' and tried to see what the hoopla was about.
I wanted 'Imitations' to be a fully realized record from start to finish, with a cohesive sound and a sequence that took you from one song to the other, just like I would with a record of original stuff.
I didn't always enjoy playing music with the Trees.
I enjoy watching basketball, yeah.
I prefer to stay in the here and now and move forward.
I think when people hear your music, sometimes they get deeply attached to it and think they know something about you, that you're kindred spirits or something.
When they're listening to your music all the time, you become part of their life, and some people get obsessed.
I just see what's in front of me. That's what I'm happy with.
Usually, I write the music and am involved in the production.
I've always said everything happens the way it's supposed to.
It isn't important to me how people respond to my work.
I'm open to life.
I would only tell a story if I was being mercilessly heckled. That's the only time I would talk to the audience.
