The touring for this album was definitely going to be the most intense touring we've done.

There's an inherent thing in me where, if things are going too smooth, I'll sabotage the hell out of them, just to make the music more of a sanctuary.

Reactive arthritis is something I've been dealing with for nearly a year.

Touring doesn't kill me and I can handle it.

We never considered ourselves to be a good band or anything, we just thought we were playing for fun and we wanted to play music that sounded like Black Sabbath or Soundgarden or the music we were into at that time.

It makes it hard to get over a certain period of your life when you are constantly revisiting it every night.

So I went and visited a doctor and he diagnosed me with reactive arthritis.

There are no big groupie fans or anything.

I have not really experienced any significant conflict with anyone in regard to my choice to be vegan, although going out to eat is hard sometimes.

None of us are really dumb and none of us are really smart. We're in the middle.

I get very anxious and am scared in crowds and things like that.

I have never had a social life, don't ever want one because it's boring. I'm just not very good with people, and you meet people every night who expect you to be this rock star with these developed social skills, which I don't have.

With our first two records we backed ourselves into a hole musically.

I start sweating and shaking and having panic attacks if I am not at home.

We were perceived as a post-grunge band.

We were really motivated to do something with this record overseas, even though I hate touring.

Kinda when I stopped eating was on our second album, just as it felt like everything was so out of control.

The touring for this album was definitely going to be the most intense touring we've done.

I wrote... Neon Ballroom in that time where I hated music, really everything about it, I hated it.

I am very scared of being outside my home for long periods of time.

I try to stay positive by focusing on how much I'll appreciate my health if I get better.

Though, since the first record, I've dramatically changed my expectations for our records.

Basically, the reason I'm vegan is because when I was about 16 or 17 years old, I began to understand that we don't need to contribute to the killing and exploitation of animals to feed our bodies correctly.

We met The Cult and were talking to them for a while. We went a few places with Offspring.

I know if I don't tour people will forget the record and you run a high risk of the record failing.

I'm lucky the arthritis happened at the time that it did because of the record.

I think I definitely got scared by the second or third time a doctor told me I was dying.

I am doing everything humanly possible to try and get well, but lately things have just kept getting worse.

I'm always active in trying to educate people when it comes to eating animal products, testing on animals, and the health benefits of being vegan, although I'm probably not the best person to be talking about the latter at the moment.

It just makes everything more pleasurable when you've got someone that emotionally is there to rely on.

I have a theory because I was being beaten up a lot by people outside of school, it was almost like if I could make myself sick enough they'd take sympathy on me.

I never really paid attention to sales until the second record.

When we first began and I was 14, my influences were the stuff that was in my parent's record collection like Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin.

There was three or four years of my life where I hated myself and you know, would have quite happily ended it.

I had to try and find a way to express happiness without sounding corny.

People don't understand sarcasm, like, they take everything too seriously. People need to lighten up and go ice skating.

A lot of straight people think I'm nuts.

Presumptions of guilt or innocence may sometimes be strengthened or weakened by the place of birth and kind of education and associates a man has grown up with, and good character may at times interpose, and justly save, under suspicion, one who is accused of crime on slight circumstances.

I ended the war a horse ahead.

Every effort needs to be made to try and offset the costs of Katrina and Rita by reductions in other government programs, especially those that are wasteful, duplicative and ineffective.

Because we have so much eye candy and mind candy, spending so much time trying to pay the rent, all of this conspires to keep us from thinking too hard or taking action from that. Our time is stolen. So much of our daily life is stolen.

There is nobody that's ever going to fill Ted Kennedy's shoes, and that's a tall order for somebody in the family to try to live up to.

Like all soul singers, I grew up singing in church but sometimes I would leave early and sit in the car listening to gospel band, The Blind Boys of Alabama. Hearing their lead singer Clarence made me connect the idea of church and show business and see how I could make a career singing music that stirred the soul.

Writing is something I can do by myself.

I remember once acting really cool on a bus with this girl named Stephanie. When I got home, I realized that I had a really big zit on my forehead. If you have acne problems, you really shouldn't be acting like Don Juan.

It is a true man's part not to err, but it is also noble of a man to perceive his error.

Mountaineering is a relentless pursuit. One climbs further and further yet never reaches the destination. Perhaps that is what gives it its own particular charm. One is constantly searching for something never to be found.

Drawing is the honesty of the art. There is no possibility of cheating. It is either good or bad.

I have a lot of friends and fans in Canada and as a matter of fact I met a fan from there that came down to my office. It was nice and we took pictures and had a nice talk.