I'd forgotten what it was like to play music and have it be fun so I decided to stop. I wasn't even sure if I was going to make a new record, I was just kinda quitting.

Basically, between 1989 and 1994, I hadn't taken a vacation.

But ya have to make videos in the States. Usually ours just look too serious. We haven't got it together.

CDs, too. Totally corporate. They look real cheap and soulless and they don't smell of anything.

Even the bands I dig don't have a history of attaining mass consumption.

For me, it's all about The Dubliners by James Joyce. I love The Dead.

Some of our stuff ends up looking too corporate. I'm going to be a lot stricter from now on.

I used to have a sort of spiky haircut and it just feels better to have short hair again.

I was trying to spend it as quickly as possible. Because I'm so lazy, all that money created a block. I was flying around the world, staying at fancy hotels, having fun and trying to get rid of it as quickly as possible, so I could get on with some more work.

I've got time, I hope, to make lots of quiet records. So quiet you won't be able to hear them.

It is hard, though, 'cos record labels love to boss you around. I won't let them do that anymore.

I need the money. People don't understand how little money you make in a band.

It's better when you have your wife with you, more fun.

My high-school dream was to be in a band, pay my rent and eat - and I've been able to do that for 20 years. So I'm completely content.

Rock stars wanting to write is even worse than wanting to act in movies, right?