The 57-year-old Florida-born six-string rocker Mike McCready is known for his integral role in the Seattle-born grunge band Pearl Jam. But McCready has lived many lives. He also played in seminal side projects like Mad Season and Temple of the Dog. He’s a spokesperson for Crohn’s disease and he’s been a mainstay in the Emerald City, representing for up-and-coming artists and the establishment, alike.
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Given all this experience and these accolades, one might wonder what McCready has to say about his life and love, his craft and the world around him. Here are the best 30 Mike McCready quotes.
1. “In the early days of Pearl Jam, we were caught up in such a whirlwind that I was just trying to keep my head on straight and play music. I didn’t have the kind of confidence that other guys in the band did.”
2. “When we did our first record, my mindset was this is all going to be over tomorrow.”
3. “I never play as well without these guys; the best I have ever been creatively has been with Pearl Jam.”
4. “I think our fans are bigger and better students of Pearl Jam than we are.”
5. “A lot of times, bands will go on tour, and people only wanna hear the hits. Luckily, our fans are receptive to our new stuff.”
6. “We’re always working on our communication, which is something that’s important. Instead of going through managers to discuss things, we will sit down and have meetings about things. That’s a process. And you have to be able to be honest with each other as much as you can.”
7. “When you’re really young, dating girls, and trying to explain KISS, they just look at you like you’re kind of crazy. I think they got so big in the Seventies and were such a phenomenon—they did the ‘KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park’ movie, the solo records—some people only know the merchandising stuff.”
8. “Reason why we’ve lasted so long is we write music; we get very intense. We go away from each other, do our own thing, and then we get back together.”
9. “We want to push boundaries musically if we can and come at things from a different direction.”
10. “After Mad Season, I started writing my own music for Pearl Jam and brought it in. ‘Given To Fly’ came out of that, and so did ‘Faithful’—those were on ‘Yield,’ which came after Mad Season.”
11. “Actors want to be musicians, and musicians want to be baseball players.”
12. “I love some kind of pressure in the air. Some kind of weirdness in the crowd, good or bad. That’s what we thrive on.”
13. “I like to have a lot of different creative outlets.”
14. “I hold Mad Season very fondly to my heart, and there’s a lot of sadness in that, too.”
15. “Everything I know, I stole directly from Ace Frehley, Angus Young, and Keith Richards. That’s how you learn.”
16. “Recording Ten, we probably did ‘Even Flow’ 30 times.”
17. “I wanted to start doing more music, doing more things than just playing guitar. I started taking singing lessons and piano lessons. I need to learn more things, to be an artist or whatever, and then transfer that back into writing songs.
18. “I think I bought into that whole rock n’ roll lifestyle, and all that does in the end is kill ya. So I don’t recommend it to anyone.”
19. “Playing music was something I wanted to do since I was 11 years old, so when we went on tour and started selling records, it was an incredible, strange dream.”
20. “We value doing things grassroots, even at this level. That means no real high ticket prices or meet-and-greets and all that kind of stuff.”
21. “Chris Cornell painted in song the darkness and beauty of life in Seattle.”
22. “Tom Petty sent me this amazing 12-string Rickenbacker, and ‘Not for You’ was the first time I used it. It was like a Christmas present. One day, it just showed up at my door. I called him up and thanked him.”
23. “I remember, after the New Year’s Eve 1991 show, somebody running onto the bus and saying Nirvana had just hit No. 1. I remember thinking, ‘Wow; it’s on now.’ It changed something. We had something to prove—that our band was as good as I thought it was.”
24. “A song kind of comes out of anywhere. A song will come out of the sky, or an idea, or walking around, or playing with other guys.”
25. “There’s no time for regrets. You’ve just got to keep moving forward.”
26. “To just meet people that have Crohn’s or colitis and to hear their stories gives me a lot of hope and a lot of courage.”
27. “At this point, because we have stayed the same course for so many years, I feel like we are freer to make choices that are motivated by what feels right creatively at a given point in time.”
28. “That’s what music has always been to me: a feel. I’ve listened to the Stones many times and it still makes me have that feeling of joy every time. They are still around and put on a really exciting show. We also give it 120 percent.”
29. “I try to dig deep into my soul to figure out something positive in the pain. I think I go to certain places when I play to heal.”
30. “Sometimes with Polaroids, the shot you want to get in your head doesn’t happen. What it makes me do is be patient, I guess, or let go of that presumption of what the shot’s going to be.”
Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic
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