"My older sister was obsessed with this record and played it to death. I had a guitar and was in the middle of struggling my way through Iron Maiden tab books. I figured out that I could work out the chords on the Counting Crows records by a process of trial and error. I did that mainly to please my sister. We had a guitar at home, and you can’t really sit around the campfire playing Megadeth songs. So I started playing Counting Crows We had a guitar at home, and you can’t really sit around the campfire playing Megadeth songs. So I started playing Counting Crows. In the process, I got into it. Looking back now, I think it’s one of the most important records in my own musical development. It taught me pretty much everything I know about songwriting, song structuring and arrangement. I vaguely know Adam [Duritz, vocals], and he was wearing one of my t-shirts at a gig the other day. That was my life coming full circle right there."

"I’d never seen the Stooges as early punks or anything—that’s media manipulation of facts; I loved them, but I was always appalled with their long hair. By this time my record collection was enormous and expanding, and my tastes were extremely varied. During the punk years, I really loved the Raincoats and X-Ray Spex and the Adverts, groups that were doing things way out on their own. There was plenty of experimentation going on musically in all areas, particularly reggae.” “I lack prejudice except for music that I find to be reminiscent of somebody else’s work—I find no need for endless Chuck Berry versions, which was very popular at the time. And I had little time for what was coming out of America; bands like Television never really grabbed me, I just couldn’t connect. It was all too clever for its own good and wrapped up in too much Rimbaud poetry: Get over it and write about your own life, not what you find in books."