Being a rock star is really a 24-hour-a-day job, and you really can't escape it.

We're happy with what we've achieved. Every record we've made has furthered the growth of our line of success. It's never disappeared or gone backward: each record sells more, each tour is bigger.

There're the causes where people are like, What can you do for us? You guys have success and stature you can make money for us and at the same time present yourselves to the public as altruistic and civic-minded. So it's an exchange. I don't mind looking altruistic and civic-minded if we're actually being that way.

I play guitar because I like to make loud noises. And the guitar is the coolest way to make a loud noise.

Nirvana's success drew attention to a marketing demographic previously ignored by the mainstream, and inadvertently started a gold rush with advertising executives, product manufacturers, merchandise distributors, fashion coordinators, and rock imitators, the latter of whom have yet to equal the sincerity, power, and wit of Nirvana.

I'm still an angry dude. I'm just older. I still push the band to be heavy and dark-that's always been my role.