Don't get me wrong - we love our hip-hop, but in its own context. Rap has no place in our music. Is what we do rhythmic? Sure. Is it syncopated? Certainly. But our music has nothing to do with hip-hop.

I was never the guy who was going to try to use my social media to be a source of promotion for myself... It was always trying to use whatever kind of a voice in the position that I have been blessed with for good.

People who are divided are easier to control.

I think, bad times, I sit down and I play - there's definitely certain songs that touch in certain ways. I go back to 'Moonlight Sonata' by Beethoven; that usually takes care of everything.

I guess, for me, the therapy is walking on stage, playing all of our songs, and walking out. That's probably my therapy. That's a good time.

It's so much fun to be on stage and play. It really is.

It's really fun to just stretch out and not have any boundaries or just try something for the craft.

We have to play 'Livin' on a Prayer,' 'Bad Medicine.' We have to play them, and we want to play them, and that's what we're supposed to do. It's like going to see The Beatles and them not playing your favorite song. It's not the right thing to do.

Usually for the tour, there's about 80 songs in our brain.

There's trials and tribulations in a band.

We thought the hardest thing in the world was to get a record deal, then the hardest was to get a No. 1 record, and then the hardest thing is to stay at the top. It's a lot of work.

Every time we do a new record, we do the best we can. For us, every record is stepping into the ring with another heavyweight champion.

The wild thing is that when I'm in the band, I can control my destiny with four other guys. As a composer sitting in the audience, you can throw good vibes at everybody, but you can't control anybody's destiny, so it's really unsettling.

People ask me, 'Is there pressure to win a Tony for your next one?' I've got three on my mantelpiece; I'm good. If that's the end of the story, I'm fine.

We play anywhere around two, 2 hours, so we're always in shape, but you've got to get yourself in super shape so you can sing that long, play that long, and feel strong.

Our job is to be performers and give everybody a great night where they can forget about their problems and the world's problems, because they're always going to be there. They were there since the beginning, and they're going to be there until the end.

Whether you're black or white, you're a human - and that's what matters.

I don't find writing for the theater that different from writing a rock song.

One of the greatest things about our band is that we bring the American dream to the world. Here's a bunch of kids that were living in nowhere New Jersey, and we made it through a lot of practice and a lot of work and a lot of luck. It shows the world, 'If we did it, you can do it.'

We love to make records, and we love to tour.

I remember, when I was very young and going to the Fillmore East and watching three of my favorite bands in one night, I'd want a hit. I want to hear the songs that brought them to that pinnacle of success.

We would say we would play every pay toilet and use our own change. Across America and across the world, we just kept going and going.

We really earned our keep by going door to door, going to every town, playing in every club.

It's a sense of pride, a sense of you set out to get a record deal, and we got that. We set out to get a No. 1 record, and then we got that. Then you say, 'Wow, that was impossible and now even more impossible is to stay No. 1 and stay current and put out new records that people care about,' and we really stuck to that.