In the early days of the band, you were romantically linked with Heart’s guitarist Roger Fisher, while Ann was going out with his brother and the band’s manager, Mike Fisher. How did you avoid a “Fleetwood Mac situation”—you know, the whole band/soap opera thing? —Nick Sterling

[laughs] Who’s saying we did avoid it? No, we definitely had our own Fleetwood Mac situation. For a while, we were embroiled in a triangle, and that was really tough. When the pressures and the success got bigger, we went through a lot of horrible stuff. It was a difficult process to update the band in a way where Ann and I were the leaders and took control. The first lineup of the band was basically the one that played clubs. It was hard to go through certain changes. Yeah, we definitely had our own soap opera going on.

I’ve seen you play a few different guitars, but you always look the coolest when playing a Les Paul. Do you consider it to be the ultimate rock guitar? —M.L. D’Amico

Yes, I do. Stratocasters have always been too clean and jazzy-sounding to me. I like the big rock sound. The Jimmy Page Les Paul Custom—the three-pickup Black Beauty—that’s pretty cool. But I play an Epiphone Elite, which is lighter than the Les Paul Custom. Those are some pretty heavy guitars, and they can really hurt your shoulders after a while. My buddy Jerry Cantrell even had to get his shoulder worked on because he was playing his Les Paul too much. So I like my Elites. They’re loud, screaming rock guitars, and they’re light.

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