I'm going to encourage my players at this particular point to have absolutely no comment to make plus or minus, good or bad about what their plans are because I think that takes on a life of itself.

At this particular point, I don't have absolutely any say in the criteria. That's already been determined, and me making any speculation right now would be just that - speculation.

But whether payrolls come in at minus 10,000 or plus 10,000, it won't tell you that much.

It wouldn't [have been] a plus, it would [have been] a minus. That story is that story, and the members of Audioslave appearing in whatever form would only take away from how amazing the story is.

I don't think there's any rabbit to pull out of a hat here. I think at this particular point in time we're looking at this as a real dose of reality. I think there's only so much he can do with what he's got unless he comes up with something spectacular.

I didn't agonize over it. It was easy. We had a plus-minus system, and those guys weren't in the top five, top eight.