"We are grateful to everyone who comes out to see us whether there are five or five hundred people at a show. Dig? Of course it'd be fun to make a living off of this. Sure. But that's just a pipe dream anyway. Or is it?"- Jim James
(Pitchfork interview, August 2002)
When the topic of commercial success comes up in interview the band typically give a "if it happens, it happens" response, while pointing out it's not something that they're actively pursuing and that they prefer focusing on the music.
"We've always felt that whatever commercial success was realized would be a residual to appreciation for the music, it's never been the band's vision to chase opportunities; they'd run themselves ragged and fear losing touch with their original motivations. We'll leave the marketing plan to our friends at ATO and Girlie Action."- Mike Martinovich
(Billboard interview, May 2008)
"I think that's what people are thinking, like, ‘They're going to break off and be a household name,' but I don't know. People always see us and they're like, `What band are you guys?' and we're like, My Morning Jacket, and they're like, 'Who?' [rest of the band laughs] That happens all the time, and I don't think we care."- Carl Broemel
(msnbc.com interview, August 2008)
- Joe Chiccarelli
"(The goal is) not to make the songs disposable or slight or pop songs, I don't think the band is capable of making that. I just don't think it's in them, and I think if that's what they wanted to do they could do that because they are kind of fans of a lot of different music."
(msnbc.com interview, August 2008)
"We've been pretty lucky to continually go up," James says. "I feel like there's peaks and valleys in everyone's career and the goal is to keep being honest and make hit records and let the chips fall where they may."- Jim James
(msnbc.com interview, August 2008)
"We try not to think about it. It'd be cool but we don't feel comfortable thinking or talking about the future too much because you never really know what's going to happen. If you make plans or dream too much about that kind of stuff you get crushed when it doesn't happen. We just try to play as hard as we can and make the best records we can. If you're sitting there trying to write a story that you think will bring the whole world together it'll never happen but if you're just doing your honest work and it happens then great."- Jim James, commenting on the band being on the verge of larger fame
(JamBase interview, January 2004)
"I don’t know about that. We were kinda surprised they asked us, but we are excited. (...) It sounds like such a cliché to say this — and I’m not just saying this to be nice or whatever — but when we are playing a show, we don’t really think about the size of the room. We just always go into each show and face every opportunity with the best of intentions. We’ve also had the chance to open for people like Tom Petty and Pearl Jam, so we’ve seen how you can do this a certain way without things being too weird. Big arena shows can be great or they can be awful, but so can small club shows. I feel like we’ve been on this nice upward incline for years now, slowly moving up, but we’ve never had any giant hit song or anything that would cause our popularity to take a giant leap upwards. Mostly, I think we’re just really glad that we’re not working at Starbucks or something. We’re really happy to just be making music. Honestly. We are."
- Jim James, about the topic of 2011 VH1 Storytellers taping being a sure sign that the band had officially moved into the ranks of bona fide rock stardom
(Stereogum interview, March 2011)
