Bassist Steve Lack played in a ton of bands that were going nowhere until he hooked up with guitarists/singers Nina Gordon and Louise Post, who were forming a band which would later be called Veruca Salt (the name was chosen by Gordon).

Now he is part of a enormously successful group that has released two platinum selling CDs (1995’s “American Thighs” and 1997’s “Eight Arms To Hold You”) and the four-song E.P. “Blow It Out Your Asses It’s Veruca Salt” (with renowned producer Steve Albini).

Veruca Salt is currently wrapping up its tour supporting its latest release and is thinking about hitting the studio early next year. In the meantime, the group will release a new single this month.

But it is everyday life things that are keeping Lack’s mind occupied, not his rock band.

“I’m super groggy this morning,” he said. “I got up at eight this morning to leave St. Louis and head to Columbia. I wasn’t prepared to do that. I couldn’t sleep on the bus, and when I finally did, I had to wake up. I had a really bad dream last night, which is sort of odd because I don’t usually dream. This one was a doozy.”

Despite Lack’s grogginess this morning, he insists the tour hasn’t been too difficult for him so far.

“I like to tour and record in healthy doses,” he said. “I love playing live. But recording is amazing because that is where the art is at. But some of the other members don’t share my enthusiasm for touring. Nina wants to record and not tour. I don’t blame her because touring is rough. But it’s been easy on me so far.

“I guess it just depends on how intensive you do them,” he added. “I haven’t figured out how to tour without it being a mind-numbing experience. But it’s not grueling. It’s ten thousand times easier than my last job at UPS as a super grunt.”

Before the mass success of Veruca Salt, Lack held three jobs at once — UPS grunt, electrician and musician. He was eventually fired from UPS after the holiday rush was over.

“Working at UPS was strange,” he claimed, “because they pay you to break stuff, and if you don’t break enough, you’re fired. They ended up firing me after the Christmas rush because they didn’t like my attitude. Frankly, I didn’t like theirs, and I was happy to go. That job sucked.”

Now, Lack has a job as a musician in one of the most successful bands around. But he doesn’t focus on the success very often.

For Lack, success only seems to materialize itself in the form of interviewer’s questions and the amount of junk he now buys to throw in his apartment.

“I try not to think about it,” he stated. “I’m out of touch, really. Is our success skyrocketing? Personally, it doesn’t feel any different now than it did four years ago. It just doesn’t really feel like success yet.”

Although he doesn’t consider himself successful, Lack has learned to bypass two of the major pitfalls of success — hating your success and being taken advantage of by the music industry.

He thinks about people like Eddie Vedder and Kurt Cobain, who hated their own success and hated having people listen to their music.

“I think they didn’t know how to deal with it,” he explained. “If they didn’t want people to buy their music, why did they work so hard to sell it? Why did they sign to major labels, produce videos, talk to the press and basically make themselves targets?

“Cobain was in the papers every day,” he continued. “That would drive me nuts because I don’t want to be famous. But we’re not there yet. We haven’t gotten a taste of the type of fame Cobain reached. All I want is to be able to pay my parents back all of the money I owe them and to marry somebody who only loves me for my money.”

Lack has also learned how the music industry operates and how truly lethargic it is.

“If a record doesn’t work itself,” he said, “then a label doesn’t want to fuck with it. It’s like pulling teeth to get them to do anything. I think that’s because people are lazy. They don’t want to do it if it’s not a sure thing. I think that’s a cowardly way of doing things.

“But we knew how it was going to be when we were getting started,” he concluded. “I chose not to pay attention in the beginning. Now I pay attention a lot more often.”

The music industry is not the only thing Lack has been paying a lot of attention to. He has also started noticing how much his life has changed for the better and how life seems so dismally short.

“I spent most of my life being fairly unpopular and autonomous,” he said. “I figured I’d live a normal and dull existence. I figured I’d go nowhere, like most people. I didn’t have high expectations.

“But I knew I was on to something with the band,” he added, “when I met them and heard their potential. It was very inspiring to me and made me play better.”

“I don’t worry about dying so much,” he said. “The only thing about dying that bothers me so much is dying without doing anything that gives me self-respect or dignity. Or dying without living.

“But so far, my life has been okay,” he concluded. “Every day, I think I am going somewhere — whether it’s in my head, musically or socially. I don’t worry about death because if you worry about it, you’ll lose your mind. You’ll stay in your house all the time only to die anyway. So what’s the point in worrying?”

Veruca Salt will bring its frenetic energy to Des Moines’ SuperToad tonight at 7:30 pm. General admission tickets are $16.50.

Days of the New will be opening for the group.