PEARL JAM INTERVIEW with
Stone Gossard and Mike McCready
at the Cabaret Metro in Chicago, IL July 21, 1991
by Peter Day of WMXM 88.9fm with C.K.
by Peter Day of WMXM 88.9fm with C.K.
Pete: Could you Start by
you giving a history of you and Green River, how
you got together with Jeff.
Stone: Sure. We just got together through a mutual friend in high school.
Green River was actually already a band, local Seattle punk rock
guys. Mark Arm, Jeff, me, and Steve Turner.
Pete: Was Bruce Fairweather in the band?
Stone: Bruce didn't join the band until a year and a half later, so Green
River kind of ran its course, we made as much music as seemed
like appropriate. We met Andy through another local Seattle band
called Malfunkshun, and just kind of put it together, and that whole
thing kind of took off and here we are, in another band.
Pete: How did you get together with Mike and all of the other guys?
Stone: Me and Mike have known each other for a long time, he was in another
band in Seattle that we were huge fans of, and they actually left
town for a while and came back, and as soon as Andy died, me and
Mike just got together and played some songs I had. Eddie was a
friend of Jack Irons, he's the old from the Chili Peppers, he
suggested a friend of his from San Diego. He said Eddie was a
surfer guy, said he was a totally great singer. Sent him a demo
tape, guess it was 8 or 10 instrumental demos, he just recorded over
the top of the demo tape on his 4 track, flew up to Seattle.
Pete: Is that before Temple of the Dog?
Stone: That was right as Temple of the Dog was
Pete: You guys recorded them very near each other?
Stone: I guess it was 3 months or something like that.
Mike: 2 and a half months.
Pete: How did you pick Rick Parashar?
Stone: Rick's a guy that we had done demos with before and we liked the way
he recorded songs. We didn't want to spend a lot of money,
especially with the Temple thing. Temple was kind of like...
Mike: Testing.
Stone: We didn't spend very much money and we made a great sounding record.
Mike: He's a really cool guy.
Pete: What bands are you influenced by and what do you listen to now?
Mike: I'm really into blues and stuff like that. Stevie Ray Vaughan,
Hendrix, Muddy Waters. Nirvana, too. King's X is cool, Alice in
Chains.
Stone: I'm actually looking for a Journey record now. Swear to God I am.
Mike: Don't print that.
Stone: Don't print that.
Mike :What are you looking for?
Stone: One of the early greatest hits packages.
Someone sings " Don't stop believing..."
Stone: Ice Cube, too.
Pete: You guys both play lead guitar?
Stone: Mike plays pretty much all the leads, I concentrate on song writing
and rhythm, which is great for me; it's kind of what I do well.
Pete: You played lead in Mother Love Bone?
Stone: Yeah.
Pete: Was it kind of weird to switch roles?
Stone: It was really natural. It was like the leads were all right in Mother
Love Bone, but it was a chore. It was something I grew to not
really enjoy. I hope to enjoy it at some point in the future when
it feels natural and it feels like I just really want to play lead,
I'll do it. At this point, I have more fun watching Mike play leads
Mike: We do some dual leads sometimes, though.
Stone: Every once in a while we'll break into one dual lead ( Mike gives a
verbal demonstration of the guitar sound)
Mike: Yeah, leads are just totally fun. It's what I love doing. It's what
I've been doing for the last couple of years. It's what I love
doing.
Pete: Did you play in any bands before this?
Mike: Yeah, I played in a band called Shadow a long time ago, a Seattle band
This band called The Cheap Ones, just kind of two guys; not kind of
a full thing, but just more of a excuse to drink. That's about it.
Played just a lot by myself, just did tapes and stuff.
Pete: What happened to Greg Gilmore and Bruce Fairweather?
Stone: Greg is in Los Angeles right now; I guess doing studio work. And
Bruce is in a band called Blind Horse, kind of an Allman Brothers
kind of blues, southern groove, Stones kind of band, that's in
Seattle right now. So both of them are playing music, which is
great.
Pete: What kind of direction do you see for the band?
Stone: I totally don't want to plan it out to much.
Pete: Do you have any goals?
Mike: To last hopefully, put out some good music.
Stone: Yeah definitely, play music. To become a lot better band than we are
now, which would be fun.
Pete: Did you just start this tour with Soul Asylum?
Stone: No, we did the New Music Seminar, no we've only actually been playing
for 25 gigs or whatever.
Mike: We did a tour with Alice In Chains in February, a little opening thing
for them. That was really cool. Just hoping to get on more tours,
and get better, definitely helps.
Pete: Do you have any more plans for touring?
Stone: We'll be home for a month, do the video, then we'll be out again.
Pete: What song?
Mike: Alive.
Stone: It's a different version actually. Same version, different lead, and
different mix.
Pete: When's the album going to come out?
Stone: August 21st.
Pete: If you could see any three bands, in any time in history, what would
they be?
Mike: On a bill?
Pete: Just any three.
Mike: Wow. Definitely Howlin Wolf, Muddy Waters.
Stone: Def Leppard.
Mike: Jesus (laughs) Jimi Hendrix probably. I don't know, early Stones.
That's a hard question, there's so many I'd love to see. Definitely
Howlin Wolf, 'cause he's like 300 pounds, and he'd climb up a
curtain, with a harmonica and a mic in his mouth, and wooo
(harmonica sound) just climb up the curtain and he'd come back down,
be very content, that's for sure.
Stone: Maybe like Wish You Were Here era Pink Floyd, and vintage Zeppelin
show would be great, one where Jimmy wasn't too fucked up. Then
there's that famous Roman band, from 10 AD, that I loved.
Mike: Socrates.
Stone: Socrates is..
Mike: Socrates Johnson, I gotta see that new Bill And Ted.
Carole: It's really good.
Pete: It's excellent.
Mike: Is it?
Carole: Yeah.
Mike: My friend saw it the other night, pretty funny huh?
Carole: yeah!
Stone: I still haven't seen it.
Mike: Well Carlin's in it so...
Stone: Is he?
Mike: yeah, he's in the first one, is he in the second one?
Pete: Yeah, everybody's back.
Mike: Does he go to the future or something?
Carole: They go to Hell.
Pete: They get killed.
Mike: They go to Hell?
Carole: Yeah It's really funny.
Mike: I can't wait.
Pete: The Grim Reaper's great.
Carole: Yeah, well don't tell 'em too much.
Stone: It's the punch line?
Carole: It's one of the best parts of the movie... Is Death.
Stone: I'm psyched.
Pete: How'd you get the deal with Epic?
Stone: Michael Goldstone, who was our A&R guy for Mother Love Bone at
Polygram, actually, right after Andy died, got a new position at
Epic, as vice president of A&R, or vice president of Epic Associated
which is like a big offshoot label of Epic, which they're starting.
Richard Griffiths and Michael Goldstone, are the two main guys. He
basically bought our deal from Polygram.
Pete: Thanks a lot.
Mike and Stone: Yeah.
Mike: You guys gonna be there?
Pete: Yeah!
c 1991, Peter Day
This interview occured a month before Ten was released
Pearl Jam was opening for the Jayhawks and headliners Soul Asylum
c 1991, 1995, 2018, Peter Day
you got together with Jeff.
Stone: Sure. We just got together through a mutual friend in high school.
Green River was actually already a band, local Seattle punk rock
guys. Mark Arm, Jeff, me, and Steve Turner.
Pete: Was Bruce Fairweather in the band?
Stone: Bruce didn't join the band until a year and a half later, so Green
River kind of ran its course, we made as much music as seemed
like appropriate. We met Andy through another local Seattle band
called Malfunkshun, and just kind of put it together, and that whole
thing kind of took off and here we are, in another band.
Pete: How did you get together with Mike and all of the other guys?
Stone: Me and Mike have known each other for a long time, he was in another
band in Seattle that we were huge fans of, and they actually left
town for a while and came back, and as soon as Andy died, me and
Mike just got together and played some songs I had. Eddie was a
friend of Jack Irons, he's the old from the Chili Peppers, he
suggested a friend of his from San Diego. He said Eddie was a
surfer guy, said he was a totally great singer. Sent him a demo
tape, guess it was 8 or 10 instrumental demos, he just recorded over
the top of the demo tape on his 4 track, flew up to Seattle.
Pete: Is that before Temple of the Dog?
Stone: That was right as Temple of the Dog was
Pete: You guys recorded them very near each other?
Stone: I guess it was 3 months or something like that.
Mike: 2 and a half months.
Pete: How did you pick Rick Parashar?
Stone: Rick's a guy that we had done demos with before and we liked the way
he recorded songs. We didn't want to spend a lot of money,
especially with the Temple thing. Temple was kind of like...
Mike: Testing.
Stone: We didn't spend very much money and we made a great sounding record.
Mike: He's a really cool guy.
Pete: What bands are you influenced by and what do you listen to now?
Mike: I'm really into blues and stuff like that. Stevie Ray Vaughan,
Hendrix, Muddy Waters. Nirvana, too. King's X is cool, Alice in
Chains.
Stone: I'm actually looking for a Journey record now. Swear to God I am.
Mike: Don't print that.
Stone: Don't print that.
Mike :What are you looking for?
Stone: One of the early greatest hits packages.
Someone sings " Don't stop believing..."
Stone: Ice Cube, too.
Pete: You guys both play lead guitar?
Stone: Mike plays pretty much all the leads, I concentrate on song writing
and rhythm, which is great for me; it's kind of what I do well.
Pete: You played lead in Mother Love Bone?
Stone: Yeah.
Pete: Was it kind of weird to switch roles?
Stone: It was really natural. It was like the leads were all right in Mother
Love Bone, but it was a chore. It was something I grew to not
really enjoy. I hope to enjoy it at some point in the future when
it feels natural and it feels like I just really want to play lead,
I'll do it. At this point, I have more fun watching Mike play leads
Mike: We do some dual leads sometimes, though.
Stone: Every once in a while we'll break into one dual lead ( Mike gives a
verbal demonstration of the guitar sound)
Mike: Yeah, leads are just totally fun. It's what I love doing. It's what
I've been doing for the last couple of years. It's what I love
doing.
Pete: Did you play in any bands before this?
Mike: Yeah, I played in a band called Shadow a long time ago, a Seattle band
This band called The Cheap Ones, just kind of two guys; not kind of
a full thing, but just more of a excuse to drink. That's about it.
Played just a lot by myself, just did tapes and stuff.
Pete: What happened to Greg Gilmore and Bruce Fairweather?
Stone: Greg is in Los Angeles right now; I guess doing studio work. And
Bruce is in a band called Blind Horse, kind of an Allman Brothers
kind of blues, southern groove, Stones kind of band, that's in
Seattle right now. So both of them are playing music, which is
great.
Pete: What kind of direction do you see for the band?
Stone: I totally don't want to plan it out to much.
Pete: Do you have any goals?
Mike: To last hopefully, put out some good music.
Stone: Yeah definitely, play music. To become a lot better band than we are
now, which would be fun.
Pete: Did you just start this tour with Soul Asylum?
Stone: No, we did the New Music Seminar, no we've only actually been playing
for 25 gigs or whatever.
Mike: We did a tour with Alice In Chains in February, a little opening thing
for them. That was really cool. Just hoping to get on more tours,
and get better, definitely helps.
Pete: Do you have any more plans for touring?
Stone: We'll be home for a month, do the video, then we'll be out again.
Pete: What song?
Mike: Alive.
Stone: It's a different version actually. Same version, different lead, and
different mix.
Pete: When's the album going to come out?
Stone: August 21st.
Pete: If you could see any three bands, in any time in history, what would
they be?
Mike: On a bill?
Pete: Just any three.
Mike: Wow. Definitely Howlin Wolf, Muddy Waters.
Stone: Def Leppard.
Mike: Jesus (laughs) Jimi Hendrix probably. I don't know, early Stones.
That's a hard question, there's so many I'd love to see. Definitely
Howlin Wolf, 'cause he's like 300 pounds, and he'd climb up a
curtain, with a harmonica and a mic in his mouth, and wooo
(harmonica sound) just climb up the curtain and he'd come back down,
be very content, that's for sure.
Stone: Maybe like Wish You Were Here era Pink Floyd, and vintage Zeppelin
show would be great, one where Jimmy wasn't too fucked up. Then
there's that famous Roman band, from 10 AD, that I loved.
Mike: Socrates.
Stone: Socrates is..
Mike: Socrates Johnson, I gotta see that new Bill And Ted.
Carole: It's really good.
Pete: It's excellent.
Mike: Is it?
Carole: Yeah.
Mike: My friend saw it the other night, pretty funny huh?
Carole: yeah!
Stone: I still haven't seen it.
Mike: Well Carlin's in it so...
Stone: Is he?
Mike: yeah, he's in the first one, is he in the second one?
Pete: Yeah, everybody's back.
Mike: Does he go to the future or something?
Carole: They go to Hell.
Pete: They get killed.
Mike: They go to Hell?
Carole: Yeah It's really funny.
Mike: I can't wait.
Pete: The Grim Reaper's great.
Carole: Yeah, well don't tell 'em too much.
Stone: It's the punch line?
Carole: It's one of the best parts of the movie... Is Death.
Stone: I'm psyched.
Pete: How'd you get the deal with Epic?
Stone: Michael Goldstone, who was our A&R guy for Mother Love Bone at
Polygram, actually, right after Andy died, got a new position at
Epic, as vice president of A&R, or vice president of Epic Associated
which is like a big offshoot label of Epic, which they're starting.
Richard Griffiths and Michael Goldstone, are the two main guys. He
basically bought our deal from Polygram.
Pete: Thanks a lot.
Mike and Stone: Yeah.
Mike: You guys gonna be there?
Pete: Yeah!
c 1991, Peter Day
This interview occured a month before Ten was released
Pearl Jam was opening for the Jayhawks and headliners Soul Asylum
c 1991, 1995, 2018, Peter Day
