Pearl Jam Frequently Asked Questions : Part 1

SECTION 1.0 - HISTORY AND MEMBERS

1.01 Who is in Pearl Jam?
Jeff Ament : Bass Guitar, backing vocals
Stone Gossard : Rhythm guitar, backing vocals
Jack Irons : Drums, percussion
Mike McCready : Lead Guitar, backing vocals
Eddie Vedder : Lead Vocals, rhythm guitar

1.02 What drummers have been in Pearl Jam?
Dave Krusen
Matt Chamberlain
Dave Abbruzzese
Jack Irons

1.03 Where is the band from?
The band, as a whole, is from Seattle, Washington, although originally Eddie Vedder is from Evanston, Illinois and later, San Diego, California. Jeff Ament originally hails from Big Sandy, Montana. Jack Irons is from Los Angeles. Mike McCready was born in Pensacola, Fl. but was raised in Seattle WA.

1.04 When did the band get together?
Pearl Jam formed in late 1990's after the demise of Seattle singer Andrew Wood which broke up his band, Mother Love Bone, of which Ament and Gossard were members.

1.05 Who is Dave Krusen?
Dave Krusen was the original drummer for Pearl Jam. It is him that you hear on the skins on the album Ten. Dave left the band in 1991 to attend to personal problems at the time. Dave K. is currently drumming for the band, Luma (he has also been in Candlebox and Beth's (Ed's wife) band, Hovercraft.

1.06 Who is Matt Chamberlain?
Matt Chamberlain was Dave Krusen's replacement as the drummer for Pearl Jam. Matt can be seen in the Alive video. Matt later left Pearl Jam to join the Saturday Night Live band, suggesting as he left that Pearl Jam check out a drummer named Dave Abbruzzese in the Texas funk band, Dr. Tongue. Chamberlain's previous efforts include Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians. He is now fronting a band called Critters Buggin, which includes saxophonist Skerik formerly of Sadhappy and bassist Brad Houser. They play largely instrumental jazzy alternative music which is difficult to describe but excellent to listen to. They have a CD out, named Guest which was co-produced by Stone Gossard and they are playing under Stone's Loosegroove label.

1.07 Why was Dave Abbruzzese fired?
No one knows the exact story behind the firing of Dave A. All that is known so far is that he was fired by Stone, during breakfast, around August 1994. The story released to the media, at first, said that it was an amicable split and that Dave A. left the band to study music. Then Dave A. later released to the press his version of the story. According to Dave A., he was fired by the band for reasons that are still unclear to him. Why the band released the first statement that Dave left the band is still unknown. Jack Irons is now the official drummer for the band. Dave A. posted a letter in the Pearl Jam folder in AOL. Do a "Yahoo" search for Pearl Jam and there is a site that has the letter.

1.08 How did Pearl Jam come together?
This question has a long answer. Briefly, it begins with early Seattle bands such as Stone Gossard's March of Crimes and The Ducky Boys, Ament's Deranged Diction, and Mark Arm's Mr. Epp. These early bands boiled down into Green River with Stone Gossard and Steve Turner on guitar, Ament on Bass and Arm on vocals (again see the family tree for complete representation). After a couple personnel changes, Green River parted ways with Arm and Turner going on to form Mudhoney and Ament and Gossard going through a couple bands and finally settling down in Mother Love Bone with ex-Malfunkshun vocalist Andrew Wood. MLB started to gain some momentum commercially with a record deal in the works with a major label some air play on Mtv, after being "discovered" by Kiss bassist/vocalist Gene Simmons. Unfortunately, Andrew Wood passed away due to a heroin overdose stopping Mother Love Bone in their tracks. Wood's roommate, vocalist/guitarist Chris Cornell of Soundgarden, hit hard by the death of Wood wrote the songs Say Hello To Heaven, and Reach Down about his deceased roommate and decided to record them as a tribute to Wood. This project developed into an entire album entitled Temple of the Dog after a line in the Mother Love Bone song Man of Golden Words. This project included Cornell on vocals and guitar, Stone Gossard on guitar, Jeff Ament on bass, Soundgarden drummer Matt Cameron, and recent Gossard/Ament recruit Mike McCready also on guitar. At the same time that Temple was being designed/written Gossard, Ament, and McCready had just finished a three song instrumental demo with Matt Cameron helping them out on drums. The demo was driven by the Gossard creation Dollar Short that would eventually evolve into the AOR anthem Alive. This tape made it into the hands of a young San Diego gas station attendant named Eddie Vedder through friend and ex-Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Jack Irons at a game of one on one at a local basketball hoop. According to Vedder, after listening to the tape several times and then went surfing with the music playing in his head over and over. It was then that he put some of his lyrics to the music. Vedder dubbed his vocals onto the tape and titled the tape Mamasan ....it consisted of Part 1--Alive, Part 2--Once and part 3--Footsteps. He sometimes refers to this in interviews as his little Mini-Opera. Ament, Gossard and McCready were impressed and eventually arranged a jam session to test the waters of a possible band formation. Things went well and Vedder joined in on the Temple of the Dog project with backing vocals and co-lead vocals on Hunger Strike. With Temple in the can, the band Mookie Blaylock was born with the addition of Dave Krusen on drums. The band took their name in reference the then New Jersey Nets point guard of the same name. This name was changed in favor of Pearl Jam (after briefly considering the name Reenk Roink) and the band was solidified.

1.09 Where does the name Pearl Jam come from?
No one is sure but the consensus says that Vedder's grandmother, Pearl, was married to a Native American that influenced her cooking style. She had a recipe for a preserve that included a Native American hallucinogenic substance called Peyote, hence, "Pearl's Jam."

1.10 Do the members of Pearl Jam do drugs?
I've reworded this answer because the old one sounded too much like me just sounding off my opinion, so here goes. I put this question here as an example of what I don't intend this faq to address. Personally, I feel it crosses the line of getting into information that is too personal and detached from the music. Also, I don't personally know any of the band members so I don't feel fit to answer. Knowing where the members come from or if they are married or have kids is one thing but discussing what drugs if any the band does or doesn't do is just a direction that I am not going to take the faq. On to the next question.

Or in other words... Who cares!

1.11 I've heard of Bad Radio. What is it?
Bad Radio is the San Diego band that Eddie Vedder was in prior to Pearl Jam. You might have heard of Bad Radio since there are bootlegs available now with Eddie's stuff with his old band. Also, "Better Man," one of the songs off of Vitalogy is an old Bad Radio song.

1.12 What the hell is Eddie Vedder's real name?
Eddie Vedder. His biological name is Edward Louis Severson III. He was adopted by the man he not so fondly calls "that lawyer fuck" and had the name Edward Jerome Mueller. After his mother divorced, he took her maiden name, Vedder.

1.13 Does Eddie Vedder have any siblings?
One is named Jason, and one is named Chris. His third half-brother's name is either Brian or Mike.(??) Jason is the one that played with Pearl Jam in Den Haag, 1992. Eddie wished Chris Happy Birthday during the DJ segment of their Atlanta broadcast. Also, in the liner notes of Ten, Eddie thanks (amongst others) his brothers Mueller and also sister Parish. Anyone out there know if this is another half-sibling he has?

1.14 What's that tattoo on Eddie's right calf?
Eddie sports a tattoo of a crossed tomahawk and a wrench on his right calf. This tattoo is the logo of Earth First, a radical environmental group. Former Pearl Jam member Dave Abbruzesse also sported a tattoo, the famous Pearl Jam stick man logo, on his arm, below his shoulder. Jack Irons also sports several tattoos, which of course is a requirement of anyone that is or ever was a member of The Red Hot Chili Peppers. ;-)

1.15 Do the members of Pearl Jam make any music outside of the band?
Eddie has done guest spots with the remaining members of The Doors for their induction in the rock and roll hall of fame,and has appeared on the Bad Religion album, Recipe For Hate. Vedder and McCready played at the Bob Dylan 30th anniversary and Vedder played at the Daltrey sings Townsend Who special. Vedder also lends his services on the Mike Watt album Ballhog or Tugboat, singing lead vocals on "Against the 70's" and playing guitar on "Big Train". Stone Gossard has released an album called Shame with his side band Brad. Stone also appears in another side project called Thermadore with an album called Monkey on Rico. Other members on the album include Chad Smith of the Chili Peppers on drums and the guitar player from Mary's Danish. Dave Abbruzzese plays drums on God's Jig by Course of Empire. Jeff and Mike also appear as M.A.C.C. in "Stone Free: A tribute to Jimi Hendrix". And also some of the members are featured along with Cypress Hill on "Real Thing" on the Judgment Night soundtrack. Mike has also done an album with Layne Staley of Alice in Chains under the name Mad Season (they were earlier called Gacy Bunch). Mcready also appears in the band $10,000 Gold Chain on The Cable Guy motion picture soundtrack. Jeff Ament has an album out called "Three Fish" with is side band of the same name. Ament has been the most active person in the side project area as he has been touring with Three Fish in spring/summer of 1996. Mcready's Mad Season has also played out a few times but has not had any kind of a structured tour. There have been confirmations of a second Mad Season double-album as I write this (11/96). Also, as a side note (no pun intended), Pearl Jam also released an album in 1995 with Neil Young, entitled "Mirror Ball". I myself don't really consider this a side project since it is a Pearl Jam album and also a Neil Young album. I like to think that for 1995, Neil Young was a member of Pearl Jam. Or maybe, with proper respect to the elder musician and living legend, I should say that Pearl Jam joined up with Neil Young in 1995 as his backing band. Either way, I consider them a united entity when I think of 1995. Jack Irons is credited on the Reality Bites Soundtrack. Eddie Vedder has worked on the Dead Man Walking soundtracks. Pearl Jam as a whole also appear on the soundtrack of The Basketball Diaries. Eddie has also be involved with his wife's band, Hovercraft. As of late 1996, Mike Mcready, in an effort to simultaneously belong to as many bands at one time as humanly possible is said to be recording a jazz styled album in a band called Tuatara that also includes Peter Buck of R.E.M. Actor Kevin Bacon has been quoted as saying that he fears that Mike Mccready will replace him as the center of all human contact (just kidding of course!)

1.16 What are Pearl Jam's influences?
Stop, think hard for the name of a band, and you'll have probably just picked one of Pearl Jam's influences. The band claims many punk, classic rock, and blues oriented bands as influences as well as many of there contemporaries such as Soundgarden and Mudhoney. Former drummer, Dave A. sights John Henry Bonham of Led Zeppelin as his biggest influence.

1.17 What is the Ticketmaster controversy all about?
Taken from one of many articles on the subject :

"While Springsteen and U2 have taken action to keep scalpers from turning the expense of concert going into a fan's nightmare, it took Pearl Jam to say enough's enough and take up the long-overdue fight to bring down the cost of a concert ticket being bought via legitimate means. On June 30th, 1994 bassist Jeff Ament and guitarist Stone Gossard gave three hours of testimony before government subcommittee on Capitol Hill about the ever-escalating expense involved in purchasing tickets to entertainment events, singling out Ticketmaster and charging that the computerized ticket service prices its tickets for rock concerts far higher that the band's young fans can afford. When Pearl Jam and the ticket conglomerate could reach no agreement on the specific issue of pricing tickets for their summer tour (the band proposed charging a face value of $18 plus a 10% service charge, which falls well below the usual service charge on concert tickets), Pearl Jam filed an antitrust suit with the Justice Department claiming they were forced to cancel their summer tour because Ticketmaster had prompted a national boycott against the band be members of a national association of concert promoters; and that Ticketmaster has a virtual monopoly on the national distribution of concert tickets since no competing ticket service exists as an alternative for fans. Ticketmaster has denied all of Pearl Jam's allegations. The band has garnered support of artists such as R.E.M., Garth Brooks, Neil Young, Grateful Dead, and Aerosmith, whose manager Tim Collins testified at the House hearings and read a statement that Aerosmith had issued from Italy where they were on tour, quoting Steven Tyler's view of how Ticketmaster relates to the music industry: "Mussolini may have made trains run on time but not everyone could get a seat on those trains." The Justice Department continues its investigations into the matter."

Attorney General Janet Reno has since dropped the investigation against Ticketmaster and Pearl Jam is using non-Ticketmaster venues and alternative ticketing agencies for their tours.

1.18 What is the marital status of the bands?
Eddie Vedder married Beth Liebling in Rome on June 3, 1994. Jack is also married. The other band members are presently unmarried.

1.19 Do any of them have children?
Jack does but it is unknown how many.

1.20 What are the birthdays of the band members?
Jack Irons : July 18, 1962
Jeff Ament : March 10, 1963
Eddie Vedder : December 23, 1964
Mike McCready : April 05, 1966
Stone Gossard : July 20, 1966

Eddie's birth year has always been a source of controversy. This is why we state that his b-day is December 23, 1964. In many publications, it has been printed as being 1964, 1965 or 1966. When I started reading/collecting Pearl Jam interviews in early 1992, Eddie was always described as being 27 years old..(which would make his birth year to be 1964 or 1965).. After that, different sources listed his birth year differently each time. In fall of 1994, Rolling Stone published a special issue that had a mini-biography of several musical bands and listed each band members birth date. It listed Eddie's birthday as December 23, 1964. Also in the Jan. 1995 issue of SPIN magazine (which was available to the public in December 1994), Eddie was described as "on the verge of turning 30".. Hence we come to the conclusion using these two sources that Eddie's birth year is indeed 1964.

1.21 Did any of the band members go to college?
Jeff Ament went to University of Montana to study art (he also played basketball there) and dropped out before he could graduate. Mike also went to community college but not straight out of high school. As far as we know, Stone and Jack graduated from high school but never went to college. Eddie dropped out of high school but later received his GED and briefly went to community college in Chicago before returning to San Diego.

1.22 No Code's cover concept was by Jerome Turner. Who is that?
While no one has an official answer, Eddie's middle name is Jerome and he took most of the 144 polaroids that make up the album cover. That is why most people think it is him.

1.23 Yield's cover concept was by Carpenter Newton. Who is that?
Again, like No Code, no one has an official answer. But, again, Carpenter is a middle name of one of the band members. This time it just happened to be Stone's.

1.24 But songs have publishing names. Which publishing name goes with what band member?
Whenever someone writes and publishes a song they have to have some way to identify it as their own (legal stuff). Most musicians make up names to go by. Members of Pearl Jam have the following names...

Eddie Vedder -- Innocent Bystander
Stone Gossard -- Write Treatage Music
Jeff Ament -- Scribing C-Ment
Mike McCready -- Jumpin' Cat Music
Jack Irons -- Mr. Brootz Music

Dave Krusen -- 3 Kick Heads
Matt Chamberlin -- (unknown)
Dave Abbruzzese -- Pickled Fish