“And it changed our lives in infinite ways, changed everything ”“ it’s almost terrifying to listen to it. They mailed him the tape, labelled “Stone Gossard demos.” “I recorded my vocals in four or five hours,” says Vedder, who wrote most of the lyrics and melodies in his head while surfing. “I got the sense that Stone had a pretty big picture of what this next musical endeavour would be,” says Cameron.įormer Red Hot Chili Pepper Jack Irons told Gossard and Ament about a singer living in San Diego named Eddie Vedder who was working as a gas-station security guard. To record the demo, Gossard recruited the best drummer in town: Soundgarden’s Matt Cameron ”“ who wouldn’t play again with Pearl Jam until he joined the band in 1998. It can be kind of like ”˜Achilles Last Stand,’ or anything moving toward that heavy, funky, grooving, chaotic thing.” “I like propulsion, I like rhythm,” he says. Fascinated by the Led Zep-influenced Jane’s Addiction, Gossard had a very specific idea of the music he wanted to make. It all started as riffs written by Gossard, who was determined to start over after the death of Andrew Wood, frontman of Gossard and Ament’s band Mother Love Bone. “I’m fortunate they were able to see beyond that and give me the job.”īut the rest of the three-song tape ”“ a cassette version is included in a super-deluxe edition of the reissue ”“ comes eerily close to the sound of Ten. “I haven’t laughed so hard in years.” He’s referring to his early version of ”˜Once,’ which is the goofiest thing he’s ever recorded ”“ the humongous chorus is intact, but the rest wavers between bizarre spoken-word segments and falsetto funk breaks. “There was one part in there that’s as hysterical as anything I’ve ever heard,” Vedder says. And while Vedder’s bandmates know that none of it would have happened without him, the singer feels equally lucky to have gotten the gig ”“ especially after the harrowing recent experience of listening to the cassette demo that started it all. Since its August 1991 release, Ten has sold 9.6 million copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan, more than Nirvana’s Nevermind. “We’d be paying you two grand under the table to do this interview.” Ament is sure of one thing: “If we had chosen that guy, instead of sitting in an apartment above our warehouse now, this would be the apartment the three of us live in,” he says, cracking up his bandmates. With a remixed, bonus-packed reissue of Pearl Jam’s first album, Ten, out on March 24, the group is in the mood to look back ”“ and at the moment, Gossard, Ament and lead guitarist Mike McCready are trying to dredge up details about one of the few frontmen they considered before Eddie Vedder. Bassist Jeff Ament, who’s sitting at a kitchen table, isn’t having much luck with his memory either: “He was kind of a tall, skinny guy,” he says. Downstairs is PJ’s merch and fan-club operation, along with their rehearsal space, museum-quality band memorabilia and indoor batting cage. “Tyrone? Ian? Liam?” he says, rummaging through a refrigerator in an apartment on the top floor of the band’s warehouse headquarters in Seattle. Stone Gossard can’t quite remember the dude’s name ”“ only that he almost became Pearl Jam’s singer.
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