Pearl Jam: Mike McCready & Stone Gossard Reddit AMA Session, the highlights

The highlights from Mike McCready and Stone Gossard Reddit AMA Session.

GIGATON

“Gigaton was a long process to make. Lots of starts and stops with touring, Chris’s death, etc, but in that it was freeing to just record with the mindset of lets do whatever comes to our minds. Clairvoyants was the best example of letting go of any preconceptions I had of how a Pearl Jam song should be. I love ambient stuff and tried to create a huge trippy atmosphere at the end of Retrograde. I envisioned people listening to it on headphones. Josh helped me put all that crazy stuff in perspective. I like the decending keyboard thing on Its Alright Jeff is really good at that stuff” – Mike McCready

“Gotta give a shout out to Josh Evans. Hugely talented and hugely hearted individual. We couldn’t be prouder of his enormous accomplishment of getting all of us excited about the same record. Love you Josh E.” – Stone Gossard

BUCKLE UP

“I wrote the riff in Santiago Chile in my hotel before our first show in SA last time we were there.. I think. I wrote lyrics in Seattle about a year ago. It was the last song that was brought to band right at the end of making the record… fall last year. I love the simplicity of the song, Jeff Ament came in and threw wicked lyrical bass and keys on it right away and the rest is history.” – Stone Gossard

FAVORITE PEARL JAM SONG

“My favorite Mike song is Retrograde, great, great chords and delivery, so fun to play. We rehearsed and its knock out… love you Mike.” – Stone Gossard

“I love In Hiding the best of Stone’s compositions. I remember when it was a demo called Morning Song and it blew my mind.It felt like the Beatles to me. Its a masterpiece.” – Mike McCready

ABOUT POSSIBILE NEW PEARL JAM MUSIC AND LOST DOGS II

“I hope we can do something in this crazy time. I always want to be productive and drink way too much coffee to sit around. I hope we can record some more that would be fun.” – Stone Gossard 

“Gigaton is its own record. I’d love to record more music in this time of pandemic but its important that we are all taking measures to be safe. Good Idea about Lost Dogs 2 Ill bet we have the music for that.” – Mike McCready

ABOUT CAN’T DENY ME AND OF THE EARTH

“Can’t Deny Me was a single that came out when we didn’t have a record out. I think Ed feels like we haven’t gotten the best take of Of The Earth from what I remember. I hope we can get it sometime.” – Mike McCready

NEW STONE GOSSARD ALBUM WITH MASON JENNINGS COMING SOON

“I’m finishing up a record I co-wrote with Mason Jennings that is a song away from being mixed. Its called Painted Shield. Its really good. Hopefully out in a few months if we survive this crazy shit” – Stone Gossard

MIKE MCCREADY FIRST SOLO ALBUM

“I would like to do a solo record some day and have some Ideas for it. I hope it will happen in the next few years.” – Mike McCready

FAVORITE ALBUM AND SONG AND FAVORITE NEW MUSIC

“I would love to do Don’t Drag Me down by Social Distortion or Sway by the Rolling Stones. I have to believe Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main Street saved my life. those records are so beautiful to me still. Couldn’t Stand the Weather, Band of Gypsies Hendrix my dad had that album. Queen News of the World, Led Zeppelin II, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols, The Replacements – Tim, Kiss Alive is why I started playing guitar…” – Mike McCready

“I really like The Kolars right now. Cool songs great show. Jason Isbell is one of the best lyricists I’ve ever heard, I like Sturgill Simpson alot. Ill have to check out Tyler Childers. I love Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, Emmy Lou Harris, Dierks Bentley, Brad Paisley, Keith Urban, The Carter Family” – Mike McCready

FAVORITE CHRIS CORNELL FUN STORY

“Favorite Chris Cornell Story: Soundgarden recording at Litho for Down on the Upside. The month before Mike had left a human dummy called a safety man at studio while we had recorded No Code. People had been using Safety Men to cheat in the SUV lanes by having in passenger seat. Long story short. Safety man had been on the couch the whole time Soundgarden record and one day Matt Bayles arrived and was getting ready to record and as he turned around Safety man stood up and scared the shit of him… Chris has snuck in and put on all of safety mans clothes and sat there for 20 mins waiting. So funny…” – Stone Gossard

SHAWN SMITH

“Missing Shawn Smith like crazy. I wish I had some time back with him to tell him my feelings. I wish I had been better for Brad and had gotten a chance to finish more songs with him. Shawn was so in the moment with his voice, incredible. Also very fun and playful. RIP SS.” – Stone Gossard

FAVORITE OBSCURE NEIL YOUNG SONG

“I keep humming The Great Divide. It really is stuck in my head. Lets play that as a cover!” – Stone Gossard

STONE GOSSARD AND HIS BLADDER

“I don’t miss wetting the bed till I was 9 but I do miss not getting up to go pee twice a night like I did when I was 20… man… sweet 20 yearly bladder… plus all my other ailments… Mike, what’s all our ailments again?” – Stone Gossard

FAVORITE DESSERT

“My wife would say tiramisu but I’m gonna go with ice cream and cookie” – Stone Gossard

“Otter Pops! Bananas Foster” – Mike McCready

You can found all the answers here.