As the tragic deaths of Chris Cornell and Kurt Cobain ended Soundgarden and Nirvana respectively, Jeff Ament discussed Pearl Jam being Grunge survivors in a new Kerrang Magazine interview.
“It seems miraculous to me that we’re still doing it,” concludes Jeff. “That makes me feel really grateful. We somehow managed to stick together. We really are a band of brothers – we’ve paid attention to each other and what everybody’s going through. Everybody’s reached out a hand to one another at different times, depending on what’s been going on. There really is a depth to our relationship that exists because we’ve been doing it for so long and gone through so much stuff together. We’ve witnessed and felt things that only the five of us have felt.”
He ponders all of this again – and then, underlining the point, repeats himself.
“It really does seem miraculous.”
He also discussed the death of Chris Cornell.
“I think we’re all still trying to understand the whys and hows,” he says. “We just miss him.”
He also said, “There was just something so positive and, not to use the word over and over again, but beautiful [about those Temple of the Dog shows], it makes it even harder to think that we’ll never do it again. I feel even worse for Matt, Kim [Thayil, guitar] and Ben [Shepherd, drums], and the guys in his other bands, and that’s not to say his wife and kids. That’s almost incomprehensible.”
