Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament had high praise for the band’s former drummer Dave Abbruzzese in a new interview on the New Angle podcast, calling him one of the ten best drummers in Seattle history. Abbruzzese had tension with Pearl Jam last year over his exclusion from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
“Pretty much every band that I’ve been in the drummer has been the best or one of the two best musicians. Being a bass player who has to be lock step with the drummer, I’ve been so lucky. Just from being in the same room with these guys for 30 years, I’ve become a pretty solid bass player. I’ve played with Matt Cameron, who is clearly one of the greatest drummers of all time, Dave Abbruzzese, Greg Gilmore, Alex [Vincent], and Sergio [Avenia], you make a list of the ten best drummers in Seattle history and I played with four of them, I’m lucky.”
He also discussed learning how to write songs.
“Well, when I started, I was in a punk rock band here in town called Deranged Diction. The first singer in that band was named John Donahue, he was a California kid, we started off playing covers. We were playing covers for 3 or 4 months, and he’s like, ‘You guys know, this is nowhere.’ We’re like, ‘What are you talking about?’
He’s like, ‘We’ve got to write songs.’ I remember the rehearsal, we were downtown off of main street in the basement of this place called Urban Renewal. I remember going: ‘How do you write a song?’ I had just been sort of copying the bands that I loved and the bass players I loved, I had just been playing along to records. I remember John said, ‘Well just pick out the two or three songs you love the most, and borrow.'”
