Pearl Jam/Temple of the Dog members Jeff Ament and Mike McCready revealed in a new interview with Rolling Stone that Chris Cornell took out Eddie Vedder for beers to help initiate him into the Seattle Grunge scene.
Ament: My memory is that Ed was just sitting in the corner of the room, writing and drawing in his journal, and keeping himself busy. I think we did those Temple sessions after we did Pearl Jam sessions. Then there was a vocal part of “Hunger Strike” where Chris was trying to jam in a lot of vocal, just the way the verse lays over the chorus. I think Ed just walked up to the mic and sang the other part at one point. Chris just said, “Well, why don’t you just sing that part?”
McCready: Ed was from San Diego and he felt very intimidated in Seattle. Chris really welcomed him. Ed was super, super shy. Chris took him out for beers and told him stories. He was like, “Hey, welcome to Seattle. I love Jeff and Stone. I give you my blessing.” From then on he was more relaxed. It was one of the coolest things I saw Chris do.
Ament: We had our own little incestuous scene, but we were really cynical about what was going on in the rest of the world. We had no idea if the songs would be heard on a big level. But after what happened with Andy, we just didn’t have the tools to deal with it. My mom and dad were a thousand miles away. I didn’t have anyone around that I was used to talking about that stuff with. Making that record really helped that process. It helped us come to terms with losing a friend.
