Matt Cameron discussed Eddie Vedder asking him to join Pearl Jam in a new Rick Beato interview. Cameron joined Pearl Jam to replace drummer Jack Irons in 1998 for the Yield tour just one year after Soundgarden’s 1997 breakup.
“Man it was intense, that’s that’s so difficult right, intense, it’s like after I got off the phone with Eddie and I agreed to do this upcoming tour I hung up the phone, and just like oh my god what have I just agreed to? Just one of those moments of like okay, I gotta get to work.
Not much of it was out of my wheelhouse right as far as how I approach playing in rock bands, and and I’ve known those guys forever, so it was actually a pretty easy transition, personally and professionally and everything, but I think I was still really – the dust hadn’t settled for me with losing Soundgarden.
I think i’ve just been the kind of musician that I just go full throttle, like I just always am moving forward, and I think that’s just how I’ll always be the transition, it was tricky just for me just because it’s like going through divorce or something like that.”
