Mad Season’s surviving members Mike McCready and Barrett Martin reunited with Duff McKagan, who has joined them for reunion sets in place of late bassist John Baker Saunders, in Seattle on Thursday night at the Showbox to celebrate McCready receiving the Stevie Ray Vaughan Award from MusiCares. The band performed “River of Deceit” with Star Anna on lead vocals.
Mad Season reunited in 2015 for a huge show with Chris Cornell at the Benayoya Hall. Cornell was filling in for his late friend Layne Staley. The show was later released as a live album. Cornell sadly died himself in 2017.
Cornell told The Pulse Of Radio in 2015 how he felt about the experience of singing with Mad Season. “Once I was onstage and we were doing it, then it kind of hit me that I’m standing up there with these guys, all of which I’ve known for years and years, and I’ve been good friends with, but I’ve never been on a stage with them like that,” he said. “And it was pretty great, it was pretty moving. Unfortunately, I always have so many things going on that, you know, it doesn’t seem like something that would happen anytime in the near future. But it definitely was an amazing moment.”
He also said of the performance in another 2015 interview, “It was kind of a shock to be standing there…I was trying to remember the songs and trying to sing them well and sort of do right by the history of it, and once I was on stage and we were doing it, then it kind of hit me, I’m standing here with these guys, all of which I’ve known for years and years and been friends with but had never been on stage with them like that. It was pretty great. It was pretty moving.”
