In a new interview with Rick Beato while discussing the formation of Pearl Jam, bassist Jeff Ament spoke a bit about how the death of his Mother Love Bone bandmate Andy Wood in 1990 nearly ended his musical career.
“That summer after Andy died was a tricky one for me, because I just quit my job right before Andy died thinking that we were going to go on tour. And I thought I waited a long time, like I was the last one to still have my job. And then I was like, ‘Now what?’ And then we still had a record to kind of promote. But, I didn’t have a job and didn’t have any way to pay rent,” Ament said.
“So I started picking up shifts at the Raison where I saw Mike Singer, and started doing odd jobs. I remember I did catering for the Paul McCartney show at the Kingdome. You know, whatever I could do.”
He continued: “And then Stone [Gossard] started playing guitar with Mike [McCready] a little bit. It was funny – I was hearing that that was happening, and Stone and I were going on these big bike rides around town with like four of our friends, and we wouldn’t talk about it at all. We’d talk a little bit about Mother Love Bone, but we weren’t talking about any of the new music.
“And I remember a couple of times saying like, ‘Yeah, I went up to Western, I might go back to school in the fall. Like, I’m not sure what I’m doing.’ And, I kept hearing that they were playing together. And Mike worked right across the street from where I lived. And right at that same time, my friend Richard in War Babies said, ‘Hey man we just fired our bass player. We have two shows and we have studio time, do you want to come play with us?’ And Richard and I would get together an hour before rehearsal and have the best time… And I kinda fell in love with playing music again.
“And right at that same time Mike said, ‘Hey man you should come jam with us.’ And he was putting that same thing into Stone’s ear at that time.”
(Transcribed by Alternative Nation)
