Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament praised Dave Abbruzzese’s performance on “Tremor Christ” in a new Songfacts interview.
“That was another one where Stone had that insistent verse part. It was like a chord that has a blue note. We were at Kingsway in New Orleans at Daniel Lanois’ studio with Brendan [producer Brendan O’Brien]. I remember that song came together super quickly. That song, “Last Exit,” and I think “Nothingman” got recorded in that session.
Both “Tremor Christ” and “Last Exit” started with Stone playing a couple of chords. And Dave Abbruzzese plays a great drumbeat on that song. The bass is really free – it’s sort of moving all over the place, moving around Ed’s vocal.
That’s the beauty of writing a song in the room with the band: We were all influencing each other in how we were playing. That’s a good memory. Those three songs are really great-sounding tracks. We made pretty good music in New Orleans.”
Abbruzzese has had his differences with his ex-Pearl Jam bandmates since he was fired in 1994, and later snubbed from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017, despite touring Ten and playing on Vs. and Vitalogy during Pearl Jam’s commercial peak in the 90’s.
