Dave Abbruzzese says he’s been portrayed as VILLAIN after his FIRING from Pearl Jam.
“I still find it hilarious that I have to talk about this but I do, because it seems, as the years pass, the story changes and I become kind of a villain in it. Almost as if it is another reason I was unceremoniously fired by the band, and my contributions and hard work discredited.
So, I’m going to lay it down as it is, as it was, and as it always will be.
The Glorified G song by Pearl Jam.
I went up to Mount Rainier with my dear friend Jon Anderson. We were going camping so I decided to buy a .22 caliber long rifle for protection. When I returned from camping, I mentioned an off comment to Kelly Curtis, the band’s manager at the time, that I went camping and he said I’ve got to be safe, etc… and I said not to worry, that I was safe and I had even bought a gun for protection up there just in case there were any animals or whatever… When I showed up at the next rehearsal, I was getting the cold shoulder which was often the case with the band for whatever reason. This is how how things kind of went.
Then it came up. Jeff said, “So, I heard you bought a gun.”. Everyone gave me a condescending look, and I said, Yeah, I got a gun, in fact I bought two.” …and I laughed and it started this discussion about guns and gun ownership and I said, “Man, I just bought a .22, it’s a glorified version of a pellet gun…it’s no big deal.” …and then we had a conversation where Jeff mentioned that his dad said if you’re going to have a gun you got to always keep it loaded, and it just became that kind of a topical conversation between all of us. Eddie, while we were having this conversation, was jotting down notes and the conversation with added embellishments turned into the lyric for a guitar riff Mike had been playing. That’s the story. That’s it. No big whoop, and I still maintain that buying a .22 caliber rifle and taking it with you camping for protection or actually buying two of them one for each tent when you’re up in the mountains is not a bad idea when you’re interested in a safe camping trip. So, there you have it.
Do I believe in AR-15s and military assault rifles and all these sorts of things being available to the public is a good or necessary thing? No, I never have and I never will. I don’t understand why people need such military grade weapons, but as far as being able to have the right to purchase a .22 caliber gun or a BB gun or a handgun or whatever that is a constitutional right.
I also believe that guns don’t kill people, people kill people. That being the case there ought to be stricter ownership laws in place.
So, there’s the story. That’s what it is. Some oversensitive blah blah blah and overtime it’s turned into that Eddie wrote the song as a dig on me and blah blah blah blah blah and I don’t really give a f***, but I am tired of feeling like I need to defend myself against something like this.
Something so trivial and stupid.”
