Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament told a funny story about meeting his bandmate Stone Gossard for the first time in a Barracuda Style interview.
The first meeting between Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard, at the time of the formation of Green River, is certainly not to be counted among the ‘best meetings ever.’
“I had already crossed it a couple of times; he used to go to a guy named Chris Peppard, and I did not know if they were under the influence of drugs or alcohol, but often they enjoyed making fun of the biggest guy they came across. Everyone at the time called me ‘Jeff Diction,’ so once Stone approached me and told me: ‘Ooh Jeff Diction, what a cool name! I’ve heard you’re coming from Montana, do you mean cows?’ Or bullshit like that, just to provoke me.
I said to Mark Arm: ‘You’d better ask this guy to leave, or something bad will happen.’ At the time I did not understand sarcasm. I could accept it from Mark and Steve Turner, because they did not make fun of others. But Stone was really trying to get you out of your mind. I remember saying to Mark: ‘I do not have the slightest intention of playing in a band with this guy.'”
