{"id":659723,"date":"2026-08-27T19:01:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T19:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/659723\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T19:01:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T19:01:09","slug":"pearl-jam-interview-the-making-of-ten","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/659723\/","title":{"rendered":"Pearl Jam Interview: The Making of ‘Ten’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tStone Gossard<\/a> was 24 years old, and not ready to give up. In March 1990, Andrew Wood, the singer of Gossard\u2019s band, Mother Love Bone, died of an overdose, just weeks before they were supposed to release their major-label debut. That summer, Gossard and his bandmates, including bassist Jeff Ament<\/a>, were left mourning and adrift. Mother Love Bone had experienced the kind of instant success that made other local bands furious, signing a record deal after playing fewer than 10 shows. What were the odds of winning that lottery twice? \u201cI didn\u2019t know what was going to happen,\u201d Gossard said. \u201cBut I knew I wanted to make more demos and make more songs. I felt like I could do it again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe was, of course, correct. Within a few months of Wood\u2019s death, Gossard composed an album\u2019s worth of extraordinary songs, or at least the bones of them, minus vocal melodies and lyrics. \u201cI\u2019m pretty persistent,\u201d said Gossard, who maintained a calm, prescient certainty that he would find another worthy band, another great singer. He was encouraged by the surge of Seattle rock around him, from Mudhoney, fronted by Gossard and Ament\u2019s former Green River bandmate Mark Arm, to Soundgarden, whose next album would be Badmotorfinger. \u201cI knew there was more out there,\u201d said Gossard. \u201cAndy was special, but I knew that there were other artists and other people out there that had a completely different thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tGossard developed his new guitar riffs and arrangements in the attic of his parents\u2019 house, alongside another guitarist he started hanging out with that year. Mike McCready was a metal kid turned Stevie Ray Vaughan acolyte with a gift for the kind of fluid solos that could make him \u201canother singer in the band,\u201d as Gossard saw it. At first, though, McCready wasn\u2019t quite sure what they were supposed to be doing. \u201cStone asked me to play with him,\u201d he recalled, \u201cand after a week, we were in his parents\u2019 attic, with his dog Hillie at his feet. And I said, \u2018Dude, do you wanna play in a band together? What\u2019s going on here?\u2019 \u2018Cause Stone keeps everything close to the chest, still does. And he said, \u2018Yeah,\u2019 so I was like, \u2018OK,\u2019 and I broke up the other band I was playing in, like, the next day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n

\n\tThe music they were making was moody, turbulent and dramatic;\u00a0 it\u2019s not hard to hear Gossard\u2019s grief and confusion in it. But much of it also had an obvious swagger and drive, sometimes with grooves that hinted at funk, or at least a Jane\u2019s Addiction-like approximation of it. \u201cI like propulsion, I like rhythm,\u201d Gossard said. \u201cI wanted people jumping up and down. It can be kind of like \u2018Achilles Last Stand,\u2019 or anything moving toward that heavy, funky, grooving, chaotic thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAment and Gossard had slipped apart for a few months. \u201cHe told me he was writing some songs,\u201d said Ament, who considered going back to art school. \u201cAt that point, I just needed to not play music for a while. I felt like I had kind of used up my chances at that point.\u201d But Ament fell back in love with music after filling in on bass for another friend\u2019s band, and ended up back with Gossard for their still-unnamed new project. In a July 1990 Rolling Stone piece on the delayed release of Mother Love Bone\u2019s LP, Apple, Gossard and Ament said they recorded 12 instrumental demos and were \u201cscouting additional talent for an entirely new group.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tTo record those demos, Gossard reached out to Seattle\u2019s best drummer, Soundgarden\u2019s Matt Cameron<\/a>. \u201cI\u2019ve met him a couple of times,\u201d Gossard recalled thinking. \u201cI\u2019m presumptuous, so I\u2019m actually going to call him and see if he\u2019ll do it.\u201d Guided by huge cardboard chord charts pasted up on the walls of Reciprocal Studios in Seattle, they knocked out the songs over two weekends. \u201cI got the impression that he definitely had a pretty big picture of what this next musical endeavor was going to be,\u201d said Cameron. \u201cI felt like the music was very well-arranged and very well-focused for a potential singer. It felt like everything was parted out for vocals.\u201d In some cases, the path was laid out: The song that would become \u201cBlack\u201d (temporarily titled \u201cE Ballad\u201d) already had its wordless hook in the demo. The early version of \u201cAlive\u201d is an anomaly, since Gossard originally wrote the music in the Mother Love Bone days, and Wood had written an entirely different song to it. Titled \u201cDollar Short,\u201d its lyrics and melodies are apparently lost to history. Mother Love Bone rehearsed it and played it at least once live but never recorded it in a studio.<\/p>\n

\t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n

\n\tFormer Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Jack Irons told Gossard and Ament about a guy living in San Diego named Eddie Vedder<\/a>, who had recently made an impression on Irons and his friends, Flea among them, with his daring antics on a camping trip. \u201cThey were jumping off cliffs together on the river or something,\u201d said Gossard. \u201cHe was well thought of.\u201d Camping skills aside, Irons did also manage to mention at some point that Vedder \u201csings really good.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tVedder got his hands on the tape, labeled \u201cStone Gossard Demos,\u201d and the music on it stirred something in him. \u201cI recorded my vocals in four or five hours,\u201d Vedder said in 2009. He famously wrote most of the lyrics and melodies in his head while surfing after a couple sleepless nights. He was, at the time, working as a security supervisor at a petroleum company, while singing in bands and making four-track recordings in his home\u00a0 \u2014\u00a0 the same spot where he recorded his vocals over the demo tape. \u201cI just didn\u2019t think about it,\u201d he added. \u201cAnd it changed our lives in infinite ways. It\u2019s almost terrifying to listen to it. It gave me what\u2019s certainly the best life I\u2019ve ever lived\u00a0 \u2014\u00a0 to be able to support my kids, to be able to travel. It was the best five hours I ever spent.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe parts that Vedder laid down on \u201cAlive\u201d and \u201cOnce\u201d (plus the eventual \u201cJeremy\u201d B side, \u201cFootsteps\u201d) got eerily close to what would end up as the finished versions on Ten. There\u2019s a rock-opera narrative there \u2014 the same character is in all three songs \u2014 that\u2019s not necessarily obvious on the album. But the ingredients were all present, beginning with that singular singing voice, low, resonant and unabashedly passionate, the antidote to a decade of hard-rock singers trying to out-high-note each other. \u201cI loved his low register immediately,\u201d said Gossard. \u201cI thought, \u2018Oh, my God, this is so great. Nobody\u2019s going down there.’\u201d Vedder\u2019s elliptical tales of adolescent trauma were a perfect fit with music that blended classic-rock tropes (especially McCready\u2019s solos) with punk energy, grunge guitar tones and the groove-heavy vibe of early-Nineties alt-rock. The music on that cassette helped define the sound, style and attitudes of a generation. It made Pearl Jam<\/a> so ridiculously popular that they had to spend a decade retrenching.<\/p>\n

\n\tAll that said, Vedder didn\u2019t completely nail it on his first try. \u201cThere was one part in there that\u2019s as hysterical as anything I\u2019ve ever heard\u00a0 \u2014\u00a0 I haven\u2019t laughed so hard in years,\u201d Vedder said. He\u2019s referring to his early version of \u201cOnce,\u201d which is easily the goofiest thing he\u2019s ever recorded. The humongous chorus is intact, but the rest wavers between bizarre spoken word segments and ill-advised falsetto funk breaks. \u201cIt becomes this little audio play or something. I\u2019m fortunate that they were able to see beyond that and give me the job.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBefore Vedder actually got the gig, the other guys had to get to know him. In October 1990, the singer was able to get seven days off from his day job. He was ready to make the 1,200-mile drive from San Diego, only to be surprised and delighted to hear that Gossard and Co. would cover the cost of flying him out. \u201cI was like, \u2018Wow, OK\u2026 I don\u2019t have to pay for it?’\u201d Before he came out, Vedder completed two or three more songs over Gossard\u2019s demos, including \u201cBlack.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tVedder wanted to overcome any potential awkwardness by getting straight to work. \u201cHe called and said, \u2018I just have one request, and that\u2019s when we get there, if I can go straight from the airport to the practice place and we can play,’\u201d recalled Ament. \u201cAnd so, that was kinda our mode for the next week. We\u2019d play for three or four hours, and we go over and get a bean burrito at Mama\u2019s, and we\u2019d play until seven or eight at night, and then we\u2019d hang out and drink some wine or whatever and whatever we did, and we did that for five or six days straight, and half the time we were working on songs we already knew, and half the time we were, like, jamming.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIt was clear to everyone involved that the band was the real deal. \u201cI had never really been in a situation like that, where all five guys were fuckin\u2019 firing on all cylinders,\u201d said McCready. \u201cAnd it wasn\u2019t too thought out. I mean, we\u2019d rehearsed prior to it, but when it happened, it was like, \u2018OK.\u2019 I felt like we could fuckin\u2019 take on some other bands. I was like, \u2018We\u2019re fuckin\u2019 great!’\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOn drums was another newcomer, Dave Krusen<\/a>, who grew up half an hour away from Seattle, bashing out on prog-rock in his basement; the Police\u2019s Stewart Copeland was a musical role model. Shortly before Vedder\u2019s arrival, Krusen heard that the former members of Mother Love Bone needed a drummer. He called up Ament and had a successful jam session. \u201cIt was right in the mode of the stuff that I loved to play,\u201d says Krusen, who developed the highly syncopated style he used on Ten simply by following Ament\u2019s parts. The bassist eventually gave him a James Brown live album for Christmas and suggested he study it. Struggling with a drinking problem, Krusen would play on all of Ten and then immediately be pushed out of the band.\u00a0 \u201cHe was pretty out of control,\u201d said Gossard. But his former bandmates still love his playing, and reunited with him for their 2017 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. \u201cDave Krusen was a real hero,\u201d said Vedder. \u201cHe was really, really a great drummer. He had a great flow and a great style.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tPearl Jam\u2019s original lineup, who were about to christen themselves Mookie Blaylock, jammed for five or six days and came away with most of Ten ready to go, as a 10-song rough demo they knocked out at the end of that week demonstrates. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t an audition,\u201d said Vedder. \u201cIt was just an art project.\u201d By January 1991, he had relocated permanently to Seattle, and the band went into the studio to record pro-level demos of several songs. One of them, \u201cAlive,\u201d ended up as the version on their finished album, despite attempts to re-record it. \u201cWe tried to do it and it was just like, \u2018This is cool, but this one just has an urgency to it,’\u201d said Krusen. \u201cThe fact that it isn\u2019t as clean-sounding\u00a0 \u2014\u00a0 and it\u2019s not as \u2018good\u2019 sounding\u00a0 \u2014\u00a0 just worked for that track, in the context of the lyrics and all that. We had to capture a feeling, and that was more important than the sound quality of the recording.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen Pearl Jam entered Seattle\u2019s London Bridge Studios in March to begin recording in earnest for the album, the band was well-rehearsed, especially after playing a bunch of live dates opening for Alice in Chains. The producer was Rick Parashar, whom they\u2019d met on the Temple of the Dog album. But some of the musicians describe Parashar as more of an engineer than a producer. \u201cStone and Jeff were really doing the producing,\u201d says Krusen. \u201cAnd that\u2019s how they got the sounds they did. Rick was more of a sounding board, and a great engineer.\u201d Krusen\u2019s first child was born just as they started recording, and he \u201cwas drinking every day\u201d during the sessions. Considering all that, he plays remarkably well. \u201cI learned to play on various substances,\u201d he shrugs, though he regrets some of his performances.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt was more difficult than making Temple of the Dog,\u201d said Gossard. \u201cThat\u2019s what I remember thinking. We overthought it. You can get really bogged down as a young band in the process of recording.\u201d Eventually, tensions grew between the band and Parashar (who died in 2014). \u201cIt felt dysfunctional,\u201d Gossard added. \u201cWe didn\u2019t know where we wanted to go and that\u2019s where it broke down, so communication got bad, and it just went south.\u201d Nailing \u201cEven Flow\u201d was the hardest part, with Vedder recalling them recording it 70 times or more. Krusen partially blames himself. \u201cThat song has a giant edit in the middle of it because I just had a hard time tracking it. I don\u2019t know why.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tVedder was apparently unaware of his bandmates\u2019 worries and tensions during the sessions.\u00a0 Unlike Gossard and Ament, he had never made a professional album before, except for his contribution to \u201cHunger Strike.\u201d \u201cI\u2019m glad I didn\u2019t hear that then,\u201d Vedder said, \u201cbecause they had made records, and I thought they knew what they were doing! And I thought that this was my first chance to make a real record, and to be honest, I was pretty damn focused on the job at hand. I was in a new town and I was in a new whatever, so that replaced my friends and family, that batch of songs and writing. It was a big deal to be able to make a real record.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen it came time for vocal overdubs, Parashar needed a break and brought in engineer Don Gilmore, who would later become a producer for Linkin Park and others. Gilmore recalls Vedder actually living in the recording studio, sleeping on a couch. \u201cHe had pictures, and artwork\u00a0 \u2014\u00a0 kind of like an insane person\u00a0 \u2014\u00a0 put up all over the studio,\u201d Gilmore says with a laugh. The studio\u2019s security system required Vedder to be locked in at night, but he didn\u2019t mind. \u201cEddie wanted to redo stuff and redo stuff and redo stuff,\u201d adds Gilmore. \u201cHe really wanted to get things right. So I come in in the morning, I unlock the door, and Eddie would come out and he\u2019d be drawing and doing things and having coffee, and he\u2019s like, \u2018Yep, let\u2019s do it.\u2019 So we\u2019d get in there and would just work all day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tVedder was revising lyrics, and also trying to get the vocal takes up to his standards, which were already quite high. \u201cHe had complete command over what he was doing,\u201d says Gilmore. \u201cEddie just was in search of perfection, not unlike a lot of big artists. . . . He was sort of internally producing himself and directing himself. He had an idea of what he wanted, and nobody was going to tell him it would be a different way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tEngineer Tim Goldstone mixed the album in the English countryside, with the band hanging out in the pastoral setting of Ridge Farm Studio, where the Smiths had recorded Meat Is Murder. It was mostly relaxed. Between some minor overdubs, most of the band played tennis, and McCready recalls \u201csmoking a bunch of hash\u201d and listening to a couple of Pink Floyd albums that Ament suggested. But Vedder remembered at least one battle: He had to fight off an effort to cut 45 seconds out of \u201cBlack,\u201d including the part where he sings, \u201cI know someday you\u2019ll have a beautiful life.\u201d \u201cThat\u2019s almost the peak of the song there,\u201d said Vedder, still a little peeved, \u201cand it almost got lost.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n

\n\tAt some point in the process, the band is convinced something went wrong. The guitars and drums float inside stadium-size digital reverb that now sounds more Eighties than Nineties, which they tried to rectify with a tougher-sounding 2009 remix by Brendan O\u2019Brien. In general, the members of Pearl Jam are more critical of Ten than most of their fans. \u201cFrom a musical point of view, it still seems kind of unrealized,\u201d said Gossard. \u201cBut that just shows I can\u2019t hear it.\u201d Still, he loves playing the songs live: \u201cThe way we inhabit the songs and what they mean to all of us now is incredible, in terms of what they mean to the crowd\u00a0 \u2014\u00a0 and how long ago they were written and how they still reveal new things.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the end, Ten is the sound of a band settling in for what they already knew would be a long, long ride. \u201cWe would always think, \u2018What\u2019s the third record going to be, what\u2019s the fourth record going to be like?’\u201d said Vedder. \u201cWe were really wanting to figure it out, knowing it was somehow going to get better. And we weren\u2019t going to stop trying.\u201d<\/p>\n

[This story was originally published in print in 2017. Interviews with the band members were conducted in 2009, with additional interviews in 2017.]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stone Gossard was 24 years old, and not ready to give up. In March 1990, Andrew Wood, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":659724,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[268],"tags":[434,278765,15387,18,117,19,17,278766,52592,15386,278767],"class_list":["post-659723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-dave-krusen","tag-eddie-vedder","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-jeff-ament","tag-matt-cameron","tag-pearl-jam","tag-stone-gossard"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117169021650080561","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=659723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/659724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=659723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=659723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=659723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}