Mike McCready

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

McCready's path to Pearl Jam began after the death of Andrew Wood and the demise of Mother Love Bone. Gossard started practicing with McCready, whose band Shadow had broken up. McCready then encouraged Gossard to reconnect with Ament. After practicing for a while, the trio sent out a five-song demo tape to find a singer and a drummer. That demo eventually reached Eddie Vedder, who recorded vocals for three songs—"Alive", "Once", and "Footsteps"—in what he called a "mini-opera" titled Mamasan. McCready later reflected that "Ten was mostly Stone and Jeff; Eddie and I were along for the ride at that time."

In Their Own Story

In March 1991, Pearl Jam entered Seattle's London Bridge Studios to record Ten. McCready was part of the lineup that included drummer Dave Krusen, who left in May 1991 after checking himself into rehabilitation for alcoholism. Krusen was replaced by Matt Chamberlain, who after only a handful of shows left for Saturday Night Live, suggesting Dave Abbruzzese as his replacement. Through these early changes, McCready remained a constant, playing on the album that would produce hit singles "Alive", "Even Flow", and "Jeremy". The song "Jeremy" and its video were inspired by a true story of a high school student who shot himself in front of his classmates.

Reader's Guide

Mike McCready has been a guitarist in Pearl Jam since the band's formation in 1990. He played on the debut album Ten (1991), which stayed on the US Billboard 200 chart for nearly five years and went 13× platinum. He also played on the second album Vs. (1993), which sold over 950,378 copies in its first week, setting a record at the time. The third album Vitalogy (1994) became the second-fastest-selling CD in history, with more than 877,000 units sold in its first week. Pearl Jam was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017 in its first year of eligibility. The band had sold more than 100 million albums worldwide by 2012.

Did You Know?

• Mike McCready's previous band, Shadow, had broken up before he started practicing with Stone Gossard.
• McCready said that 'Ten was mostly Stone and Jeff; Eddie and I were along for the ride at that time.'
• Pearl Jam was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017 in its first year of eligibility.
• The band's debut album Ten stayed on the US Billboard 200 chart for nearly five years.
• Pearl Jam had sold more than 100 million albums worldwide by 2012.