Since leaving The Red Hot Chili Peppers in 2019 when John Frusciante returned to the fold, Josh Klinghoffer has stayed busy with his solo music as Pluralone and touring gigs with Jane’s Addiction and Pearl Jam.

His departure wasn’t easy for him to stomach – at the time he told the band, “I wish I could have done something with you guys, musically or creatively, that would have made this an absolute impossibility.”

Reflecting on the Chili Peppers’ tendency to bury the music from his era, Klinghoffer tells Guitar World: “All of that makes sense to me, but I guess it’s strange for people that connected to some of that stuff. It’s almost like it disappears; it doesn’t have a chance to live.”

Klinghoffer’s upcoming Pluralone offering, A Drop in the Ocean, has a far better chance of life. “I don’t know how many people I reach with this music,” he says, “but the fact that I’ve made enough connections, and a few people like it – I couldn’t be more grateful.”

In 2022, Klinghoffer told Guitar World that his time with the Peppers had been “enormously stifling creatively.” He’s not in that space anymore: “I’m always writing. I have like a year's worth of ideas that I could be developing.

“But it takes quite a while to have a cohesive and finished song with lyrics. The lyrics are the real work; I could come up with compositions all day long. They just appear every time I pick up a guitar.”

Now, he’s over the Chilis trauma, and the devastation of a 2024 motor accident in which a pedestrian was killed, and he's enthusiastic about what’s to come. “I’m just so grateful that I have the opportunity to make records and put them out.”

Did the 2024 traumatic accident factor into your recent creativity?

I guess everything’s always affecting everything. But I started recording a lot of this stuff in 2022, though I finished off some lyrics recently. It was shelved while I was touring with Pearl Jam; 2025 was when I finally had a chance to finish. So I’d say none of the recent traumas have affected or influenced the writing too much.

Did the accident push you to pick things back up and wash some of the negativity away?

Mostly the reason for not being able to work and finish was the touring and being busy. I’m always sort of dealing with a lot, so there was nothing too new, or more, on my plate.

How has working with Pearl Jam impacted your approach to guitar?

I’ve always cited Stone Gossard as the reason I picked up guitar in the first place. Being able to have a front row seat to his playing has been amazing. Not that I’ve styled myself after his playing, but when I was starting, some of the songs of his I learned in standard tunings, then I figured out that they were in different tunings. So I’ve messed around with his tunings a bit.

How about Mike McCready?

I’m on the same side of the stage as Mike. I think of him as one of the best, most fluid soloists in the world. I just love watching him rip into something. I’m surrounded by great guitar playing. Eddie Vedder has an amazing right hand. Being around those guys is inspirational and influential.

How does your rig change between Pearl Jam and your own music?

It’s changed a lot. On the most recent Pearl Jam tour there was a movement to reduce stage volume a bit, and since I’m in the back on a riser, I was just using a Fender Tone Master Plus. And there’s an array of guitars, but what I have at home is completely different.

I’m not the lead guitarist anymore, so I don’t have to bring my best, you know? I still bring great guitars, but my Strat and my Chili Peppers guitars are the ones that I leave at home.

Has moving away from your usual lead guitar position changed your perspective?

It’s like night and day when you go from being the only guitar player to being one of four, and trying to fit in. It could just be atmospheric, but when there’s so much already, you’re really trying to work as a team.

There’s so much sound going on, so it’s a great chance to exercise restraint, and really listen and fit in. In the Chili Peppers you were free to move and any sound you made was part of a whole thing. So it’s a cool shift.

Did you write the songs for A Drop in the Ocean on guitar?

It was primarily on guitar – and that was because I hadn’t done a collection of songs like that in a while, you know? I’d spent a lot of time writing on piano, programming drumbeats, and having an electric guitar along with that.

The album is primarily acoustic.

I really wanted to make an acoustic album. This one is more fingerpicked and acoustic-based. I don’t have a set way of doing something; whatever I happen to be playing at the time is where an idea can come from. But this album was definitely consciously acoustic-based.

Is there a particular acoustic you used most often?

A lot of it is my 1947 Martin that I bought in 2000. It was the first nice guitar I ever bought when I got some money from playing with The Bicycle Thief. We got a little cash in New York City, and I went straight to the guitar shop and bought this Martin.

I used that all over the album and a couple of other great acoustics, like a beautiful Epiphone Texan, which is a very Beatles-influenced purchase. And I have a beautiful Martin D-28, and an amazing Martin made from koa wood.

The effects seem to be minimal throughout, with a focus on clean, sparse electric tones.

Yeah – I tried to keep the effects to a minimum and go cleaner. I treated my electric guitar once or twice with a modular synthesizer, but most of the electric guitars are clean, with maybe a bit of reverb in the mix. I used my Fender Tweed Deluxe and my Vox AC30.

I also used an Epiphone Casino, and there’s a Strat used, but not exclusively. I think I also used a Jazzmaster. But there’s not a whole lot of electric guitar.

Actually, I have a pair of ‘60s Strats that have both been refinished that live in my studio. They’re both funny colors. One is Cimarron red; when I bought it, they were trying to say it’s an actual Fender refin, but I don’t know if that’s true. Fender rarely used that color; it’s almost like a deep plum color.

Then there’s a guitar I bought on the last Pearl Jam tour in Minneapolis. It’s a ’63 Strat that’s been really crudely refin’d. It was allegedly owned by Tommy Stinson from The Replacements – I thought that was cool, so I bought it.

A couple of years back you filled in for Dave Navarro with Jane’s Addiction. What was that like?

It was amazing! They’ve always been one of my favorite bands. I became good friends with Eric Avery over the last 15 years, and when he rejoined – which was big news to begin with – Dave was struggling with his health and was unable to do it.

So Eric was in and Dave wasn’t, and it was like, ‘What are they gonna do?’ I was touring with Pearl Jam, so Troy Van Leeuwen did a leg of a tour, and there were bits where I’d visit and sit in. I played with them a few times.

It was just amazing to be around that music. I thought they didn’t have it in them to sound as powerful, but it was a really special thing. There was a huge shift between Eric and Perry Farrel – they were really connecting. It was beautiful.

That surprised a lot of people.

I was blown away. And then when Troy was unavailable in 2023, I was. So without any tryouts I just stepped in, and it was great.

Were Dave’s parts tough to cop?

Basically, the entire time I’ve known how to play guitar, I’ve known those songs. But I had to work out some of the solos, like Three Days, to play them exactly the way they are on the records. Dave changed a little bit live sometimes, but he basically sticks to the beautiful, melodic thing he wrote.

So I tried to do that too. It wouldn’t feel right otherwise. It was a really special challenge to do that stuff. I feel like I got it most, or at least some, of the time. Every night was a fun experiment of recreating these beautiful recordings I grew up with.

Some Chili Peppers fans prefer the music you and Dave made with them to the albums they made with John – who you both replaced and were then replaced by. Does it bother you that those records are ignored by the band?

Not really. But I appreciate you saying that. It’s a funny thing. I guess it’s particular to the way John views the band when he’s not in it, and it makes sense to me. They have enough music that they don’t need to look to some of the other records.

But for anyone who connected with those albums, like One Hot Minute, or the two I made with them [I’m With You and The Getaway]… I imagine it’s a little weird for me to be banished from the catalog and the live performance.

Why do you think that’s the case?

I guess it’s just something unique to that band, you know? Having such a revolving door there, and such a strong presence in John. He’s kind of the preeminent guitar player, you know? He’s the one who made the work with them where they experienced their global fame.

Have you listened to the albums they’ve have made since John returned?

I listened to their new stuff one time when it first came out. I made some comments in South America that people didn’t like – but I don’t think I said anything shocking. I just said that I thought that what I was working on with them was cooler! But I don’t really keep up so much.

It seems like whenever the Chili Peppers explore new territory, they return to a specific type of sound with John.

Yeah – they have their thing, their formula. I guess it’s so much more definitive to the main amount of Chili Pepper fans; you know, that’s just what the Chili Peppers are. It’s probably a testament to them that they can step out of that and do a good record with Dave Navarro. I like that record too.

The records that we made together… The only thing I would say – and I don’t know if it’s spoken or unspoken – is that there’s a little bit of a slight disrespect to the records that aren’t the John records. Once John’s back in the picture, it’s like the other records don’t exist.

That’s the only weird thing to me, because those records were important at the time, you know? They were important enough to go and play them around the world.

Recently you’ve been working a lot with Andrew Watt within his stable of studio musicians, and ended up on a lot of records.

Andrew is younger than me, but he grew up liking a lot of the same bands as me, so we have a kinship. He’s a real fan of live recording; all the records I’ve made with him rely on being in close proximity, and that’s been great.

There’s been sessions with Andrew where I’ve been closer to Chad Smith than I was when I was in the Chili Peppers! It’s an amazing experience recording at Andrew’s studio – which, sadly, I don’t really get to do on my solo stuff.

How has working with Andrew impacted your growth?

It’s the best thing in the world to figure out your part and how to best accomplish it. And he works really fast, which I like, so it feels very vibrant and creative. He’s very open to input; it’s just a very healthy and creative environment. And it’s shocking how successful he’s been!

But his methods are the way it should be: just people playing music together, you know? In this day and age there’s been certain changes in the music business. But Andrew has been able to create a very vibrant and creative system, and it’s always fun.

What’s next?

I have another album I’m finishing now. Hopefully it’ll be out this year, but if not, it’ll be early next year. It’s another group of songs I’d worked on in 2022 and 2023, so it’s that era of songwriting, but this next group isn’t acoustic.

• A Drop in the Ocean is released on June 12.

When Stone Gossard heard Tigercub’s second album, As Blue as Indigo, he was so infatuated that he used the Pearl Jam Twitter account to ask the band to sign to his label, Loosegrove Records.

“It’s the sort of thing you dream about as a kid – you go to a gig, and the guitarist points you out and goes, ‘Come up here!’” says Jamie Hall. “It was a big move to do that so publicly, and it’s very nourishing to have the respect of your peers. We were never gonna say no!”

Welcoming the British alt-rock trio into the Loosegroove family was a coup for Gossard, who sees Hall as a generational talent. “I’d put his riffs up against anyone in rock today,” he gushes. “He’s as good as Homme or Morello, and he can frickin’ sing and play them at the same time. Insane.”

That’s high praise from a man who penned some of the most defining riffs of the ’90s – and, indeed, signed Queens of the Stone Age for their 1998 debut. Now, with Tigercub’s fourth album, Nets to Catch the Wind – their second on Loosegroove – Hall is laser-focused on living up to that praise.

“It’s pretty scary,” he says. “I’ve been compared to seminal players and it's my responsibility to repay that compliment. I don't want to fall short and make Stone look like an idiot!”

How involved was Stone in the making of the record?

He was very hands-on, like a mentor or creative director. He helped me look outside of the framework I’m comfortable with. He was telling me about the time they made Mirror Ball with Neil Young. I’m the Ocean, the lead single, was one take, live in the room. I would never do that in a million fucking years!

If he had his way we'd have done the whole record in a day. But I didn't feel like Tigercub had earned the right to do that yet. Coming off the back of Perfume of Decay [2023], where everything was controlled, he helped invert that idea and let the band playing together in a room be the take.

If you make a mistake, but the vibe of the take was really good, that’s more valuable than something that’s neat and tidy. I think Pearl Jam recorded Even Flow like 70 times live, without a click. I hadn’t even questioned the click!

So he pushed for a rawer sound?

One thing we learned from Stone was that if you play as close to live as possible and put as little processing in the way of what you're doing, it’s easier to sound like yourself.

Nets to Catch the Wind was recorded live with a WEM Dominator combo, Hiwatt Custom 50, or a Peavey Bandit paired with a JCM800, and a Korg SDD-3000 delay pedal. The rest was all tone and volume control, fingers on the strings, and using different plectrums. There’s more room to project your personality onto a more basic setup.

Cave divers go to huge depths, and if they don't have their oxygen levels diluted with another other gas, they get punch drunk and don't know which way is up. Having too much gear can have the same effect – just without life-threatening consequences!

What guitars did you record with?

I’ve got a Chapman of every flavor. My main guitar was the ML3 BEA Rabea Massaad signature baritone. Rabea's film studio is next door to our locker, and when he made the switch to Music Man, I got a text one day like, “I’ve got all this stuff. What do you want?”

Experiencing drop C and lower on a longer scale was eye-opening. The strings are like fucking train tracks, so it was a bit of a learning curve, and playing with a wound G meant bluesy guitar solos were off the menu. I ended up doing more John McGeoch or The Edge-type stuff. But it’s got a real throaty, midrange quality to it.

The stock ML3s with single coils are really good. I’ve got two with maple necks. The black one was a rental; it was the local bike and a bit knackered, but it’s got this lovely chimey, upper-harmonic character in standard. My tobacco one is great for the Tom Morello drop C stuff; it never fails me.

For the drop-tuned stuff, I also used an ML1X Strat; it works really well in the out-of-phase position. If you roll the volume knob off to seven, the gain goes down, but it gets brighter – it could take the fucking enamel off your teeth. I use it for high, soaring arena stuff.

I mostly soloed on a standard-scale Lawmaker. And they all went into various overdrive pedals to push the front end of the amps, which were all screaming.

You teased a signature Chapman a couple of years back; what happened?

It’s not in the works anymore. I’d customized my black ML3 with gothic decals that represented the Perfume of Decay album art, and I threw a hot rail pickup in there so it could cover a little more ground, so I wouldn’t need as many guitar changes. Rob wanted to put that version on sale.

I used a bespoke company called Burnt Axe for the etchings, but we got ghosted, and that prolonged things to the point that there was a change in the structure of the business. So for the minute, that’s on hiatus.

Tell me more about those amp combos.

I created my own kind of Jenga mishmash of amps. We bought an old Peavey Bandit, which was loads of fun for ’80s metal. The WEM has an old Fane speaker, so it’s really midrangey. It sounds quite restricted on its own, but it plugs a gap when it’s coupled with a JCM800. I can’t move away from Marshalls – I think they sound best when everything’s on 10, and I let the guitar controls determine what happens next.

There was an old Fender Twin at Rockfield Studios that everyone’s played through; it’s a rite of passage to use that. But between the Hiwatt, the WEM and the Marshall, you’ve pretty much got every base covered.

What other gear are you loving?

We toured with Eyehategod in America, and Jimmy Bower used an Ampeg SS-150 with two Mesa/Boogie cabs. It was the most punishing live tone I’ve ever heard. I had to get one. It’s really great for the sludgy stuff.

What makes a great Tigercub riff?

Most of them have some form of chromaticism. They live on their own, outside of the key of the song, so the only relationship the riff has to the key of the song is the first note. The rest is just corkscrewing dramatic stuff.

Mickie Most used to look at songs as mini films with a cinematic quality. It’s nice to play with people’s expectations.

• Nets to Catch the Wind is out now via Loosegroove Records.

Seattle in the ’90s has reached mythological status. A time when the world focused its collective attention on a tiny scene of bands that had nothing in common other than a love of distortion, riffs and authenticity.

It gave birth to household names – chiefly the ‘big four’ of grunge: Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains and Soundgarden – but it also snuffed out the candle for some of its most iconic musicians.

Drugs and depression were an undercurrent that swept through the city like the Duwamish River. Kurt Cobain, Andy Wood, Layne Staley were all claimed by addiction. Chris Cornell and Mark Lanegan left longer legacies, but were still taken too soon.

For Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready, they were friends and bandmates. People he misses dearly. And the grief hit him all over again during the Covid lockdown.

“I was sitting around thinking about the singers that had died in our scene,” he tells me from his studio over Zoom. “I’ve had dreams about some of them and they haunt me sometimes. I was thinking, ‘Was it worth it for all these guys and women?’”

He didn’t know how to answer that question. He sought solace the only way he knew how: through art. Writing it all down seemed the best place to start.

“I could only write what I know. But I wanted to do it in the context of a historical fiction of the Seattle music scene. And I wanted to change the names and create its own world within it.”

McCready’s name is intertwined more than most. He got his first break when Cornell invited him to play on Temple of the Dog, the Soundgarden frontman’s tribute to his departed friend and roommate Andy Wood. Pearl Jam formed at the same time. A later stint in rehab sparked Mad Season, his part side-project, part therapy with Layne Staley and Mark Lanegan.

This new project, however, was outside his comfort zone, so he sought advice from friend, director and lifelong Pearl Jam fan Cameron Crowe. He was convinced: this could be a rock opera.

But not just yet. A stage show is still on the cards, but Farewell to Seasons is releasing first as a graphic novel that tells the story of Seattle through four fictional bands.

It’s packaged with a soundtrack album that features all-new songs from McCready, who is also singing for the first time, alongside a band of Seattle music vets including Duff McKagan, Dave Matthews bassist Stefan Lessard, Fastbacks drummer Mike Mussburger, Chris Friel, Nate Yaccino and Thunderpussy’s Molly Sides.

While it was challenging on both practical and emotional levels, McCready ultimately found the project cathartic. In a candid interview, he revisits his favorite musical eureka moments, the Seattle guitarists who most inspired him, and just what’s next for Pearl Jam.

You said you’re haunted by these ghosts. It must have been challenging to dig into the history of the Seattle scene and your part in it, given how many friends and fellow musicians you’ve lost along the way.

It was. It’s hard to think about the whole scene and how young and naive everyone was, and how much this explosion happened in this relatively provincial small city of Seattle, Washington, where everybody knew each other.

I was playing in a band prior to all that called Shadow, and I wanted to put that in the story as well. That’s one of the bands that’s actually named after the real band.

I felt like we never really got the props that we should have over the years, because we were 16 and playing all around the Northwest and doing shows. We broke up when everything started happening. I spent my 10,000 hours with that band, and I’m very proud of that era.

But later, getting to play with Layne or Chris or Lanegan, all these incredible singers, and now they’re gone. Kurt, for that matter – I didn’t know him at all really, other than him being an incredible singer-songwriter. Even Hendrix. What would they be doing now? Would they be blues artists? Would they be painters? That’s what haunts me to this day.

You moved to L.A. with Shadow to try and make it. When did you realize it hadn’t panned out?

About a year in, I got really sick with Crohn’s. We played a bunch of shows down there. Rick Friel, our bass player at the time, booked all the shows and made it all happen. We opened up for Andy Taylor. I got to see some cool stuff – I saw Jane’s Addiction at a club; I saw the Welcome to the Jungle video shoot.

The reason we moved down there was that Duff McKagan stopped by the Shadow house in ’84, and said he was moving to Los Angeles. And we were like, “There’s something to that.” And then a year later, they put out that EP [Live ?!★꩜ Like a Suicide].

It was a year of me working at Aaron’s Records, drinking too much, getting Crohn’s, going, “I can’t do this anymore.” So I moved back and I gave up. I quit playing music for two years from ’88, ’89. I was done. And then I got a call out of the blue from Stone.

What do you remember about that moment when you first played together with Stone? That must have been pivotal for you as a guitar player, to come back to the instrument after almost giving up.

When I got the call from Stone, I was working at a pizza place and I had given up. I was depressed and probably drinking too much. I was at my friend Tim DiJulio’s house, playing to a Stevie Ray Vaughan record – so I was still playing a little bit. And [Stone] saw that – I remember him walking in when Love Bone was still happening. But I had known him since seventh grade – Seattle was very small in the ’80s and in the early ’90s before it blew up. We all knew each other, we all went to the same parties.

When we started playing together, selfishly, I was like, “’Okay, this seems to be my door. I better walk through it.” I always think of this Paul Westerberg quote: “Opportunity knocks once and the door slams shut.” After me going through LA and not making it and being depressed, all of a sudden this thing happens when I’m not looking for it. And out of a death – Andy Wood dies. That was an interesting musical paradox early on for me.

It was exciting. It was new. Who knew what was going to happen? But I felt like we connected first through humor. And then, he just had a ton of riffs and when we started playing, I wanted to do something opposite of what he was doing. Kind of like Aerosmith did stuff – early Aerosmith was in my mind back then – and I was going to be the lead guy, I guess, was his thought.

Farewell to Seasons starts with a young teenager, David Williams – who is based on you – jamming in his bedroom. Can you remember the moment you got your first guitar and started jamming in your bedroom?

It was late 1978, early ’79. Мy dear friend Danny Newcomb, who was the guitar player for Shadow, lived on my block and we were both 11. And I met Rick and Chris Friel. I’m a Cub Scout playing soccer, and all of a sudden I see this Kiss lunchbox that my friend Rick has. Those guys are playing and then I join them within six months.

We’re playing shows at 12 years old – our drummer’s eight. We started playing right away at talent shows in junior high. We rented a church out called the Unitarian Church. I just found a ticket for it the other day – it was a dollar. The Friel house is where everybody went and we would rehearse there all the time, three hours a day, five days a week for five or six years.

What was that first guitar?

It was a $100 Matao Les Paul, black. It was pretty good. It had a good neck on it. I smashed it and then I fixed it. I was doing that early and I kind of regretted it. I was 12 and I threw it in the air at this talent show – there’s a picture of me chucking it in the air in one of the Pearl Jam books. Yeah, I was way into The Who. [laughs]

Another thing that really struck me is how the novel depicts your life with Crohn’s disease. David’s parents say, “All he does is use the bathroom and play guitar.” Did playing guitar help you deal with Crohn’s?

[Laughs] I think it’s a little harsh on my parents because they were really supportive, actually. But for story’s sake, we kept it in there.

The pain that comes with Crohn’s disease – which feels unbearably bad in your gut, and it’s embarrassing and you shit yourself, and all sorts of stuff I’ve had happen to me over the years – I believe my playing got better because of that.

And it also got me back to Seattle from L.A. – so I look at it as a catalyst. This is with perspective; when I had it, it sucked and I thought my life was over. And it turns out it wasn’t. Luckily there’s a lot more medications and diets now than when I got it. I continue to work with the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation because of that.

But yes, I think it helped – it made me play deeper, hopefully. It was an antidote. Guitar is an antidote to many things for me.

And of course, you had your own addiction problems, but guitar was always there. You even formed Mad Season out of rehab.

As I was spiraling in my addiction and alcoholism in the early ’90s, I luckily got into rehab. I got out and I was kind of naive – like, “I want to get everybody sober along with me.”

Layne was my friend, I saw him struggling and I wanted to help him out, but also wanted to create music with him because I was sober for the first time. It gave me confidence, whereas I didn’t really have the confidence as much with Pearl Jam because everybody was such great writers for those first three records.

Mad Season allowed me to explore my writing abilities with Layne and my friend Baker [Saunders], and then I always wanted to play with Barrett [Martin] because he was this great drummer for the Screaming Trees.

The premise of it was to help Layne or help all of us… but everybody’s got to help themselves. I had to find out the hard way.

Collaboration was such an important part of the Seattle scene. What are the jams and recording sessions that really stick in your mind?

We did a cover of Hey Baby (New Rising Sun) by Hendrix with myself, Chris Cornell, Matt Cameron, and Jeff Ament [as M.A.C.C.]. Those guys [Soundgarden] were in recording one of their records and I just came by and said, “Hey, I’ve got an opportunity to do a Hendrix song. Do you want to do this?” And they were all up for it. We got to do that song during their session. Watching Chris sing on that one…

I had seen him obviously when we did Temple of the Dog. Temple was probably the first life-changing experience for me in terms of, “Okay, now I’m playing on this thing that’s very important.” This was a tribute to Andy Wood that Chris had written and I wanted to be very conscious of that but also play my ass off.

Prior to that, it was a big learning experience for me to let go, and Chris allowed me to let go and play all over that record. He was always super-cool to me and super-cool to Ed [Vedder]. So I’ll love him dearly forever for that situation.

Playing with Layne was great – the thing about Layne was that he would never talk shit about anybody. We’re all shit-talkers in Seattle, very passive[-aggressive]. Layne wouldn’t. He was funny and had a good heart. So when I got to play with him and I was trying to get sober, it was a mixed bag of emotions. I felt very proud of the project, but I was worried at the same time: am I getting too close to this? Could this be bad for me?

Playing with Ed for the first time [in 1990] was amazing. We were listening to some old tapes when he first got here – he recorded stuff on a boombox, and I went, “Fuck, this guy is good.” It was the first time I was in a situation where everybody was really firing on all cylinders when Pearl Jam first got together. And that was going on at the same time as Temple. A lot was happening very quickly.

Who were the guitarists that had the biggest impact on you from the Seattle scene?

Clearly the most obvious would be Hendrix, which is the scene before, but he made it in England and we all know the history of all that. I love to hear Kim [Thayil] play – he’s got an interesting style. He hits a chord differently than I hit; that allows him to move his fingers in that way in those Soundgarden songs.

I like Jerry’s style – he’s a great writer. Getting to see all those guys play was really fun, and getting to tour and open up for Alice in Chains when we were Mookie Blaylock was a fun time. Steve Turner and Mark Arm just beat the hell out of the guitars and there’s a relentless punk energy there, so that’s fun to watch.

The thing that surprised me about the Seattle scene is everybody’s so different, and this very small scene turned out to be huge. Kurt, of course, was a great guitar player in his way, as a songwriter – getting to see that live was incredible, too.

I’ve got to get to the inevitable Pearl Jam questions: what’s next and when are we going to find out who the drummer is?

We’re on a holding pattern right now because I’m working on this and Ed’s going to Japan. We’re going to find somebody. We don’t have anybody right this second to announce. I wish I did. I’m dying to play. We’ll make it happen – I’m excited to see where our future is. Everybody still wants to do it.

Were you surprised when Matt Cameron announced he was leaving?

I was kind of surprised. I think Matt was getting tired of being on the road; he’s paid his dues over the years and I wish him the best. It just wasn’t working for him anymore going on the road, and that’s OK.

We’ve been around a long time, and Matt was a huge reason we are still around; we were lucky to have him for 27 years. I was a little surprised and sad, but I also love him and I wish him the best.

Lastly, is there any new guitar gear that’s impressing you? Last time we spoke you were raving about Fender’s digital Tone Master amps, and lately you’ve been running FRFR cabs.

My guitar tech, Josh Schreibeis, has designed an amp modeling system and I think it’s made me play better. I used it on the Dark Matter tour. I love the consistency of it. [McCready’s live system is based around the Fractal Axe-Fx III – Ed]

I love the Tone Master [Pro] – I have it right here and I play on it every day [at home]. I can pick up any kind of pedal on that thing and it sounds pretty great.

I know there’s purists that probably aren’t into that, but I felt like my amp modeling system along with the old analog stuff has made me a better guitar player.

I can say, “Hey, I want this to sound heavier,” and he’ll go, “Okay, bam, it’s heavier.” He knows the technical stuff, and I know the verbiage – like, “Make it sound like The Byrds in 1966.”

I think it was the consistency of the amps over the Dark Matter tour that pushed me to play better than I have ever done. I just felt more confident.

• Farewell to Seasons is released on October 6 2026 via Z2 Comics.

Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready has made the switch to a digital guitar rig – and he says it’s made him a better guitar player.

In a new interview with Guitar World, McCready revealed that he brought out Fractal’s Axe-Fx on Pearl Jam’s Dark Matter tour, while the Fender Tone Master Pro is a mainstay in his home setup.

“I love the Tone Master [Pro] – I have it right here and I play on it every day,” he says. “I can pick up any kind of pedal on that thing and it sounds pretty great.”

McCready’s tech Josh Schreibeis is the man behind his new live Axe-Fx rig and has been integral in matching his previous tube rig while conjuring up new tones.

“I can say, ‘Hey, I want this to sound heavier,’ and he'll go, ‘OK, bam, it's heavier.’ He knows the technical stuff, and I know the verbiage – like, ‘Make it sound kind of like The Byrds in 1966.’”

McCready has gradually shifted to digital amps over the course of the past few years. He was first spotted playing Fender’s Tone Master Deluxe Reverb and Blonde Twin Reverb combos in 2022, alongside a Lead Custom tube head from Seattle amp builder Rola.

But from 2024’s Dark Matter tour onwards, McCready switched the combos out for the Axe-Fx III, employing Fender’s Tone Master FRFR cabs for monitoring onstage (the Marshall 4x12s underneath are used solely to raise the Fender FR-12s).

In his current setup, the Axe-Fx is controlled via an RJM 10-footswitch MIDI unit – although McCready does bring the Tone Master Pro out for non-Pearl Jam shows, such as his gig with Thunderpussy at Seattle’s Showbox in December.

Traditional physical pedals still in rotation on his pedalboard include the Line 6 DL4, Boss VB-2W, MXR Uni-Vibe, MXR Phase 90, Electro-Harmonix Stereo Electric Mistress, MXR Carbon Copy and J Rockett Archer.

What’s impressed McCready most about his new rig is the consistency of tone night to night. So much so that it has sharpened his skills on the instrument.

“I know there’s purists that probably aren’t into that, but I felt like my amp modeling system along with the old analog stuff has made me a better guitar player.

“It was the consistency of the amps over the Dark Matter tour that pushed me to play better than I have ever done. I just felt more confident.”

McCready is readying the release of Farewell to Seasons, his rock opera that is seeing release as a graphic novel and accompanying soundtrack in October.

Read Guitar World’s full interview with Mike McCready.

UPDATE (04.09.26): This article was amended to update details of McCready’s rig with information supplied by Pearl Jam’s equipment manager, in particular that McCready used an Axe-Fx III for the Dark Matter tour.

Mike McCready is currently prepping the release of rock opera Farewell to Seasons. In its initial graphic novel form, it tells the story of the Pearl Jam guitarist and Seattle itself through four fictional bands. But there’s one group that shares its name with a real band: McCready’s first project, Shadow.

The hard-rock outfit was formed when the guitarist was in ninth grade at Seattle’s Roosevelt High School, and he feels they deserve more credit for what they were achieving at a young age.

“I felt like we never really got the props that we should have gotten over the years, because we were young and 16 and playing all around the Northwest and doing shows,” McCready tells Guitar World. “We broke up when everything started happening. I spent my 10,000 hours with that band.”

In the mid-’80s, Seattle was not the place to be; but LA most definitely was. So when McCready’s contemporaries started moving to the West Coast to make it, he made sure that Shadow – whose sound owed more to Iron Maiden and Van Halen than anything foreshadowing grunge – followed.

“Duff McKagan stopped by the Shadow house in ’84, and said he was moving to Los Angeles. And we were like, ‘There’s something to that.’”

By the tail end of 1986, McKagan and his band Guns N’ Roses had built a reputation on the Sunset Strip and released their first EP, Live ?!★꩜ Like a Suicide. Things never quite took off for Shadow, however – and it wasn’t for a lack of trying.

“We played a bunch of places. We opened up for Andy Taylor. I got to see some cool stuff – I saw Jane’s Addiction at a club; I saw the Welcome to the Jungle video shoot.”

One year into the move, McCready got sick with Crohn’s disease which, combined with a lack of record label interest, sealed Shadow’s fate.

“It was a year of me working at Aron’s Records, drinking too much, getting Crohn’s, and going, ‘I can't do this anymore.’ So I moved back and I gave up. I quit playing music for two years from ’88, ’89. I was done. And then I got a call out of the blue from Stone.”

Guitarist Stone Gossard had recently lost singer Andrew Wood to a heroin overdose, bringing his own dreams of rock success to a tragic close. He was seeking a new musical sparring partner, and hit up McCready after seeing him playing along to a Stevie Ray Vaughan record at a party.

“I had known him since seventh grade. And when we started playing together, selfishly, I was like, ‘Okay, this seems to be my door. I better walk through it.’ After going through LA and not making it and being depressed, all of a sudden this thing happens when I'm not looking for it.”

From there, history was made. Pearl Jam would go on to make Ten and become one of the greatest success stories to emerge from the Seattle scene. But McCready never forgot about Shadow, the band who kickstarted his path to lead guitar stardom.

Farewell to Seasons is released on October 6 2026 via Z2 Comics. Guitar World’s full interview with Mike McCready will be published in the coming weeks.

Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready has announced details of his grunge-inspired rock opera, which has been 20 years in the making.

The record, Farewell to Seasons, which has been given an October 7 release date, arrives with a companion graphic novel and weaves through an alternate history of grunge in early ‘90s Seattle.

The main character is a fictional musician called David Williams, and he’s expected to be put in the heart of a scene that defined a generation with bands like Nirvana, Soundgarden, and Alice in Chains – alongside Pearl Jam, of course.

“It's a story I've been developing for many years, inspired by the creativity, community, and chaos of the Seattle music scene,” McCready explains. “Farewell to Seasons is a historical fantasy set in that world, and alongside the graphic novel, there will also be a ‘lost’ rock opera connected to the story, featuring original music written from the perspective of David Williams, one of the main characters.

“I've had a great time bringing this project to life with Z2 Comics, and I hope people enjoy the journey as much as I did creating it.”

The title may also be a nod to the Chris Cornell acoustic track Seasons, which grunge supergroup Temple of the Dog – formed as a tribute to Andrew Wood of Mother Love Bone – performed during their 2016 reunion tour. This is just speculation, but it could be viewed as a partial tribute to the Seattle musicians who we’ve sadly lost over the years.

It's currently unconfirmed who else features on the record, but it wouldn't be outrageous to expect a fellow grunge alumnus or two.

After moving to Seattle from Washington, the Fender signature artist would find his permanent home in Pearl Jam, with Ten going down as one of the greatest rock albums of all time.

Yet, while he wishes he could re-record the Even Flow solo all these years later, Gene Simmons has revealed the hilarious theft triangle that his Alive solo put him in. Meanwhile, Pearl Jam's recent tours have been strewn with some epic guest solos, including impressive displays from super-producer Andrew Watt and rock legend Peter Frampton.

The Seattle Mariners and San Diego Padres recently battled it out for the Vedder Cup trophy – a literal custom electric guitar that takes inspiration from the 1963 Telecaster that Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder plays on stage.

For years, the two teams have been linked by Pearl Jam fans thanks to Vedder's association with each city, with fans jokingly dubbing their matchups “the Vedder Cup.” In 2025, MLB decided to make this official, and, in keeping with the theme, the trophy is a real, playable custom guitar designed by Vedder himself in association with Fender.

However, before it became the official trophy of the Vedder Cup, the Pearl Jam frontman couldn't help but give it a test run.

“We spent about an hour with it. He gave it a good run through,” George Webb, Pearl Jam's longtime equipment manager, tells The Seattle Times.

“He always likes to feel like he puts a little energy, you know, spiritual energy, into an instrument. Not just hand off something that’s brand-new, never-touched kind of thing. So yeah, jammed on it for about an hour. Had a good time.”

And while the name and logo for the event were unveiled in March, the guitar trophy (which, spoiler alert, was awarded to the Seattle Mariners) was only revealed recently, since the actual instrument was only finished in the last few weeks.

“Typically, on a custom build like this, it will take us six months or so to source the wood, get everything mapped out ready to go, and take our time to vet the process, apply the graphics, do some test runs,” comments Chase Paul, director of product development for Fender.

“On this, we just kind of headed into it in parallel with testing and the production version at the same time, and kind of getting it ready to go. Really incredible effort by the team in the shop.”

After all, the intricacy is in the details. Aside from resembling the same model that Vedder plays in terms of specs, there's also a silver-and-black cresting wave, hand-drawn by Vedder, that envelops the top of the instrument to the strap button – an element which proved tricky to add.

“It’s airbrushed on there and to try and get that to match what we had mapped out on the original graphics that George sent over, and tried to get that to pop, really, against the silver background of the guitar, that is probably the most difficult part of the whole thing,” explains Paul.

Other notable design elements include Vedder's signature on the front of the headstock, black interlocking team logos on the body and etched into the volume and tone control knobs, and a marking for EB Research Partnership (a charity co-founded by Vedder and his wife, Jill).

Plus, there are small chrome plates for the winning team of each season series to engrave the results of the matchup and their logo, and an arrow and a mod symbol between the two teams' logos that serves as a tribute to The Who, Vedder's favorite band growing up.

As Webb perfectly sums it up, “He wanted to make something that potentially could live in the team’s clubhouse during the season and be played by players, and appreciated and used.

“He doesn’t want it to be a hang-on-the-wall trophy piece. He wants it to be played. That’s his attitude with everything. It’s a living, breathing instrument. It sounds great.”

Speaking of custom and signature guitars, Vedder recently debuted one of Jack White’s signature guitars on stage to play a Pearl Jam deep cut.

In modern music production, few have managed to traverse the divides between pop, rock, rap, punk and metal as successfully as Andrew Watt. The Grammy-winning producer and guitarist has become one of the industry’s most sought-after collaborators, working with everyone from Justin Bieber, Post Malone, Miley Cyrus and Lady Gaga to the Rolling Stones, Elton John, Iggy Pop and Pearl Jam.

But it’s his relationship with Ozzy Osbourne that stands as among his most meaningful musical partnerships. “Ozzy and I have a connection that’s unlike anything else I’ve ever experienced,” he tells Guitar World as he prepares for the Black Sabbath star’s final performance in England.

“We made some music together that we really love, and we’ll continue making music together forever. More importantly than that, we talk every day and we’re really close friends.”

The connection that’s yielded two acclaimed albums, 2020’s Ordinary Man and 2022’s Patient Number 9, has led to Watt joining the gathering of rock and metal royalty for the Back to the Beginning concert on July 5. It serves as the final performance for both Sabbath and Ozzy himself.

The bands original lineup – Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward – will appear together for the first time since 2005, while support comes from Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, Tool, Slayer and others.

A revolving cast of musicians including Billy Corgan, Wolfgang Van Halen, Jake E. Lee, K.K. Downing and Steven Tyler will play in various combinations throughout the night, with Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello serving as musical director.

Watt says with humility: “You look at that lineup; I’m having imposter syndrome!” But for a guitarist who grew up with Sabbath records on his father’s turntable, and went on to help create some of the biggest albums of recent years, there’s nothing impostor-like about Watt’s place on the stage.

Let’s start with Ozzy’s upcoming show. How special is it for you to be included in this event?

“It’s really amazing. For him to want me included really means he values me and the work we did, and wants it to be a part of his story. So I’m incredibly thankful to both him and Sharon.”

Do you have a sense yet of what you’ll be doing at the show?

“If I told you I’d have to kill you! From what I know, it’s gonna be a truly once-in-a-lifetime experience. Tom’s been kind of coordinating everything. Once we figured out what I was going to do, we’ve just kind of been rehearsing from there.”

What first drew you to Ozzy and Sabbath as a kid?

“My dad played me Paranoid – he loved Sabbath. When I started finding his records and going through his collection he’d say, ‘Me and my friends used to sit in the basement all day and listen to this.’ That story developed later to, “Me and my friends used to be so high in the basement listening to this!’”

Do you have a favorite Black Sabbath song?

“I keep finding different things I love. One song I’ve been loving lately is a song that Ozzy absolutely hates, which is so funny. I’m like, “How could you hate this song? It’s so good!” It’s Never Say Die – it sounds like Black Sabbath doing Thin Lizzy.

“I just love hearing Ozzy over that beat. Any great band changes their sound and shows you they can do anything. Sabbath is definitely one of those bands; they take it a step further on that song. Bill Ward’s just swinging.

“That said, I can’t not go back to War Pigs. I put it up against any rock song ever. I put it against any Led Zeppelin song. It’s epic!”

Earlier in your career you worked with a lot of pop artists – Justin Bieber, Shawn Mendes, Camila Cabello. After you collaborated with Ozzy, that seemed to kick off a run with rock artists like Iggy Pop, Pearl Jam and the Rolling Stones. Was Ozzy a turning point in your career?

“Absolutely. Rock is something that I love – it’s the music that speaks to me the most. But as I found my way into this business, I had these gigs playing for amazing pop artists and ended up writing their songs, and that became the thing tat I was doing: making pop music that had guitar in it.

“When the Ozzy thing came around, I was so excited at the chance to do it, but also kind of doubting myself. Like, ‘These aren’t the records I really make!’ But Duff McKagan and Chad Smith, who were friends at that point, were like, ‘Come on man, you gotta make this. Of course you can do it. It’s everything you love!’

“Once we started, I kind of felt that confidence, and it became the blueprint. For the Iggy album [2023’s Every Loser], we just made music, then Iggy chose the tracks he liked and sang to them. That led me into working with Pearl Jam – they’re the best live band there is. And obviously the Stones are everyone’s favorite rock band. [Watt produced, co-wrote and played on Pearl Jam’s 2024 Dark Matter and the Stones’ Hackney Diamonds.]

“Getting to sit in the room with those guys and just record a band doing their thing, keeping it really live, became really important, and my favorite thing in the world to do. But it all started with Ozzy. He and Sharon were the first ones to believe I could make them a great rock album.”

As somebody that started out as a recording and performing musician, what led you to lean harder on the production side?

“This business is sometimes about pivoting – that’s really all it was. I found myself in a van that broke down, then riding in a tow truck to Reno, Nevada. They put on the radio in the tow truck, and one of the songs I had made was playing. I was like, ‘This is a sign, man, because this situation blows right now!’

“I thought, “I gotta follow this.’ So I went to LA and it led me right back to what I wanted to be doing and the music I want to make. That also translated back into the pop music that I make as well.

“I’m incredibly proud of the Gaga album [2025’s Mayhem]. There’s tons of guitar and live drums and live instruments all across it. It was written in a room with Gaga on piano and me on guitar, and then us producing it up after. But it was really made classically.”

You play guitar on a lot of your records. What’s your approach to being able to being in these different worlds and bringing guitar to them?

“It’s not about ‘your thing.’ In the studio it’s about what’s right for the song. So many musicians blow you away live, but once they get into the studio they can’t come up with parts that will last forever.

“Being in the studio is about a great part that makes a kid want to play guitar, or something that’s accentuating rhythms or providing a good accompaniment to what’s being sung.

“That’s what leads everything – providing a groove or a good chord base for the song to do its thing, and for the message of what’s being sung to hit someone in the heart. What’s the part? It’s not just about the jam. Even the Grateful Dead had parts. It’s about finding the part.

“One of the greatest examples is Johnny Marr. Whenever he plays he has his tone and sound, but he’s always sculpting these perfect parts, weaving in and out of the song, even if the song is written to what he’s playing.”

You have a lot of guitars – which one are you bringing to the Sabbath show?

“I’m bringing a bunch of guitars! But my main one is a ‘61 Black Les Paul Custom, which is really an SG. It’s factory, and there’s only two of them. That’ll be there for sure.”

• Follow Watt on Instagram.

Some producers find their niche and stick to it. Others, like two-time Grammy winner Andrew Watt prefer to challenge themselves with each new project.

He’s made himself at home while working with pop heavyweights like Bruno Mars, Justin Bieber, and Lady Gaga and rock royalty alike: see Ozzy Osbourne, Pearl Jam, and the perpetually shirtless Iggy Pop for evidence.

His ability to spearhead success stories has made him one of the most in-demand producers in the business. A guitarist first, he’s also played on most of the records he’s worked on and his chops have proved as versatile as they come each and every time. So how does he do it?

“It’s not about ‘your thing.’ In the studio, it’s about what’s right for the song,” Watt tells Guitar World. “There are so many musicians that you hear or see live that you could be blown away by, but once they get into the studio, they can’t come up with parts that will last forever.

“That’s what being in the studio is about. It’s about a great part, something that makes a kid want to go and play guitar, or something that’s just accentuating rhythmic accents or providing a good accompaniment to what’s being sung.”

The studio, he feels, is a humanizing experience. When the songs are in the can, artists can waltz onto stages across the globe, play rock star, and feel 10 feet tall. The experiences to get to that point, however, are where an artist can be challenged, and belittled even, if artistic struggles get the better of them.

David Gilmour recently said that his 2024 album Luck and Strange was the best thing he’d put out since The Dark Side of the Moon. That was thanks, in part, to the fact that producer Charlie Andrew (Alt-J, Wolf Alice) didn't care about his prestigious back catalog. His role was to challenge Gilmour and ensure the record was the best it could be.

“He has a wonderful lack of knowledge or respect for this past of mine. He’s very direct and not in any way overawed, and I love that,” Gilmour explained. “He said things like, 'Well, why does there have to be a guitar solo there?' and 'Do they all fade out? Can’t some of them just end?'”

Watt’s approach is wholly similar. For whoever he works with, he has but one burning question.

“What’s the part?” he asks. “That’s what leads everything – providing a groove for the song or a good chord base for the song to do its thing, and for the message of what’s being sung to hit someone in the heart. I’m parts-focused, and I would say that is the most important thing when being in the studio.

“It’s not just about the jam,” he continues. “Even the Grateful Dead had parts, you know what I mean? It’s about finding the part.”

Working on Patient Number 9 with Ozzy – a record that looks like it might be the Prince of Darkness’ last – saw Watt recruit a trio of guitar legends in Jeff Beck, Tony Iommi, and Eric Clapton. Still, when it comes to a player who understands this mentality better than the rest, he always refers to a British indie rock legend: Johnny Marr.

“That guy’s parts on every single song he’s on, no matter what the artist is,” he enthuses. “Whenever he plays, he has his tone and sound, but he’s just sculpting these perfect parts, weaving in and out of the song, even if the song is written to what he’s playing.”

Watt’s full interview with Guitar World, which charts the evolution of his producing career, his love of Black Sabbath, and his role in the band's star-studded final show, will be published in the near future.

Grammy-winning producer to the stars Andrew Watt started his career working with a who's who of the pop world, including the likes of Justin Bieber, Shawn Mendes, and Camila Cabello.

However, the super-producer took a turn down a more rock-oriented lane when he was approached by Ozzy Osbourne for 2020’s Ordinary Man – the Black Sabbath legend’s first studio album as a solo artist in ten years at the time. Four days later, Ozzy had already announced that he was working on its follow-up, 2022's Patient Number 9, with Watt once again at the helm.

“Rock is something that I love – it’s the music that speaks to me the most,” Watt confesses in a new interview with Guitar World. “But as I found my way into this business, I had these gigs playing for amazing pop artists and ended up writing their songs, and that became my footing and the thing that I was doing – making pop music that had guitar in it.

“When the Ozzy thing came around, I was so excited at the chance to do it, but also kind of doubting myself. Like, these aren’t the records I really make. But with the push and love and guidance from both Duff McKagan and Chad Smith, who were friends at that point, they were like, ‘Come on man, you gotta make this. Of course you can do it. It’s everything you love.’”

Indeed, Ozzy's endorsement led to a host of other rock-fueled albums from Watt, including Eddie Vedder's Earthling, Iggy Pop's Every Loser, Pearl Jam's Dark Matter, and the Rolling Stones' Hackney Diamonds.

Speaking about his approach to producing rock records that pay homage to each of these artists' incredible rock legacies, while giving them a more contemporary twist, he said, “Once we started making music, I kind of felt that confidence and that became the blueprint. For the Iggy album, we just kind of made music and then Iggy chose the tracks he liked and sang to them.

“Then that led me into working with bands that I love, like Pearl Jam – they’re the best live band there is. And obviously the Stones are everyone’s favorite rock band. Getting to sit in the room with those guys and just record a band doing their thing, keeping it really live, became really important to me and just my favorite thing in the world to do.”

However, Watt has never forgotten the legend that nudged him in a more guitar-fueled direction. As he puts it, “It all started with Ozzy. He and Sharon were the first ones to believe that I could make them a great rock album.”

Watt recently talked about his experiences working with another rock behemoth – a certain Beatle who showed him how to play a widely beloved Beatles song.

Less than a week after Eddie Vedder donned Jack White’s signature Acoustasonic for a rampaging deep cut, Pearl Jam welcomed Peter Frampton to the stage for a fresh rendition of Black.

The band's Nashville stop on May 8 provided the ideal opportunity to link up with one of their earliest guitar heroes, with Frampton and Mike McCready trading licks as Eddie Vedder teased Frampton's mega-hit, Do You Feel Like We Do.

“This gentleman was someone we looked up to before the Ramones,” Vedder told the crowd prior to Frampton’s arrival. “Some of our first guitar heroes, [like] Jimmy Page and Pete Townshend, he was right up there.

“It was one of [the] reasons why we loved live records, and later we decided to release bootlegs because of his influence,” he adds, alluding to Frampton’s celebrated live LP, Frampton Comes Alive!

“He’s such an incredible human being on top of it. It is our honor because at this point he’s become a good friend to the group. He’s recorded with Mike [McCready] and [drummer] Matt Cameron [the pair guested on Frampton's 2006 album, Fingerprints, covering Soundgarden's Black Hole Sun] and we get to play with him tonight.”

The Les Paul-loving guitarist, who was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last year, is having to adapt his playing as he battles a degenerative disease, but he has said he will continue to play guitar for the rest of his life – and as this spot shows, he’s still got oodles of class.

Frampton takes the first solo, delivering soulful licks with a tender sprinkling of overdrive before McCready – wielding an all-white Stratocaster for the occasion – weaves the song's motif around his improvised playing. And Frampton looks to be loving every second of it, with the Nashville crowd in full voice throughout.

The guitarist will embark on one final tour later this year, having made a surprise appearance at NAMM 2025. In March, he played a Beatles classic with Grace Bowers and Trey Anastasio and there were guitar solos galore.

“Every note I play now is so much more important because I know one of the notes will be the last I play,” he commented of his playing.

His diagnosis of inclusion body myositis (IBM) – a degenerative condition that affects the legs, arms, wrists, and fingers – has already forced him to perform seated, and prompted him to announce a farewell tour in 2019. But the pull of the stage is strong, and Frampton is proving defiant in the face of adversity.

It’s a quality Andy Timmons has been quick to acknowledge – “Even in the face of adversity he still plays with complete joy,” he has said – and, after penning a song in tribute to him, Frampton ended up guesting on it.

Jack White is continuing to share his signature guitars with players he admires, recently gifting Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder one of his signature Fender Acoustasonics – which was used onstage in Nashville to play Green Disease.

The fuzz-loving White Stripes hero dropped a score of signature Fender gear last year, including the mod-heavy Triplecaster, an amp with plenty of tricks up its (metaphorical) sleeve, and a new take on Fender's intriguing electric-acoustic hybrid, the Acoustasonic.

Vedder was gifted the latter, and it was promptly given its live debut in front of an enthusiastic crowd in Music City on May 6.

“This is my new guitar, given to me by Mr. Jack White, another future Hall of Famer. He's such a great human,” Vedder told the crowd.

Discussing White's Third Man Hardware company, which has also put out some drool-inducing pedals like the Knife Drop, Vedder adds, “You wanna know the secret between having a quality product and making money? The secret is you won't make money, but you'll make people happy.

“That's what we've seen Jack do. I'm very proud to be his friend, and thank you Jack for my nice new guitar.”

The attitude and punk-powered Green Disease was a fitting song choice, with Vedder laying into the strings with plenty of vigor.

Vedder joins a growing list of players to have snagged a taste of White's latest signature gear. White made an impromptu signature swap with Living Color’s Vernon Reid after they bumped into one another at an airport, while Kirk Hammett has joked that “Greeny is getting a bit jealous” after his legendary Les Paul watched from the sidelines as he took the Triplecaster for a spin. White also got a Greeny production model in return and was once afforded the opportunity to play the original Greeny on stage.

White has also used his signature collection to shine a light on lesser-known talents: he gifted his favorite new guitarist, who is based out in Japan, a Triplecaster.

Jack White, as a member of the White Stripes, will follow Soundgarden and some other long-overdue talents into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame later this year. The guitarist is responsible for writing one of the most Googled guitar riffs, which came together almost by accident during a soundcheck in Australia.

He took to Instagram earlier this year for an impassioned rant about his approach to playing live and why you’ll never see him play a three-hour show. In November, he joined Paul McCartney on stage in Mexico to jam the Beatles.

Jeff Ament has been reunited with one of the most sentimental bass guitars he’s ever played, more than three decades after using it to track an iconic Pearl Jam record.

In a new post on Instagram, Ament told the tale of his 1961 Fender Jazz Bass, which he had rented from none other than Norman Harris of Norman’s Rare Guitars during the early 1990s while Pearl Jam were tracking Vs.

The band’s second studio album, Vs. introduced a handful of iconic Pearl Jam cuts to the world, including the likes of Go, Daughter, and Animal, all of which Ament recorded using the black-finished, tortoise-shell pickguard-equipped, color-matched headstock 1961 Jazz Bass.

However, as Ament explains in a lengthy post on Instagram announcing his newest acquisition, he didn’t buy the guitar outright at the time – in fact, he forgot about it, and ended up paying a rather hefty rental fee.

“The week before making VS, Brendan [O’Brien, producer] asked if I had a Jazz bass, and I didn’t. He asked @normansrareguitars to rent his best one to us and they sent the beautiful black ‘61 stack knob, at a rate of $200 per week or $4k if I wanted to buy it, which was impossible at the time.

“Three months later, I found out we had accidentally stored the bass after recording in Seattle and paid $2,500 in rental fees!”

Unable to purchase the bass – “the Ten residuals were in the Sony ‘pipeline,’” he says – Ament eventually returned the bass, which was later sold to the Seminole Hard Rock Cafe in Hollywood, Florida, where it has remained on display ever since.

“I visited around 2000, and thought, ‘Man, that’s the one that got away!’” Ament reflects. “Fast forward to hanging out with Chris Osceola [Hollywood Councilman for Seminole Tribe of Florida] at the new Seminole skatepark, and mentioning they owned one of my favorite basses.

“The next day, he brings and gifts the bass to me. Unreal! I don’t think I’ve been happier about a material (and somewhat spiritual) thing in my whole life. The bass I played on Rats, Animal, & WMA was in my hands again, saved from the confines of the display case.

“Thank you Chris and @hardrockholly for the gift of a lifetime. Did I mention that she sounds fooooking incredible?!”

Having reconnected with his old instrument, Ament wasted no time in putting it to action, using it during Pearl Jam’s show at the Hard Rock Live venue. And, to mark the occasion, vocalist Eddie Vedder even gave the bass a shout out, reportedly changing the lyrics of Elderly Woman Behind The Counter in a Small Town to “I seem to recognize your face… that bass!”

Head over to Jeff Ament’s Instagram account to read the full story.

Gene Simmons has told the story of a guitar solo merry-go-round, after revealing that Pearl Jam’s iconic Alive lead effort closely followed in the footsteps of a Kiss solo – which Ace Frehley had previously lifted “note-for-note” from another classic rock heavyweight.

Guesting on Billy Corgan’s The Magnificent Others podcast, the Kiss bassist pointed out Frehley’s plagiarism.

The track in question is Kiss' 1975 cut She, which found Frehley apparently so enamored with Robby Krieger's lead playing on The Doors' Five to One, from 1968's Waiting for the Sun, that he lovingly copied and pasted it onto the Kiss song.

Unaware of this, Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready then followed a similar tact when piecing together the solo for Alive, only for Simmons to drop a truth bomb later down the line.

“I said, ‘Mike, I don’t know how to tell you this, but that’s a note-for-note guitar solo from the Doors,” Simmons tells Corgan. “Ace liked it so much, he just reproduced it. He goes, ‘No!’”

Discussing the genesis of some of his biggest hits with Guitar World, McCready now doesn't hide from this fact. All he has to say of the song is, “I copied Ace Frehley’s solo from Kiss’ She, which was copied from Robby Krieger’s solo in the Doors’ Five to One.”

Speaking to Rolling Stone in 2014, McCready waxed lyrical about Kiss and the impact they had on him during his formative years.

“I remember being on a school bus in sixth grade in 1976, with my friend Rick Friel, who eventually played in my high school band, Shadow,” he said. “He had a lunchbox that had Kiss on it. ‘What is that?’

“Then he played me some music and I was hooked immediately.” So it's no surprise there's more than a little Kiss style sprinkled across Pearl Jam's discography.

Going off his comments on the podcast, Simmons seemingly picked up on She’s likeness to Five to One at the time. But he doesn’t see the solo-swapping saga as much of an issue.

“My point is, it’s always very appreciated when somebody says, ‘Loved your stuff,’” Simmons says. “Everybody’s got bits and pieces of stuff. Listen to Zeppelin songs, you’ll hear lots of blues, very recognizable, blues songs.”

McCready has also downplayed the drama to be drawn from their similarities, telling Chris Shiflett’s Shred With Shifty podcast, “I don't do the solo the same live all the time.”

Last Friday (December 13), Metallica maintained tradition by hosting their annual All Within My Hands Foundation event, which saw the heavy metal legends tap a host of special guests – and eyebrow-raising electric guitars – to perform a range of covers, deep cuts, and reimagined fan favorites.

Over the 13-song setlist, Metallica delivered both acoustic and electric sets, with lesser-played tracks getting air time, and an intriguing cast of guest musicians helping punctuate the evening's festivities.

While some tracks got live debuts and others were dusted off for their first showing in nearly 30 years, it was perhaps Hetfield’s decision to sling an oddball Danelectro Long Horn Baritone over his shoulder for a rendition of Fuel that especially stood out.

With a street price of around $550, the Long Horn isn’t exactly a wallet-thinner, but with its lengthy 29.75" scale and B-to-B tuning, it’s arguably not your archetypal trasher. However, Hetfield used it to help Metallica break out of the key of E, as they gave Fuel a heavier run-out in the key of B.

Fuel followed an impromptu guitar solo from Hetfield as he showcased his new Danelectro’s low twang. Hammett’s bonus harmonies, via a single pickup Fender Esquire, are a treat, too.

Pearl Jam bass player Jeff Ament was the most high-profile guest of the evening, featuring on a fresh take of the primal trash classic, Hit The Lights. With Robert Trujillo still playing a part – rather than simply sitting one out – Ament helped give the band’s heavy metal thunder plenty of extra oomph.

Metallica’s acoustic set had plenty to delight, too, with Low Man's Lyric reportedly getting its first live performance since 1998 (according to SetlistFM). That was followed by a live debut for their take on Bachman-Turner Overdrive's Away From Home, and a world-first acoustic rendition of If Darkness Had a Son from the Grammy-nominated 72 Seasons. They were joined by sibling strings duo SistaStrings, comprising cello and violin, for extra spice.

Hammett wielded a Fender Acoustasonic, and Robert Trujillo a Tele-style acoustic bass, for the performance as the band capitalized on the chance to arm themselves with atypical axes.

The lead guitarist also made full use of his Acoustasonic’s electro-acoustic specs by testing its soloing credentials before the band concluded their acoustic set with the superlative Nothing Else Matters.

San Francisco multi-instrumentalist Avi Vinocur of Goodnight, Texas featured extensively across both sets, wielding everything from mandolins and acoustic guitars to a black and gold Les Paul for Fuel. Taking to Instagram afterward, he purred, “Well, yesterday was nuts.”

The Unforgiven II, the sequel to a Black Album masterstroke, was played for the first time since 2015, with the band wrapping up the night with Master of Puppets. Hetfield’s iconic white Gibson Flying V and Hammett’s prized "Greeny" Les Paul also featured, standing as more typical guitar picks.

Eddie Vedder has recalled the day he got his first electric guitar, which he received one Christmas morning after being lead to believe he'd been given a vacuum cleaner instead.

CBS Sunday Morning recently enjoyed a behind-the-scenes look at life on the road with Pearl Jam after its cameras were invited to capture the band's Missoula, Montana, show – and it was during the subsequent interview with the band's frontman that the amusing anecdote came to light.

As Vedder recalls, he was 12 years old when he got his first six-string, which was gifted to him as a joint birthday/Christmas present.

“My birthday's December 23rd so I begged to have the two gifts put together to afford something as extravagant as an electric guitar, which I think was $115,” he explains. “I walked in Christmas morning and I could see the silhouette of it and my heart dropped. Then the lights came on and it was a vacuum.”

Luckily his disappointment was fleeting. “Everybody finished opening their presents,” he continues. “I'm getting little chills [remembering this]. They said, 'Oh, one more,' and they pulled out a guitar case, so that was nice.”

Vedder doesn't think the vacuum silhouette trick was an intentional misdirect, but this writer is certainly making a note on how to hoodwink any potential future children.

While the aspiring musician ended up getting the present of his dreams, his mother was left to take ownership of the vacuum he had less-than-enthusiastically opened: “How about my mom getting lucky getting a vacuum for Christmas?” he laughs.

Pearl Jam are deep into their US tour supporting their 12th album, Dark Matter, and it’s been an eventful one so far. It got off to a rather rough after guitarist Mike McCready fell off stage while soling – but somehow didn't miss a note.

Two months later the band invited a superfan onto the stage to jam Yellow Leadbetter after he'd traveled 7,000 to see them perform.

First guitar nostalgia has certainly been a growing phenomenon in 2024. Recently, Bon Jovi spoke about buying back his first-ever guitar, 45 years after regretfully parting with it. He’s used the now-returned six-string to pen a song on the band’s latest album, Forever.

As Vedder and Bon Jovi’s emotional tales attest, first guitars are a precious thing, even if they aren’t typically glamorous instruments. Guitar World has recently trawled the archives for stories from some of the biggest guitar players in the world and the guitars that set them on the path to six-string immortality, from beat-up flamenco guitars resurrected from Granma's closet and far beyond.

Pearl Jam recently let a fan live out their dream of playing guitar on Yellow Ledbetter onstage with the band.

Superfan Carlos had traveled from his native Chile to Barcelona for the band’s July 8 show – a 7,000-mile trip.

He brought some Chilean wine with him, which he gifted to the band, along with a handmade sign that read: “Pls let me play Y.Ledbetter on guitar. PS: Hope u liked the Chilean wine.”

Video footage shows Carlos handing Eddie Vedder his sign during the concert.

Later, Vedder can be seen pointing into the audience, asking, “you really know how to play guitar?” before signaling to a guitar tech to ready a six-string for the Chilean.

The band, perhaps touched by the gift, happily obliged and both Vedder and bassist Jeff Ament can be seen watching with suitably impressed looks across their faces as Carlos (who is not phased by the occasion), smoothly weaves through the clean open passages of the song.

Watching Carlos – on a black Telecaster – trading chords with Mike McCready makes for heart-warming viewing and no doubt proved a ‘pinch me’ moment for the fan.

One man who might relate to Carlos’ dream is Andrew Watt, who produced Pearl Jam's latest album, Dark Matter.

As Watt's recent Guitar World interview details, he went from being a 12-year-old holding a sign at a show asking to play Alive’s guitar solo to being his favorite band's producer.

Former Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Josh Klinghoffer has been sued for wrongful death and negligence after allegedly running over and killing a pedestrian who was walking in a crosswalk in Alhambra, California. Ashley Sanchez, the daughter of 47-year-old victim Israel Sanchez, filed the lawsuit on Wednesday.

According to the lawsuit, the incident happened in the afternoon of March 18. The plaintiffs allege Klinghoffer was driving a black SUV with no license plates and made a left turn, striking Sanchez. 

A video presented by the plaintiffs shows a black car hitting a man during a turn and then pulling over. A still from the footage seems to show the driver holding an object, allegedly a cellphone, above the steering wheel. 

Furthermore, the video depicts a 40-foot-wide grassy median dividing the road in question, which the plantiffs argue should have given Klinghoffer enough time to spot any pedestrians in the crosswalk. The plaintiff party obtained the video footage from a neighbor's Ring camera. The lawsuit further states that no arrests have been made.

In a news release, Ashley Sanchez spoke of Israel Sanchez and how the incident impacted her family: “My dad was known for being a great chef, the most talented of his family, the greatest grandpa always full of love and joy. His smile was so infectious. His life was taken by a careless act of a person who didn’t bother to look where he was driving.”

Klinghoffer's attorney, Andrew Brettler, told TMZ: “It was a tragic accident. After Josh struck this pedestrian in the intersection, he immediately pulled over, stopped the car, called 911 and waited until police and the ambulance arrived. Obviously, he’s cooperating with the police throughout the traffic investigation. This was purely a tragic accident.”

The plaintiff's attorney, Nick Rowley, contested Brettler's use of the term “tragic accident”, stating: “Mr. Klinghoffer should be arrested and prosecuted for homicide. We have a video of him on his cell phone at the time he hit and killed Israel Sanchez, a loving father, in a crosswalk.

“Israel Sanchez was on his way to the grocery store to make soup for his family and never came home. He did everything right, looking for oncoming traffic and abiding by pedestrian signage, but tragically Mr. Klinghoffer, in a rush and on his phone, hit him fatally from behind with a large SUV. 

“The loss and grief that the Sanchez family now faces is immense. We will not stop until there is accountability and justice for Mr. Sanchez and his family.”

Alhambra Police spokesperson Sergeant Brian Chung hasn't responded to press queries, stating that the case remains active and no further comments can be provided at this time.

Klinghoffer himself hasn't commented on the lawsuit. He is currently on tour with Pearl Jam, after joining the band as a touring musician in 2021, and has previously performed with Eddie Vedder and Jane's Addiction. The guitarist was previously dismissed from the Chili Peppers in 2019, after former guitarist John Frusciante re-joined the band. 

Hollywood star Bradley Cooper recently joined Pearl Jam on stage for a cover of Neil Young's Rockin' In the Free World, plus a bonus acoustic rendition of Maybe It's Time from A Star is Born.

The Bradley Cooper and Pearl Jam collaboration took place at Napa Valley’s BottleRock festival on May 25. Vedder introduced the Hollywood star as “my great, great pal Bradley Cooper,” after which Cooper joined him for Maybe It's Time. The two traded verses and came together to sing the chorus. Vedder also accompanied Cooper on guitar.

Cooper's guest appearance didn't end there. Towards the end of the set, he joined the band on backing vocals and tambourine for a raucous rendition of Neil Young's Rockin’ In The Free World.

Eddie Vedder previously covered Maybe It's Time in 2019 at Innings Festival in Tempe Arizona. Back then, songwriter Jason Isbell tweeted, “Holy shit Eddie Vedder sang my Bradley Cooper song in his set tonight. That is by far the strangest sentence I’ve ever composed but it’s certainly a huge honor. I was 12 when Ten came out and by god I learned how to play every song on it.”

A year later, Vedder revealed Cooper had shadowed him ahead of shooting A Star is Born. The rock veteran also gave Cooper advice on nailing the rock star persona. In an interview on The Howard Stern Show, he said, “I told him things like, you know, ‘Make sure your guitar covers your balls at all times. I think sometimes the guitar gets a little high. It looks more like a bib."

In that same interview, he also revealed that he was initially skeptical about Cooper playing a rockstar, but was mindblown after seeing the finished product. “When I saw it, I just was fucking blown away. It just… took me there and what he can do with his eyes and what they [Cooper and Lady Gaga] did together, and then Sam Elliott. I mean, it really took me there. I’m getting chills right now.”

Pearl Jam have a penchant for treating their fans to surprise guests. In addition to Cooper, the band invited their producer Andrew Watt to play Alive's guitar solo at their show in Vegas on May 16.

Heart's Ann Wilson has revealed the trick she used back in the ’90s to compel her musician peers to jam whenever they passed by her house.

In an interview with the Broken Record Podcast, she recalls, “Usually, it would happen after somebody's concert, and everyone would show up for the concert. And then whoever was free afterward would show up at my house, and they'd all come in and start drinking beers and smoking ciggies and sitting up on my counters, and then pretty soon somebody has started to play.

“I was no fool – I would always have in my living room, I'd have guitars laying around, casually, and a piano and a couple of little amps.”

The musicians who happened to jam at Wilson's house included Alice in Chains' Layne Staley, Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell, and Kim Thayil, and Pearl Jam. The musicians were all part of the Seattle music community, who quickly embraced Wilson and her sister after they moved to Seattle, and formed their acoustic side-project, The Lovemongers.

“Oddly enough, a lot of those musicians that were part of the Seattle community then loved The Lovemongers, and we loved them, and we'd all show up at each other's shows. And it didn't matter that it was at this little club. It really didn't matter. It was just about the music and about playing camaraderie," she adds. 

In a recent interview with Total Guitar, Wilson's sister and bandmate, Nancy Wilson, described what it was like for the two of them to return to Seattle after grunge annihilated the hair metal scene. “We were so embarrassed to come back during the explosion of Soundgarden and Alice In Chains and Pearl Jam,” she admits. 

“All those guys were our brothers from our hometown. When Mother Love Bone’s singer Andy Wood died, my best friend Kelly Curtis, who managed Pearl Jam, invited us to come to his memorial party. 

“That’s where I met Chris Cornell and all these guys that I’m still really tight with – Eddie Vedder, Mike McCready and Kim Thayil. It was such a relief to be accepted into that rock community in our hometown, after the big hair and the artifice in the ’80s.”

Heart are currently on their Royalty Flush tour. The North American leg wraps up on May 24 at Atlantic City Hard Rock Live, New Jersey. This will be followed by a European and UK leg, which includes their largest-ever UK headline show on July 1 at London's O2 Arena.

Pearl Jam producer Andrew Watt has gone from being a 12-year-old holding a sign at a show asking to play Alive’s guitar solo to being his favorite band's producer. Now, he can tick something else off his bucket list after dueling with Mike McCready on the iconic Alive lead last week.

So far, Pearl Jam's debut single Alive has appeared on all setlists of their current tour. On May 16, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, fans were treated to a special rendition when Andrew Watt joined the band on stage, brandishing his Gibson Les Paul. He joined forces with McCready to deliver the solo Total Guitar named the 29th best solo of all time.

Elsewhere on the setlist, Pearl Jam included more surprises, including tour debuts of Sometimes and Hail Hail from No Code (1996), plus Eddie Vedder's take on Jason Isbell's Maybe It's Time and Corduroy (1994) with U2's Bad intro.

During their second show at MGM Grand Garden Arena on May 18, the band performed deep cut You Are (2002) for the first time since 2018. Eddie Vedder also covered Tom Petty's I Won't Back Down, with a Hunters & Collectors' Throw Your Arms Around Me tease – notably, he played a Fender Robbie Robertson Stratocaster for the tracks.

In an interview with SPIN, Watt expressed his admiration for Pearl Jam's music and how producing Dark Matter served as his full circle moment: “[It felt like going] back to being 12 years old, going to a show and holding a sign that said, ‘Can I play the guitar solo for Alive?’ I’ve been ready for this gig my whole life. There was no prep needed.”

In a recent interview with Bass Player, bassist Jeff Ament revealed how working with a genuine Pearl Jam fan like Watt helped energize the band. “Andrew’s a huge fan, and the Pearl Jam that he likes is the stuff that hits hard. So we leaned into that part of the sound a little more.”

The recording process also entailed using the gear available at Watt's studio, including four custom Dumble amps.

Pearl Jam are currently on the US leg of their Dark Matter tour. The setlist is unique for every show, as the tour not only celebrates their latest album, but 30 years of live performances, 12 studio albums, and over 85 million albums sold worldwide.

It's no secret that Pearl Jam and Neil Young have mutual love and respect for each other's work. 

Young has previously referred to Pearl Jam as “old souls – they've been around. Musically there's youthful energy, but without the sound of inexperience” in a 1995 Guitar World interview. In 1992, Pearl Jam included Rockin' in the Free World in their setlist and also supported Young on his 1993 North American tour. 

The culmination of their relationship, however, was the moment Young recruited the band to record on his 1995 album, Mirror Ball. In a new interview on the Broken Record Podcast, Pearl Jam's Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament recall the "nerve-wracking” but equally “joyful” recording sessions. 

“He called me last summer,” says Ament. “He just goes, ‘Man, your guys’ playing on this is so great. And I think I moved so fast from record to record, I don't really get a chance to listen back.’

“‘But I'm really listening to how you guys chose to play, and I appreciate you so much. I hope we get to do it again.’ And of course, you're like, ‘Oh, can we please do that again, because we'll give you more space and will be so much better than we were in 1995.’”

Gossard also recalls how fast Young worked during those sessions, and how they all worked hard trying to keep up with him. “He plays the song once for us. We learn the chords and he's like, ‘Okay, we're gonna record it,’ and then you record it,” he reflects. “We're just trying to remember the chords.”

Despite largely utilizing three-chord songs, the magic of Young's songwriting influenced both Gossard and Ament, and increased their admiration for the Godfather of Grunge. 

As Gossard remarks, “It's just like playing three chords. There's nothing more satisfying than having transcendence in three chords, where it's not all the years of studying music, and it's not any sort of science or anything that is rigor. It's just literally joyful play, with three notes.”

Of course, with the pressures of working to Young's pace, the sessions weren't completely stressless: Ament mentions how the anxiety and pressure of playing with one of his idols also got the better of him. 

“It was four days of recording the Neil songs. I had the flu for two days. So it might have just been like pushing down the pressure and the anxiety. You're in the studio with one of your favorite, if not your favorite artist ever, and not wanting to let him down and let the whole session down.”

“None of us are studio musicians. I mean, there's people that can come in and chart things out in two seconds, like play by ear,” Gossard explains. “You're kind of trying to find the basic chords and then quickly find something that helps those chords, and it was nerve-wracking for me.”

Despite the stress, both Gossard and Ament agree the experience was one of their favorite things they have ever done. As Ament puts it, “It felt like a dream.”

Pearl Jam kicked off their US tour on Saturday, and for guitarist Mike McCready, things got off to a rough start as he tumbled off stage during his solo in Porch. But only a fool would think that would stop him from shredding. 

Playing at Rogers Arena, Vancouver, the Seattle heavyweights were heading towards the home straight mishap-free – with Porch the final song before their encore – when the incident happened. 

Armed with a sunburst Les Paul, McCready had already set his fretboard alight several times throughout the track, from 1991’s iconic Ten, when he decided to venture towards the corner of the stage. 

Suddenly, McCready vanishes out of sight amid a whir of feedback, with only the headstock of his guitar in sight. Then, a quick-off-the-mark roadie pulls him back onto the stage, with McCready soling through the entire affair, much to the jubilation of the arena. 

Though he had screaming feedback to contend with, there was a steely determination to carry on shredding, and it doesn't sound like he missed a note while gravity got one over him. 

Despite the fall, it was a fierce performance from McCready, peppering the song with shred, leaving one YouTube commenter to ask “Dude, did Mike get possessed by Eddie Van Halen? He went off there!”

Skip to 3:23 on the video below to witness McCready falling with style. 

McCready, who was recently bestowed a gorgeous signature Stratocaster, channeled Van Halen on his recent appearance on the Howard Stern Show as he shredded EVH’s Eruption.

He also recounted the story of how Van Halen told him that he hated the sound of their debut record during a chance meeting at an LA recording studio as the band ramped up the promo for their 12th album, Dark Matter.

The tour continues in Portland and Sacramento this week before two dates in Las Vegas next week. Now fully acquainted with the stage’s geography, Guitar World expects McCready to tear through those shows on both feet. 

Mike McCready has described Eddie Van Halen's guitar playing as “music from another planet” in a recent conversation with SiriusXM, which saw the Pearl Jam icon try his hand at the late guitar legend's iconic instrumental, Eruption.

As part of the promo trail for the Seattle outfit’s 12th album, Dark Matter, the band recently guested on the Howard Stern Show. During the interview, McCready was asked about his long-standing love for Eddie Van Halen. 

“It's music from another planet to me,” he says. “I started playing guitar right when Van Halen [1978] came out, so it didn't really make any sense to me but I thought it was the greatest sound I'd ever heard.” 

Asked if he’d ever met Van Halen personally, McCready responded: “Only when we were doing our Lightning Bolt [album, released in 2013] in Los Angeles. He happened to be in the hall one day, and I happened to be listening to the first Van Halen album on the way to the studio.” 

He admits that he began to fumble his words, starstruck even with nine Pearl Jam albums and a Grammy win under his belt.  

He told Eddie that he’d “been listening to the first record, it's incredible.” Van Halen's reply? “Nah, I never really liked the sound of that record.” 

It’s a surprising but humble admission about a record that included Eruption, a song hailed as one of the greatest guitar solos of all time. Wolfgang Van Halen, however, recalls the exchange slightly differently – and with a few more expletives. 

McCready then treated Howard Stern viewers to his take of the incendiary track, sheepishly saying, “It’s really early Howard, so I don’t know it as well as I want to!” 

McCready previously burned through a cover of the track back in 2022, and has spoken to Guitar World about how important Van Halen – and Eruption – have been to his own guitar playing.

“Eddie Van Halen to me was a huge deal,” he said at the time. “I started playing when I was 12 years old and that’s right when his first record came out, and it was unlike anything I had ever heard.

“Eddie was another version of a guitar hero that felt like he came from outer space or something. Like, ’What is this? What is this Eruption thing?’”

Esteemed producer Andrew Watt has revealed that the iconic amp designer and builder Alexander Dumble made four custom amps specifically for him – and Pearl Jam went on to use these amps on their newly released 12th album Dark Matter.

In a new interview with SPIN, when asked whether any specific gear wound up being used a lot, Watt explains: “A guy named Alexander Dumble made the amps. He was a very strange guy who unfortunately passed away in 2022.”

“He would refuse to build them for a lot of people, but for whatever reason, he agreed to make four for me. They’re all ’50s Fender mods: a Vibrolux, a Champ, a Deluxe and a High Powered Tweed Twin.”

In a recent Guitar World/Bass Player interview, Pearl Jam's Jeff Ament revealed that when Eddie Vedder invited his bandmates to Watt's studio, he pushed them to leave their gear at home and use Watt's carefully curated gear collection. That included the Dumble amps, as well as a borrowed Rickenbacker that gave the album's basslines a trebly, twonky grit.

“There was a white Rickenbacker, maybe a ’72, that felt great to me, he told Guitar World. “I mean, those old 4003s are either great, or the intonation is terrible and they just don’t hit right. But this had flats on it and sounded killer. That’s what ended up on React Respond.”

As for the other gear used on the record, Watt told SPIN, “Jeff played through a Fender Bassman. We plugged Stone into a Les Paul and a Strat again. Mike played all old Strats and a 1959 Les Paul.

“Jeff was laughing because he said, ‘No producer ever wants me to play my 12-string.’ And I was like, ‘Play the 12-string!’ Can you play Jeremy on that for me? He wrote the main riff for Dark Matter on a 12-string.”

Dumble amps are among the rarest of rare guitar amps. In the one-person operation, Alexander Dumble was behind each and every amp, crafting them for each client.

Dumble built two or three amps a year, typically for A-list clients such as Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Clapton, Carlos Santana, Robben Ford, Joe Bonamassa and Bonnie Raitt.

Their premium quality and scarcity mean that when they appear on the secondhand market, they're sold for eye-watering prices. In 2022, a 1995 Dumble Overdrive Special was listed on Reverb.com for a staggering $175,000. 

Pearl Jam’s new album Dark Matter has sent bassist Jeff Ament on a journey. It’s a record where he works through punk-adjacent pounding (Running, Scared of Fear); rhythmically fired-up riff rawk (Dark Matter); joyful Stax-styled bass runs (Got to Give); and bar-chopping country ballads (Something Special). 

As deep and exploratory as any Pearl Jam album, Dark Matter also scales back the ambient electronic whirl that marked parts of 2020’s Gigaton in favor of a harder-hitting immediacy. “I think that punch probably comes from the process being so quick,” Ament explains, noting it was made in three weeks between producer Andrew Watt’s Beverly Hills home recording space, and Rick Rubin’s iconic Shangri La studio in nearby Malibu. 

It also helped that Watt – who previously produced, co-wrote and performed on Eddie Vedder’s 2022 solo album, Earthling – grew up with Pearl Jam’s music tattooed on his brain, and energized the group with his hands-on, middle-of-the-room cheerleading. “Andrew’s a huge fan,” Ament says, “and the Pearl Jam that he likes is the stuff that hits hard. So we leaned into that part of the sound a little more.” 

When Vedder invited his bandmates to Watt’s studio, he told them to leave their instruments at home and dip into the producer’s great gear reservoir instead. That shook up Ament’s sound a touch, with the trebly, twonky grit the bassist thwacks onto Dark Matter’s heaviest rockers coming out of a wicked borrowed Ricky.

“There was a white Rickenbacker, maybe a ’72, that felt great to me,” he explains. “I mean, those old 4003s are either great, or the intonation is terrible and they just don’t hit right. But this had flats on it and sounded killer. That’s what ended up on React Respond.” 

Some rhythms are more familiar, like his 12-string slipperiness in Dark Matter’s opening moments, which arguably recall Master/Slave, the fretless instrumental movement that bookended Pearl Jam’s iconic 1991 debut, Ten. Then again, that beauty could also be in debt to the sophisticated sliding a much younger Ament heard coming out of various players in the early UK post-punk scene. 

“The amazing thing about being down the road a-ways is that I feel like I’ve dipped into all of those styles,” he says. Those inspirations have impacted every era of a 40-year career, from Montana hardcore kids Deranged Diction through proto-grunge icons Green River, glam-dappled Mother Love Bone, Seattle supergroup Temple of Dog – and, of course, Pearl Jam.

“It’s cool when something just comes out naturally. You’re working on a song in the room and all of a sudden you start playing a certain way, and then later on you’re like, ‘Oh, I nicked a little Peter Hook, Eric Avery on that thing!’ That’s what’s cool about doing an interview like this: giving props to so many players.”

1. Dee Dee Ramone

“When I first started playing bass it was my freshman year of college. There was a kid who lived on my floor, Jon Donahue, who was a Southern-Cal punk rocker kid, and we started listening to music together.

“Then, just out of boredom, he was like, ‘We should form a band!’ I played piano when I was a kid, but I didn’t play guitar. He had a bass and a guitar at home and he brought them back after Thanksgiving break, and on Friday and Saturday nights we would play along with records.

“One of the things we played along to the most was the Ramones’ double It’s Alive record. It was like 30 songs and a lot of it is in the same key; a lot of it is in that fifth-fret zone. The other thing that was exciting was realizing Dee Dee wrote a lot of those songs – not just the music, but the lyrics.

“When we decided we were going to write some of our own, as Deranged Diction, that was the thing that inspired me the most: you could have these really super-simple ideas, and write lyrics that were sort of nonsensical, but they were really cool songs. I’ve always been particularly inspired by bass players that write songs. And he’s at the top.

“Pinhead was my favorite Ramones song. But I think at the first Deranged Diction show, we played Blitzkrieg Bop, a couple of Sex Pistols songs and a 999 song called Homicide – all pretty much eighth-note downpicking.”

2. Chuck Dukowski

“I was a really big Black Flag fan. I had been in Seattle maybe two months when I saw them play a show. I couldn’t take my eyes off Chuck; his eyes were rolled back in his head. 

“There are songs where he plays rhythmic, melodic parts, but there was this other visceral part of it where he would play so hard. The bass would almost be a part of him. It was such a physical way of playing the instrument, almost anti-musical. Being a physical kid myself, I really responded to that. 

“My playing completely changed after I saw that show. I was like, ‘Oh…you can hit all the strings with your fist, and it makes this extra crazy, super-powered, resonant sound!’ Hardcore had a really profound impact on me, just through how physical the playing was with a lot of those guys.”

3. Klaus Flouride

“I think the first Dead Kennedys song that I learned was Holiday in Cambodia, which is hitting an open A string while playing the melody on the D. I was into Joy Division’s Peter Hook and even Adam Clayton of U2 – a lot of that playing where there’s an open-string drone and then the melody on the other strings. Klaus did that beautifully on this song.

“You think about Bleed for Me, which Pearl Jam have played a couple of times, or I Am the Owl; it’s just really thoughtful, melodic playing. All those players were fantastic in Dead Kennedys, but Klaus really shaped the melody and instrumental part of it.”

4. Tom Petersson

“I remember hearing some kids playing the first Cheap Trick record at the swimming pool in town; I was probably 13. I was into Kiss, Aerosmith and Ted Nugent at the time, but I remember hearing He’s a Whore and thinking, ‘Wow… what is that?’ It sounded really unique… but also sort of reminiscent of the harder Beatles stuff, towards the end of their career.

“I started understanding what a 12-string bass was through the Heaven Tonight record, but also through songs like Gonna Raise Hell and Dream Police. Tom Petersson’s bass figures so prominently in those songs, because of how massive that 12-string sound was. It was like having a piano player on rhythm guitar, almost. Massive influence.

“We rented a 12-string when we made the Mother Love Bone album [1990’s Apple] in Sausalito. You can hear it on Stardog Champion – that’s all 12-string bass. There’s also a breakdown in Holy Roller that’s 12-string.

“Right around that time, I contacted Joel Danzig at Hamer with the idea of getting my own 12-string bass. I’d also written a couple loose arrangements on my acoustic guitar, with the idea that this 12-string bass was going to show up. Those songs turned into Why Go and Jeremy on the first Pearl Jam record. I was playing them on a crappy Harmony acoustic guitar, while imagining the tone on Cheap Trick’s Gonna Raise Hell.”

5. Andy Fraser

“When I was in Mother Love Bone I started delving back into bands like Aerosmith and Bad Company. Then I went back further and found a used copy of Free’s Fire and Water. I was blown away by the space in those songs.

“The whole band is incredible, almost like a slowed-down Zeppelin in some ways, but Andy’s playing is just so tasteful and melodic – like that breakdown in All Right Now. He wrote a bunch of those songs. That outro in Mr. Big is just crazy. I’ll be Creepin’ might be my favorite song of theirs. 

“When Temple of the Dog did the handful of shows a few years ago, we did a version of I’m a Mover, which Chris Cornell nailed. It was really fun to play.”

6. Mick Karn

“I remember seeing a couple Japan videos, and I couldn’t wrap my head around Mick Karn’s playing. Within a couple of years, though, I figured out what he was doing with harmonics. It’s very Jaco, but meets his Greek heritage. And I think by nature, Mick’s a bass clarinetist.

“Fretless in the rock zone – that was really interesting to me. I didn’t get a fretless bass until we were making the Mother Love Bone record, so ‘88 or something. By the time we made the first Pearl Jam record, I think two-thirds of that record was fretless, with the idea that I was just going to throw myself in deep water and figure it out live every night.

“I’m sure there were some shows in those days where if I wasn’t hearing myself, they probably weren’t great sets. But I figured it out!”

7. Jah Wobble (and Keith Levine)

“Public Image Ltd’s Second Edition is definitely one of my top 10 records, ever since I was a junior in high school. I never go a few months without going back to that record.

“It’s the whole thing – the drumming; how Keith Levine plays guitar; and what Johnny Rotten was doing while deconstructing whatever he’d just done with Sex Pistols. Lyrically, it’s very abstract. ‘The smell of rubber on country tar’ – it’s great imagery.

“There was something hooky about that record in particular. The dub vibe of Jah Wobble’s bass playing, and how Keith Levin is playing these very staccato, anti-blues parts. There’s no bending. It’s leaning into the dissonance so much that it almost becomes hooky.

“I think I was expecting something more like the first P.I.L. record, which was a departure from Sex Pistols… but not that much of a departure. With Second Edition, they really jump off the deep end. It’s super-dark.”

8. David J

“Mick Karn, Jah Wobble and David J… they’re all fretless post-punk players that had a profound impact on how I heard bass in rock music.

“But David J. is also a songwriter. He wrote some of the biggest hits that Love and Rockets had, and there were really interesting choices he made in Bauhaus. The bass carried that band in a lot of ways.”

9. Donald ‘Duck’ Dunn

“I can’t tell you what an impact Booker T. and the M.G.’s had on me – Duck and drummer Jim Keltner in particular – when Pearl Jam did those shows with Neil Young in 1993.

“I remember sitting back behind Duck’s cabinet. I was watching Keltner’s right foot, and watching Duck really concentrate on locking in with it. Keltner has this feel where the hat is kind of on the beat, even pushing it, but the kick is almost like an eighth note back.

“Duck, who historically is a pretty back-bass player, was having to go even further back with it. Every once in a while, though, they would lock into a cool little run or flourish that would remind you that Duck was an assassin.

“I came out of those shows having a completely different understanding of how to play in a mid-tempo groove. Just the economy of it, and leaning where to mute and where to let the note ring. It’s kind of like the way Andy Fraser played, too. 

“To bear witness to those guys interpreting Crazy Horse songs, largely, was a thing of beauty. Probably one of the most profound in-person experiences I’ve ever had as a musician.”

10. John Paul Jones

“There’s a part of me that doesn’t want to just name the obvious players, like McCartney and Entwistle – the guys that are part of the fabric of anybody that plays rock music. I just couldn’t leave John Paul Jones off, though, because he’s such an incredibly eclectic player.

“He can play in any style. There’s also the way he played keyboards and bass pedals, or 8-string on Achilles’ Last Stand, which we also played in Temple of the Dog. That was an absolute beast to learn.

“I’ve spent a little time with JPJ, and he might be one of the only musicians I’ve been around where I was a teeny bit starstruck. He was up in Seattle doing strings for a Heart record. We mostly talked about 8-string and 12-string bass. I was super-intrigued that he was playing an 8-string Alembic pretty early on. I think I asked him some stupid questions about Achilles Last Stand, like, ‘What were you doing there?’ But he was very kind!

“I think he gets his due, but he’s even more important to Led Zeppelin than we give him credit for. People talk about Bonham, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, but JPJ was every bit as important as those other guys.”

11. Eric Avery

“The first two times I saw Jane’s Addiction, I played with them – with Green River the first time and Love Bone the second. Both times I was transfixed. Eric Avery plays his bass from that Peter Hook approach: lots of drone-string; really melodic; a lot of repetition.  

“I remember watching that first show from the side of the stage and seeing how Eric and drummer Stephen Perkins played together. I said to Stone Gossard, ‘That’s what I want to do, right there.’

“It was rock, largely because of Dave Navarro, but with a singer that wasn’t rock – a super weirdo. The rhythm section was playing very tribally and really post-punk. It was one of those moments where I was like, ‘Whatever that is, I want to tap into that energy.’”

• Pearl Jam's new album Dark Matter is out on April 19 via Monkeywrench Records/Republic Records.

Oh, hey. Nice of you to join us. You might remember we used to run a weekly track roundup around these parts – Essential Guitar Tracks, as it was known. Well, say your goodbyes, for EGT is no more.

Now dry those tears – preferably from the heat of some pre-warmed 6L6 tubes – and say hello to Guitar World Editors’ Picks, our brand-spanking-new, monthly guide to the songs our editors are digging very much indeed, yessir.

We’ll have a Spotify playlist for you to tuck into, and we’ll round up our favorites of the month in an article just like this – where our editors will wax lyrical on the playing, tones, and songwriting that had their six-string senses a-tingling.

Make sense? It will do. Anyway, without further ado, let’s hand things over to our EIC MAB to get things started…

Michael Astley-Brown – Editor-in-Chief

Full disclosure: I went to NAMM, took a vacation, and I’ve been catching up on music (and emails… mostly emails) up until roughly 10:37 a.m. this morning. So forgive me if I allow one or two late-January releases into my picks of the musical litter.

My month has mostly been dominated by Radiohead offshoot The Smile’s sophomore effort. It’s the sound of Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood finally shaking off the chains of expectation surrounding their best-known gig, and it’s all the better for it. Read the Room is an absolute jam, Greenwood’s angular riff snaking around your consciousness, before the trio go full Sonic Youth. Yes. Yes, please.

Then there’s the small matter of a new Pearl Jam single. Dark Matter fizzes with the energy emblematic of producer Andrew Watt’s latest efforts with the Rolling Stones and Iggy Pop. And dang, it’s good to hear Mike McCready dial up the fuzz for that pull-off-heavy solo. 

In fact, I’ve been struck by the quality of latter-day releases across the board: Kerry King’s long-awaited solo debut is pure kinetic freneticism, the returning Kittie sound as vital as ever; and Judas Priest have no right delivering riffs this lithe so many decades into their career.

My guitar highlight of the month, however, comes from nu metal survivors Alien Ant Farm, of all bands. I’ve long maintained the band’s first two records are criminally underrated, just for the tonal and technical diversity of guitarist Terry Corso alone.

Comeback single So Cold harks back to that era with its incisive riffs and heavily modulated extended chords, but it’s the triumphant ’80s-vibed solo – whammy wiggles! taps! legato! – that steals the song, and presents a kind of revisionist history where guitar solos were cool after all in the early noughties.

Jackson Maxwell – Associate Editor 

First off, as a Radiohead fanboy for life, I’m with Mike – The Smile’s Wall of Eyes has some of the most agile, inscrutable riffs in Jonny Greenwood’s already lofty catalog, giving the album some of that Radiohead ‘x-factor’ we’ve been so sorely missing. Ok, fanboying over.

Though it comes from a genre that, admittedly, isn’t my usual bag, I found it impossible not to be awed by Felix Martin’s dizzying neoclassical tapping clinic, Thundertap. Having witnessed his double-neck wizardry in person at NAMM last year, Thundertap – which also features double-neck bass tapping, to boot – feels like the culmination of Martin’s development as a player and composer to date. 

On a very different note, Khruangbin keep going from strength to strength, as evidenced by their new tune, May Ninth. A perfect balm for a hard day, this easy-strolling song finds Mark Speer getting incredible melodic miles-per-gallon. Kept surprisingly low in the mix, his dreamy, movie score-like arpeggios and clipped single-note statements are colorful and integral to the song’s charm, but never once overshadow the band’s always air-tight rhythm section. 

What I’m most excited about as February comes to a close, though, is the return of Mdou Moctar, the Nigerien guitarist who took the world by storm with his breakthrough 2021 album, Afrique Victime – a thrilling record that mixed traditional assouf guitar music from West Africa with Western influences, particularly the flash and fire of Jimi Hendrix. 

Funeral for Justice – the lead single and title track from Moctar’s forthcoming album – takes things to another level, turning up the distortion and volume and adding a touch of meat-and-potatoes riffing, especially in the intro. Moctar’s Strat fingerpicking, though, remains the star attraction, and is as driving and hypnotic as ever. 

Matt Owen – Staff Writer

NAMM festivities aside, it’s been a very busy start to the year indeed – and as far as new music goes, I personally have been eating especially well in February. 

For starters, Julian Lage is one person who endlessly inspires me to continue exploring new ways of navigating the fretboard. The jazz extraordinaire’s latest slew of releases – culminating in Nothing Happens Here – have put a firm focus on his acoustic prowess, and in turn I have found myself picking up my own Fender Paramount over the past few weeks as I look to learn from Lage’s limitless creativity. 

To satiate my hunger for blues, soul and some more electric-leaning soundscapes, St. Vincent, Gary Clark Jr., and Marcus King have been on hand to deliver the goods, providing masterclasses in dynamics, feel, and phrasing with Broken Man, Along Together (feat. Keyon Harrold), and Mood Swings, respectively.

It’s also been a big month for indie rock. Social media sensation-turned-recording phenomenon Towa Bird put in an early claim for my highlight of the month with B.I.L.L.S – yet another home run from the D’Angelico-toting titan.

But it was the return of Catfish and the Bottlemen – one of the finest indie guitar acts of its type – for which I will be remembering February. The band, which unofficially disbanded a few years ago after some personnel departures, has been AWOL for the past few years, but returned this month with Showtime – their first new music in five years.

Who’s in the band now? Well, frontman Van McCann (the beating heart of the group) is back, but beyond that we’re not quite sure. What we are sure of, though, is that Catfish are here for round two, and – if the new track’s Springstreenian leanings are anything to go by – the album that follows their revival looks poised to be their best yet.

Matt Parker – Staff Writer

May I be the first second to say that the big news for me this month is the return of Mdou Moctar? 

God knows how many words I have read (and, yes, written) about the guitar heroes of yore – wielding blazing guitars in the face of (sometimes violent) authoritarianism and inspiring a counter-cultural movement that shredded the social fabric of the era. 

Well, Moctar does all of that – and, more importantly, he’s doing it right now. So if, like me, you’ve spent time staring at pictures of Hendrix and wondering what it’s like to see a living, breathing guitar hero who plays with wild abandon in the service of something much bigger – look to Niger and Moctar. 

Elsewhere, I’m currently cycling between the crushing brutality of Knocked Loose’s newbie Blinding Faith and Hermanos Gutiérrez’ sun-kissed psychedelic beauty Sonido Cósmico (which dropped a few weeks ago), both of which offer first tasters of forthcoming albums. 

The former is blowing out the winter cobwebs with some vicious near-percussive hardcore riffing and I love those blink-and-you-miss-them shreddy central licks. Points are also gained for the use of a wall of amps, matching guitar finishes and getting an Ibanez Iceman in the video. 

Hermanos Gutiérrez, meanwhile, are helping to reset the blood pressure after all of the above overexertions. I’m a massive fan of that country-inspired muted clean tic-tac tone and Sonido Cósmico is absolutely laced with it, albeit in the dreamy context of a sort of cosmic spaghetti western. It’s a stunning ride.

A shining beacon in a sea of riff-heavy, punk-inspired grunge guitarists, Mike McCready’s impeccable blues feel, Hendrix-esque chord work, and earworm hooks have helped Pearl Jam stay afloat for over three decades – all while most of their contemporaries have sunk without a trace. 

Inspired by the likes of Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eddie Van Halen and Ace Frehley, McCready’s classic rock approach to guitar helped define the Seattle band’s sound – a sound players have been chasing since the early ’90s. 

Now, if there’s one guitar heavily associated with the grunge icon, it’s his battle-worn Fender Stratocaster. A fresh-faced McCready purchased his beloved Strat immediately after the success of the band’s monumental debut album and he’s used it on every record and tour since. 

He originally bought the beat-up six-string, believing it to be a 1959 model – and he even got a “'59” tattoo to commemorate his favourite guitar. We can only imagine his surprise when Fender’s Custom Shop informed him it was actually made one year later, in 1960. 

Having already celebrated the guitar with a limited Custom Shop run, Fender has shifted to making a more affordable option. Now, if there was one word to describe the new McCready and Fender collaboration, it’s ambitious. Not only has Fender set out to make a wallet-friendly rendition of a Custom Shop smash hit, but they’ve also committed to imitating the wear and tear of the original guitar – no small feat, for sure. 

Let’s start by addressing the rather distressed and battered elephant in the room. At first glance, it really does look like an elderly guitar behind a counter in a small town, and from a distance, it appears unmistakably to be McCready’s beloved Fender. 

All the large scratches, dings and scuffs are accounted for. However, once you remove the guitar from its appropriately retro case, you’ll start to notice the slight limitations of the Mexican facility compared to the efforts of the Custom Shop. 

The ageing is a courageous attempt and mostly on the money. However, we can’t help but feel the relic’ing looks almost too precise in places. The scalpel-sharp lines and surgically removed sections of finish serve as reminders that you’re playing an artificially aged instrument. 

If anything, the bare alder showing through the sparse sunburst patches is a little too clean. The guitar is missing the thousands of hours of sweat, blood and tears the original wears with pride. Perhaps that’s your job! 

Playability is where this guitar shines. This Strat is a player. The neck here is very slim – slimmer than you’d expect – and remarkably easy to navigate. Couple the slight profile with the heavily relic’d nature of its finish and you get a lightning-fast guitar that is addictive to play. Throw in the perfectly aged dots and flawless fretwork, and it might be the best Fender neck we’ve played in years – thanks, Mike! 

Being a grunge legend’s signature axe, you may expect hotter pickups onboard. However, McCready is a vintage gear hound and a massive fan of his guitar’s original pickups. That’s why Fender developed a custom set of ’60s single-coil pickups specially designed to reproduce the tone of their golden-age instruments. 

These pickups sound superb and very convincing – one strum and we were transported to the swinging ’60s. The tone is bright and responsive, all without sounding spikey or thin. These pickups have a retro charm that will surely put a smile on any vintage guitar fan’s face. That said, it’s not only throwback jangle this guitar can do – it distorts beautifully, taking maxed-out fuzz and face-melting gain in its stride. 

It’s fair to say heavily relic’d guitars always start a debate among guitarists, but what’s not up for discussion is how good this particular guitar plays and sounds. This is a serious guitar that not only delivers a full-bodied tone but also has a neck that makes short work of anything you throw at it. It’s no wonder McCready has the confidence to play this guitar on stage night after night on tour – perhaps it’s a state of love and trust.

Specs

• PRICE: $1,899 / £1,649
• BODY: Alder 
• BODY FINISH: Road Worn Nitrocellulose Lacquer
• NECK SHAPE: Slim “C”
• SCALE LENGTH: 25.5” (64.77 cm) 
• FINGERBOARD: Slab Rosewood
• FINGERBOARD RADIUS: 9.5” (241 mm) 
• FRETS: 21 Jescar Medium Vintage 
• PICKUPS: Custom Mike McCready ’60s Single-Coil 
• SPECIAL ELECTRONICS: Treble Bleed Circuit 
• BRIDGE: 6-Saddle Vintage-Style Synchronized Tremolo with Bent Steel Saddles 
• CASE: Deluxe Brown Hardshell
• CONTACT: Fender
  

“AAARRRRRGGGHH!!! THIS IS so flippin’ AMAZING! Hahahaha. Hmmm, what should I do first? Burn my guitar … or light MYSELF on fire! Give me MORE, but GOD ALMIGHTY, MAKE IT STOP!”

Does that sound insane? Yes, indeed. But that was the kind of crazy talk many guitarists engaged in during the ’80s. And who could blame them? George Lynch, Vito Bratta, Steve Vai, Nuno Bettencourt, Reb Beach, Yngwie Malmsteen, Kirk Hammett, Eric Johnson, Paul Gilbert, Marty Friedman and about a billion other handsome virtuoso shredders just kept getting faster and better until all you could scream was, “I surrender! Fuck playing the guitar, I’m gonna join the Marines.”

Then suddenly on September 10, 1991, a date that will live in infamy, everything changed. Nirvana, a melodic punk rock band from Seattle, released a simple four-chord slugfest titled Smells Like Teen Spirit and sparked a musical revolution that blew all the fleet-fingered pretty boys out of the water. 

Nirvana and their charismatic singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain championed gritty “authenticity” over the glamorous excesses of the hair metal of the ’80s, and their disheveled presence suddenly made bands like Winger, Warrant and Whitesnake look like dolled-up saloon girls in comparison. And just like that, the guitar virtuoso crazy train was completely derailed like the Norfolk Southern locomotive in Ohio. 

As shredder extraordinaire George Lynch recalled in Tom Beaujour and Richard Bienstock’s excellent 2021 book Nöthin’ But a Good Time: The Uncensored History of the ’80s Hard Rock Explosion, “Unfortunately, [’80s hair metal] worked its way to an apex, and then we backed ourselves into a corner. There was no place to go. Because you could only play so fast and then what did it really matter? Nirvana came along and said it all with one nasty, dirty, attitude note. You go, ‘Ah, that’s rock and roll!’”

In a purge that would’ve made a Russian dictator green with envy, anything to do with ’80s guitar hair metal – the Spandex, the decadence, the pointy guitars, the makeup, the tapping, the whammy dives – was put up against the wall and shot. And whoever managed to escape was sentenced to live out the rest of their days doing hard labor at the bottom of the charts or playing 400-seaters in Poughkeepsie.

While some Guitar World readers mourned the loss of their well-coiffed heroes, many more breathed an audible sigh of relief. You no longer had to be genetically superhuman to play rock ’n’ roll or get a record deal; being a talented schlub was just fine. 

You still had to play well, but you didn’t have to lock yourself in a room like a Benedictine monk and practice arpeggios in three octaves for 10 hours a day. A good song with a solid riff was all you needed, and you were good to go.

The myth of grunge guitar #1

One of the biggest myths of the ’90s was that the alternative musicians of the day were as primitive as cave-dwelling mud people. The truth is, there were many imaginative, if not downright sophisticated guitarists during that era, including Nirvana’s great insurrectionist, Kurt Cobain. 

While Cobain’s primary gift was writing spectacular vocal melodies over surprising chord changes like on Lithium, he was also a ferocious rhythm guitarist who rarely lost the groove, even when hurtling himself across the stage with total abandon or screaming the choruses to any of his memorable anthems.

“All the years I spent practicing scales and virtuoso-type riffs, [Cobain] was locking onto these chords in a very connected way,” shredder icon Steve Vai once observed. “When you saw Kurt strumming chords, it was virtuosic in a sense because it sounded like an orchestra when he slammed that guitar. Every string had its own ZIP code, if you know what I mean.”

Even if you don’t buy Vai’s assessment that Kurt was a “virtuoso,” there were plenty of other alternative rockers that deserved the title during the Great ’90s Reset. Seattle’s Kim Thayil and Chris Cornell of Soundgarden, for example, created daring textures via unorthodox drop tunings and unusual time signatures on many of their biggest songs.

In 1994 the duo used a bizarre E-E-B-B-B-E tuning over an unconventional 5/4 time signature on their single My Wave, a song made even more unusual by the fact that Ben Shepherd used a wah pedal on his bass.

And there was no denying the greatness of Thayil’s wild-ass solo on the band’s chart-topping Black Hole Sun. Sounding like it was being played forwards and backwards at the same time, it was perhaps the most avant-garde lead guitar break on a Number 1 song in the history of rock. (It’s interesting to note that Black Hole Sun also went to Number 1 in Iceland, because if I had to guess what Icelandic rock music sounded like, it would probably resemble the alien splatter-art guitar solo on Black Hole Sun.)

In addition to Soundgarden, there were other groups and guitarists serving up more great riffs and solos than you could shake a Led Zeppelin at. Hard rock bands like Alice in Chains (Man in the Box, Them Bones), Red Hot Chili Peppers (Under the Bridge, Give It Away), Stone Temple Pilots (Interstate Love Song, Plush), Smashing Pumpkins (Bullet with Butterfly Wings, 1979) and Green Day (Longview, Basket Case) kept mainstream rock radio humming for the next decade with ballsy, memorable guitar rock.

And it could be argued that the ’90s was superior to the ’80s when it came to top-notch, up-your-nose-with-a rubber-hose heavy metal. Just skimming the surface, you had Ozzy Osbourne (with Zakk Wylde), Tool, Korn, Deftones, Rage Against the Machine, System of a Down, Meshuggah, Machine Head and Napalm Death releasing brilliant and innovative albums.

Come as you are

Not only did attitudes regarding guitar playing shift, but so did just about everything else. Lyrics became more introspective, and attitudes toward the opposite sex and gay people became more enlightened. 

Seattle punk rock also introduced a more relaxed dress code, which also came as a relief to many guitar players. To be a guitar hero in the ’80s you had to have chiseled cheekbones, washboard abs and look good in tight pants. 

You also had to know how to apply hair dye and eye makeup with the expertise of supermodel Cara Delevingne. It was exhausting. While it was hard enough to play like Whitesnake’s John Sykes, it was even more difficult to look like him!

In the ’90s, being a slob was no issue. You could wear jeans or baggy shorts, a thrift-shop T-shirt and a flannel shirt or hoodie and be done with it. That was a fantastic development if you had a gut and would rather pound a beer (or seven) rather than spend a week’s pay on a line of cocaine. And if you were balding and sorta ugly it didn’t matter that much… you could just grow a beard, get some tattoos and shave your head. That was awesome, too!

That development was particularly good news for Pantera and their incredible metal guitarist Dimebag Darrell. Pantera had struggled throughout much of the ’80s because, frankly, they looked ridiculous in the Spandex. But once fashion trends shifted, and they were able to become who they really were – a bunch of drunk, lovable dirtbags from Texas – the world became their öyster. 

Unplugged

Another interesting manifestation of the Great ’90s Reset was the enormous success of Unplugged, the MTV music series that showcased musicians performing acoustic versions of their songs. What could be more “authentic” than stripping your biggest songs down to their bare essentials than playing them on a Gibson Hummingbird with no amplification?

New-school bands who performed on the show like Nirvana, Alice in Chains, Hole, Stone Temple Pilots and Oasis took great pleasure in demonstrating that they didn’t need big-ass amps to bring drama and intensity to their songs. 

At the same time, the show allowed classic rockers like Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Kiss to reemerge, while showing “the kids” how big boys played “real” guitars. 

Superfuzz Big Muff

Guitar gear also went under some major transformations in the ’90s. During the ’80s, players took pride in performing with shiny, candy-colored, custom instruments tricked-out with things like locking tremolos, scooped fretboards, pointy headstocks and unusual pickup configurations. 

Whereas in the ’90s, even being seen with a guitar that had any of those qualities could get your grunge card revoked permanently (unless you could prove you were being ironic!).

Most new-school guitarists gravitated toward vintage models, like Foo Fighter Dave Grohl who could be seen playing a Pelham blue 1967 Gibson Trini Lopez guitar. But really, almost any guitar would do as long as it had some wear and tear and didn’t look like it cost an arm and a leg.

In a hilarious Guitar World interview conducted with Cobain by our ne’er-do-well Seattle correspondent Jeff Gilbert, the Nirvana iconoclast summed the general aesthetic and attitude of the era perfectly. 

After proclaiming his love for Fender Mustang guitars, he counterintuitively explained why. “They’re cheap and totally inefficient, and they sound like crap,” he said. “They are also small and don’t stay in tune, and when you want to raise the string action on the fretboard, you have to loosen all the strings and completely remove the bridge.

“You have to turn these little screws with your fingers and hope that you’ve estimated right. If you screw up, you have to repeat the process over and over until you get it right. Whoever invented that guitar was a dork.”

And that was why it was his favorite instrument!

Pedalboards also shrank in size and ambition. Just a few years earlier, elaborate Bob Bradshaw rigs that allowed you to control a bunch of rack-mounted effects were all the rage, but in the punk rock ’90s, a few pedals seemed to do the trick.

Even Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello, a man known for his innovative use of effects, pulled most of what he needed out of a modest four or five pedals and a Marshall amp.

Speaking to Guitarist, Morello laughed off any assertion that he had a gargantuan pedalboard.

“I’ve been accused countless times of using a ton of effects – but I’ve used the same four pedals for the last 30 years: a wah, a [DigiTech] Whammy, a delay and a phaser. It’s just about finding different applications for the same old shit. The electric guitar is a relatively new instrument on the planet. It’s just a piece of wood with six strings and a few electronics. But you can manipulate it.”

He continued by explaining his unique hip-hop approach to his place in the band: “As soon as I had that revelation in Rage, it was like, ‘I’m the DJ in the band, but rather than sampling, I’m gonna use my bare hands to create this new vocabulary for the electric guitar.’ ” And he did exactly that.

But perhaps the most hilarious irony of the ’90s came when Korn released their debut album in 1994. Guitarists James “Munky” Shaffer and Brian “Head” Welch raised more than a few eyebrows when they each appeared on stage with the ultimate tricked-out ’80s guitar – a Steve Vai seven-string Ibanez Universe.

But instead of using it to shred, they took advantage of the low seventh string to produce some of the dirtiest, most bone-rattling power chords the world had ever known.

According to the duo, they stumbled upon the axes at a local California pawn shop. During the early days of the ’90s, no guitarist wanted to be caught dead with one, so the price of the instruments had fallen through the floor. 

Although the two guitarists were broke, the guitars were so cheap they decided it was worth buying a couple of them as an experiment. To their amazement, they discovered the gleaming seven-string guitars were actually incredible for creating the ugliest of sounds.

“I knew that somewhere, some kid was going to get the concept of the seven-string and do things with it that were beyond what I was doing,” Vai told Ultimate Guitar in 2020.

“Then, I’m driving down the street and this song comes on the radio and I’m like, ‘What the heck is that?’, and I pull the car over. It sounded so heavy, I instinctively knew it was a seven-string and somebody was doing something with it that was much different than what I was doing. And that band was Korn. That was sort of the rebirth of the JEM Universe.”

The myth of grunge guitar #2

Which brings us to perhaps the biggest myth about the ’90s. Grunge and alternative rock did many things, but one thing it didn’t do was kill shredding. A number of brilliant guitar technicians came of age during that era, including Dimebag, John Petrucci, Ben Weinman, Adam Jones, Buckethead and Jeff Loomis, to name just a few.

The real difference was in the ’80s, you had to be one of the attractive “popular kids” to play in a rock ’n’ roll band. The genuinely awesome thing about Seattle punk rock was it knocked down those walls and gave everyone permission to participate. 

You could be tall, short, fat, bald, hairy, pretty, ugly or even wear a bucket on your head, but as long as you had soul, wit and imagination, you could at least jump on stage without everyone laughing at you. Like a rock ’n’ roll sequel to the Revenge of the Nerds, everyone laughed, cried and learned.  And that, as the great philosopher Miley Cyrus once said, “was pretty cool.” 

Guns N’ Roses hit Seattle on Friday night (October 14) and were joined onstage by local rock royalty, in the form of Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready.

The LA sleaze gods always had enough punk edge to get a pass from the grunge scene – and, indeed, it’s rumored that GN'R even tried to arrange a package tour with Pearl Jam and U2 in 1993.

Instead fans got a small taster of what could have been, as the Pearl Jam man joined the group for traditional closer Paradise City. 

Since then fan footage has emerged that shows him giving the song all the energy it requires, going toe to toe with Slash on the song’s frantic final lead runs. 

Seattle Times music writer Michael Rietmulder was there in person to review the gig and sums it up nicely. 

“It’s not every day, even in Seattle, you get the chance to watch two of rock’s elite guitar soloists like Slash and McCready go lick for lick,” says Rietmulder. 

“That’s exactly what they did during the song’s closing blitz, the two locking in as McCready unleashed a rapid-fire screamer before Slash answered right back.”

In the footage, you can see Slash armed, as you would expect, with a Gibson Les Paul, while the Pearl Jam guitarist appeared to be using his long-favored (and heavily worn) 1960 Fender Strat, which served as the basis for the recent Fender Mike McCready signature Stratocaster.

The result of the two player’s contrasting tones and techniques – Slash’s feel, and McCready’s buttery speed – is a sort of hybrid monster of the GN’R and Pearl Jam sounds. 1993 aside, it makes you wonder what would have happened, had McCready been born and raised a few states south.

It's a typically animated performance form McCready, who is known for his energy onstage, but then perhaps he’s still riding the wave of motivation provided by Pearl Jam’s recent album sessions with producer Andrew Watt. 

“He kind of kicked us in our asses a little bit,” McCready told Guitar World, in September. “Like, ‘Okay, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go go go!’ He's the most hyper guy I've ever met besides myself. But he's a giant fan of our band, and he's a really smoking guitar player in his own right.”

In the same chat, McCready also revealed he’s working on a rock opera about the Seattle scene. Who knows? Maybe he’ll be able to arrange a few celebrity cameos on that one, too.

Of all the guitarists to emerge from the Seattle fog in the early ’90s, Mike McCready is perhaps the closest thing the scene had to a ‘conventional’ guitar hero. Inspired by everyone from Kiss to Stevie Ray Vaughan and Van Halen, his chops combined blues feel with just a dash of hair-metal flair from the outset.

But it wasn’t just his playing that positioned McCready firmly in the guitar hero camp. Pearl Jam’s meteoric rise to fame allowed the guitarist to live his gear fantasies, too. Shortly after the unprecedented success of debut album Ten, McCready was able to invest in his ultimate prize: a Fender Stratocaster, built in 1959… or so he thought.

In 2021, Fender built a Custom Shop replica of McCready’s Stratocaster, with all the wear and tear inflicted by the guitarist over three decades of touring with Pearl Jam – not least the epic headstock chip inflicted while performing with Neil Young in the ’90s.

But during Fender’s examination of the guitar, Master Builder Vincent Van Trigt discovered the Stratocaster was actually built in 1960, rather than 1959 – news that came as something of a surprise to McCready, who also owns a ’59 Les Paul.

“Thinking that guitar was 1959 for almost 30 years was very much of a shock,” he tells Guitar World from his hotel room in Texas, where Pearl Jam are due to perform the following night. “And I’ve got a ’59 tattoo, so I’ll have to get that changed to a ’+1’!”

With the original run of 60 guitars long since sold – at $15,000 a pop, no less – Fender has seen fit to launch a considerably more attainable version for fans seeking the Pearl Jam icon’s snappy single-coil tone and his Strat’s innumerous battle scars.

The new made-in-Mexico Mike McCready Stratocaster isn’t hand-made by Van Trigt like the original, but it does capture the style and substance of the Custom Shop version for a snip under $2,000. McCready did try to get the $1,899 price tag lower, but the increase in material and shipping costs over Covid meant it was impossible to achieve. But, as the guitarist notes of his latest guitars, “They’re cheaper – not in terms of quality but in terms of price.”

Although the band have opened up in recent years, interviews with members of Pearl Jam are still few and far between. But if there is any topic that will get Mike McCready talking, it’s guitars.

With a tight 20-minute slot under the watchful eye of Fender, we sought to dig into as many of the big talking points as we could: the switch to digital amps, those Eruption covers, his greatest Strat moment.

But it wasn’t until we asked about Chris Cornell’s influence on his guitar playing that we got more than we bargained for. Suffice to say, McCready has big plans for the future, and they’re not just with Pearl Jam – although the Seattle veterans’ new album is also shaping up to be one of their most vital in the hands of Ozzy Osbourne and Iggy Pop super-producer Andrew Watt.

Congratulations on your new signature Stratocaster! How does the new model compare with the previous Custom Shop version?

“They play great. I’ve just started playing it on the tour. So I’ve used it on Indifference, I’ve used it on Daughter. I’ve used it on Porch once, I’ve used it on a bunch of our songs. Because I knew I was going to talk to you, I wanted to make sure I was playing this thing that I’m endorsing right now. I want to make sure it’s a legitimately great guitar, and Fender did a fantastic job of it, but I gotta play it live to make sure before talking to you about it. And it plays and sounds like my original one. You know, my original one is the best and that will always sound the best. This one is right next to the best.”

Were you road-testing models prior to the release of this guitar? 

“I was. I was working with [Head of Signature Artists] Michael Schultz and Fender and their team, and [Pearl Jam equipment manager] George Webb on our side. On the last European tour, we had a bunch of these models come out and we tweaked things – maybe the pickups sounded too high-endy at one time and then we got that fixed. Some of the colors were maybe not [right].

“You had a lot of back and forth, but dealing with Fender was relatively quick and easy. They’re very good at sending me stuff, so they’d send me different models. And what eventually happened was, I took two models and put them together: the neck of one, the body of another they were working on, and that’s the one that we have now. But I did play it on the European tour last year.”

What do you consider to be your finest recorded moment with your original Strat?

“Oh my gosh, that’s a good question. I’ve played it on almost every single record. I didn’t play it on [Temple of the Dog epic] Reach Down – I love that thing, but that’s not with that guitar. I would say Daughter is one of the finer ones. I used it on In My Tree in the studio – that’s cool. That’s a really hard question because it’s been on so many songs. Let me get back to you on that. I’ll remember. [pause] Oh, Nothing as It Seems.”

I was going to bring that up if you didn’t mention it, because that is a fantastic solo.

“Thank you for suggesting it. That solo was some dark times for me when I went through that thing. I was using some sort of a Fender pedal that they made in the ’60s – I forget what it’s called [most likely a Fender Blender – Ed]. I’ve only been able to get that sound on that song – I’ve never been able to get it live. I think it was because Tchad Blake, our producer, was helping with it.”

Great pick. Now that you know your Strat is a 1960 model rather than a 1959, have you been looking to buy a real ’59?

“[Laughs] The ’60 neck is thinner than a ’59, and I should have known that playing other ’59s over the years, but I never put the things together. I might get an original one someday, but I’m kind of good on guitars right now, so I have to slow down on that!

“Originally the reason I wanted to get a 1959 was because I love Stevie Ray Vaughan. I’m actually in Texas right now, where he was from, and he played a 1959. And maybe it was a ’59 with a ’60 body, I can’t remember. [Editor’s note: Although Vaughan often claimed he played a ’59, it was actually a ’63 body, ’62 neck and ’59 pickups, according to his tech René Martinez – so McCready’s ’60 Strat may feel closer to SRV’s than he first thought.]

“But I love that 1960, now that that’s what it is. I’ve played it more than any other guitar, in the history of [the band]. The first time I ever played it was on a song called Going Down with Keith Richards when we opened up for him on New Year’s Eve 1992. So that was a dream.”

Have other players played your Fender model and offered their opinions on it?

“I sent Annie Clark of St. Vincent the more spendy model, and she seems to really like it a lot. She’s been recording with it, which is a great honor for me. She’s a good friend of mine. She has her [Ernie Ball Music Man] guitar that she plays all the time, but she took the time to play this one, so I’m happy that she likes it. I haven’t given the new model to anybody yet, but I’ll be getting them out there for sure.”

It looked like Stone was playing one of your models live for a bit.

“Stone has my model of the more expensive one and he loves it. He plays it a whole bunch – on this tour, actually.”

You bring a wide array of instruments with you on tour, but you often switch up which guitar you use for specific songs – you’ve played Alive on Strats, Les Pauls and even Flying Vs, for example. What prompts that decision each night?

“It’s the immediacy of how I’m feeling. I’ll talk with my tech about a half-hour before the show, and we’ll go through the list and go, ’Okay, Strat here, Les Paul here, Strat here, tuned-down Les Paul here.’ There’s a lot of intricacies that go on with Pearl Jam now, because we have so many songs, and we tune some of them down, and they’re in weird tunings.

“I just have to say I’m feeling more of a Les Paul moment, or I’m feeling more of a Strat moment. I’ll make a quick decision. I’ll change what I wrote the hour before. Usually I’ll stick to what we do, but sometimes I feel like, ’Ah, I wanna just try something different.’ Just to throw myself a curve a little bit.”

Is that a tough gig for your tech?

“Probably a little bit, but I don’t do that that much – we usually work out a good thing because we want to have the set as tight as possible. So usually I stick to what I’m doing. Sometimes I’ll mix it up.”

You’ve also been spotted playing Fender’s digital Tone Master amps over the past year or so – what prompted the switch?

“My inclination is to always go tube amps, but these Fender digital amps, back to back against tube amps, sound exactly like tube amps. They’re phenomenal. They’re some of the best amps I’ve ever played. And they’re consistent in that, and maybe that’s the digital part of it.

“Again, I’m all about ‘not digital’; I love tube stuff. But our crew and everyone and myself, we’d A/B’d them back and forth with regular Fenders and Twins and things like that, and they were identical. So it made sense to play the newer ones, just in terms of going on the road and making sure they don’t fall apart or whatever.

“They’re fantastic. They break up really well, I can get a great punk sound out of them if I need to or I can get a good clean sound. It seems to be able to handle whatever I throw it in terms of wah pedal or a delay or whatever I use in there – octaver or something, they work cool. And Phase 90s work cool through them, so I love ’em. I’m sold.”

You’ve paid tribute to Eddie Van Halen on tour by covering Eruption. It’s perhaps the ultimate lead guitar showcase, so what inspired you to perform that song – and what did Eddie mean to you?

“Eddie Van Halen to me was a huge deal. I started playing when I was 12 years old and that’s right when his first record came out, and it was unlike anything I had ever heard.

“I heard Hendrix and he always was my hero and still is to this day, and then Eddie was another version of a guitar hero that felt like he came from outer space or something. Like, ’What is this? What is this Eruption thing?’

“You know, I’m just starting to play Smoke on the Water [at that time]. And I’m very young – I’d just started playing in bands when I was 12. So, when Eddie came out, he blew everybody’s mind. I always thought that this was something that was completely out of reach, that I would never be able to do Eruption.

“And thank God for YouTube, because there’s guys that have picked out every single note. Other people figured it out for me, so I didn’t have to try to figure it out. And I just made myself [go]: ’Okay, I’m gonna do this.’ This is my test to myself to see if I can actually do it.

“And I’m almost there. I’m still struggling with a few parts of it. You know, I’ll never truly get it. But it’s a masterpiece to try to do, so I want to do it the best I can.

“Oh man, I love him. I saw him four times live with David Lee Roth back in the day and it was unreal, seeing him live.”

How’s the new Pearl Jam record coming along, and what’s Andrew Watt bringing to the table?

“It’s just about finished. I think there’s a few tweaks here and there that have to happen and we’re probably not going to have anything out this year. But Andrew Watt brought an energy and a youthfulness and a great ear to us that I think we needed.

“He kicked us in our asses a little bit. Like, ’Okay, let’s go, let’s go, let’s go, let’s go go go!’ He’s the most hyper guy I’ve ever met besides myself. But he’s a giant fan of our band, and he’s a really great guitar player himself. He’s more known for the pop world in terms of his stuff. But he’s a really smoking guitar player in his own right.

“Andrew Watt got us into a room and just pushed us as hard as we could be pushed. You know, it’s hard for a quote-unquote outsider to come into our world because we’ve done things a certain way. We’re open to new things, but we are also in our own world. We’ve done things for 30 years, so we know the dynamics of our band very well. But sometimes we need to get pushed and questioned, and Andrew did a great job of that.”

Andrew Watt has a serious guitar collection. Did you use any of his gear?

“He had a ’59 Strat that I played while we were in the studio. We used all of his equipment, which is different for us, too. I think Matt used his own drums, but I just went, ’Hey man, this guy’s got great equipment, and I’m just gonna play on whatever he says.’”

Is there any era of Pearl Jam’s career you can compare the new music to?

“It’s hard to do that. I hate trying to describe music. But there’s elements of the first three records in the energy that is there, but not things derivative of it. Also, Matt Cameron’s playing better than I’ve ever heard him in a long time. I mean, of course I’ve heard him with Soundgarden, and of course he’s incredible and always has been. But he’s playing more like that now – he’s kinda loose. Andrew pushed him to play however he wanted to play. How Matt’s playing on this record has made it amazing in my mind.”

Speaking of Soundgarden, you recently shared a performance of a new original song, Crying Moon, in tribute to Chris Cornell. What did you take from Chris as a guitarist and musician?

“Chris is someone who I think about every day, and I’m still in loss and sad, but proud that I got to know him at one time. I look at it in a very sentimental way that he allowed me to play on that Temple of the Dog record – it was my first big thing I was ever part of, and it was a dream come true. And I’ll always love him for that.

“He didn’t have to let me play on that record – they could have done anything. We were talking about Reach Down earlier, and he was very encouraging, like, ’Hey, just go crazy and solo.’ I was very nervous and didn’t want to do that, and when he encouraged me to do that, to go crazy, I went for it.

“And of course, I look at him as one of the greatest singers and songwriters of all time, aside from being a friend. So I look at him as a fan, too – I would go to Soundgarden rehearsals and I’d bring them pizza just so I could watch them rehearse. I really did! I was kind of their fanboy. So I probably irritated them a lot, I’m sure.

“I love Chris. I’m working on a little project about the Seattle scene and a musical rock opera thing. He’s part of it. [Crying Moon] is one of the songs that’s maybe going to be part of it, just an acoustic version of it.”

That’s a serious undertaking. Is there anything else you can reveal about that project at this time?

“I can’t right now because I’m just in the middle of it. I’m working on a script and I’ve got about 18 songs that I’m working on, and I’m singing on it. It’s been a long journey.

Is that a record or something for the theater?

“I hope so. A record and maybe some sort of stage/play thing, I’m not sure. It’s just from my experience in the Seattle music scene.”

Who are the new guitarists inspiring you today?

“There’s a band called Thunderpussy – I love Whitney Petty, the guitar player. She’s really phenomenal and new and exciting. I love Annie Clark. She has a few records out, obviously, but she’s got an interesting angular feeling to her playing I like a lot.

“Also, Jessica Dobson from Deep Sea Diver who’s out with us right now. She’s got a really cool style of delay, and she was showing me her pedalboard. She has a great voice to go along with it.

“Those three are the top three that come to mind right now. I’m stuck in the ’80s and ’70s – you have to drag me out!”

• For more information on the Mike McCready Stratocaster, head to Fender.com.

Throughout Pearl Jam’s three-decade-plus career, there have been two constants in Mike McCready’s guitar rig: an array of desirable vintage guitars (not least his ’59 Les Paul and ’60 Strat), and a backline rammed with multiple tube amps – usually at least a couple to handle clean and dirty duties.

But the Seattle greats’ lead guitarist made a surprising change to his setup for Pearl Jam’s US tour in May last year, swapping out his traditional Fender tube combos for the company’s new digital Tone Master equivalents – in this case, the series’ Deluxe Reverb and Blonde Twin Reverb.

In a new interview with Guitar World, McCready explains that the switch was not taken lightly – in fact, he put the amps through rigorous testing with the Pearl Jam crew.

“My inclination is to always go tube amps, but these Fender digital amps, back to back against tube amps, sound exactly like tube amps,” he says. “They’re phenomenal. They’re some of the best amps I’ve ever played. And they’re consistent in that, and maybe that’s the digital part of it.

“Again, I’m all about ‘not digital’; I love tube stuff. But our crew and myself, we’d A/B’d them back and forth with regular Fenders and Twins and things like that, and they were identical. So it made sense to play the newer ones, just in terms of going on the road and making sure they don’t fall apart or whatever.”

McCready still employs some tubes in his rig, however: a Lead Custom from Seattle amp builder Rola runs into a Marshall 4x12, alongside his Fenders. But he notes that the Tone Masters respond well to the rest of his gear, not least his well-stocked pedalboard.

“They break up really well,” he says. “I can get a great punk sound out of them if I need to or I can get a good clean sound. It seems to be able to handle whatever I throw it in terms of wah pedal or a delay or whatever I use in there – octaver or something, they work cool. And Phase 90s work cool through them, so I love ’em. I’m sold.”

Of course, outside of his beloved vintage guitars, it’s not like McCready has ever been averse to changing up his tone – although this is the first time his amps haven’t had that telltale red glow emanating from the rear.

But even with his guitars, he’s not loyal song to song – you might see Alive, for example, performed on a Strat one night, a Les Paul the next, and even a Flying V after that. As McCready tells it, it’s a feel thing.

“It’s the immediacy of how I’m feeling,” he explains. “I’ll talk with my tech about a half-hour before the show, and we’ll go through the list and go, ’Okay, Strat here, Les Paul here, Strat here, tuned-down Les Paul here.’ There’s a lot of intricacies that go on with Pearl Jam now, because we have so many songs, and we tune some of them down, and they’re in weird tunings.

“I just have to say I’m feeling more of a Les Paul moment, or I’m feeling more of a Strat moment. I’ll make a quick decision. I’ll change what I wrote the hour before. Usually I’ll stick to what we do, but sometimes I feel like, ’Ah, I wanna just try something different.’ Just to throw myself a curve a little bit.”

Speaking of curveballs, McCready also revealed to Guitar World that he’s working on a rock opera about the Seattle music scene – and that Pearl Jam’s next Andrew Watt-produced album is “just about finished”.

For more from the Pearl Jam guitarist, including his reflections on working with Chris Cornell and covering Van Halen's Eruption, check out Guitar World's full interview with Mike McCready.

This week, Mike McCready unveiled his second signature Stratocaster with Fender, but the Pearl Jam guitarist has a heck of a lot more in the works – and we’re not just talking about the Seattle rock icons’ hotly anticipated new  album.

But let’s start there. In an interview with Guitar World yesterday (September 12), McCready was enthusiastic about the band’s new material and the input of Andrew Watt – the super-producer who initially found fame in the pop world with Post Malone, Dua Lipa and Justin Bieber, but more recently established himself as the rock collaborator du jour after working with Ozzy Osbourne, Iggy Pop and Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder.

“It’s just about finished,” McCready says of the new effort. “I think there's a few tweaks here and there that have to happen, and we’re probably not going to have anything out this year. But Andrew Watt brought an energy and a youthfulness and a great ear to us that I think we needed.

“He kind of kicked us in our asses a little bit. Like, ‘Okay, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go go go!’ He's the most hyper guy I've ever met besides myself. But he's a giant fan of our band, and he's a really smoking guitar player in his own right.”

Watt’s enthusiasm galvanized the band’s performances, McCready says, noting that there are “elements of the first three records in the energy that is there, but not things derivative of it”.

“He got us into a room and just pushed us as hard as we could be pushed,” he explains. “You know, it’s hard for a quote-unquote outsider to come into our world because we've done things a certain way. We're open to new things, but we are also in our own world. We've done things for 30 years. So we know the dynamics of our band very well. But sometimes we need to get pushed and questioned, and Andrew did a great job of that.”

In particular, McCready nods towards drummer Matt Cameron’s performances on the record as a highlight, noting that in leans more towards his work with Soundgarden than Pearl Jam.

“Matt Cameron's playing better than I’ve ever heard him in a long time. I mean, of course I've heard him with Soundgarden and of course he's incredible and always has been. But he's playing more like that now – he's kinda loose. Andrew pushed him to play however he wanted to play. How Matt’s playing on this record has made it amazing in my mind.”

But while Cameron used his own drum set, the rest of the band opted to record using Watt’s enviable gear collection – which includes a ’64 Gibson SG, ’65 Telecaster and ’59 Les Paul Junior gifted by Ozzy Osbourne – rather than bring their own rigs to the sessions.

“Andrew had a ’59 Strat that I played while we were in the studio,” McCready reveals. “We used all of his equipment, which is different for us, too. I think Matt used his own drums, but I just went, ‘Hey man, this guy’s got great equipment, and I'm just gonna play on whatever he says.’”

But McCready has one more musical project in the works: a rock opera inspired by his experiences as part of the Seattle music scene.

Last month, the guitarist shared a performance of an acoustic composition called Crying Moon, written as a tribute to his friend and Temple of the Dog bandmate Chris Cornell. The late Soundgarden frontman is part of the inspiration behind the new project.

“I look at him as one of the greatest singers and songwriters of all time, aside from being a friend,” McCready says of Cornell. “I love Chris and I'm working on a little project about the Seattle scene and a musical kind of rock opera thing. It's just from my experience in the Seattle music scene, and he's part of it.”

McCready notes that Crying Moon will appear in the rock opera, but as for what form the musical will take, that remains to be seen – he’s currently weighing up “a record and maybe some sort of stage/play thing”.

“I'm just in the middle of it,” he says. “I’m working on a script and I've got about 18 songs that I'm working on, and I'm singing on it. It's been a long journey.”

For more from the Pearl Jam guitarist, including his thoughts on digital amps and covering Van Halen's Eruption, check out Guitar World's full interview with Mike McCready.

Fender has rekindled its partnership with Mike McCready for a second signature guitar based on the Pearl Jam legend’s iconic 1960 Fender Stratocaster.

The two first teamed up back in 2021 to produce a meticulous Custom Shop recreation of McCready’s heavily worn Strat, which – until quite recently – was believed to be a ‘59 example, when in actual fact it heralded from 1960.

For all its uber-desirable Custom Shop beauty, that limited-edition model (which McCready says he mistook for the real deal) was vastly unobtainable for many Pearl Jam fans, weighing in at $15,000.

Now, the Big F has sought to rectify this and make McCready’s fabled sunburst Stratocaster more accessible to a wider pool of players, once again constructing what is dubbed “a faithful recreation” of the six-string – this time with a $1,899 price tag.

The guitar itself doesn’t come as a surprise. After all, McCready confirmed its existence well over a year ago, previously telling Guitar Player that “we’re working on a more affordable signature model now, because obviously this limited-run Custom Shop model is a relatively expensive guitar”.

With accurate Road Worn relicing that pays close attention to the original ‘60 model, this Mexican-made McCready Strat recruits an alder body, slim C maple neck and 9.5”-radius rosewood fingerboard, the latter of which is complemented by 21 frets and dot inlays.

As for hardware and electronics, vintage-style tuners and a vintage-style tremolo line up alongside a trio of custom Mike McCready single coils that have been voiced to those found on the original guitar.

On the face of it, owing to its more accessible price and impressive authenticity, we imagine McCready’s second signature Strat will be just as (if not more) popular than the Custom Shop predecessor.

And that’s saying something, given that the Custom Shop guitar proved popular among many of the Pearl Jam player’s peers, finding its way into the hands of his bandmate Stone Gossard, as well as St. Vincent and Willow. 

For McCready, this latest Strat, which hails from Fender’s Ensenada factory, marks a key milestone for him.

As he notes, “With the release of my artist signature, I’m deeply honored to not only further solidify my partnership with the brand, but to deliver a more approachable guitar to the hands of the next generation of guitar players featuring the state-of-the-art craftsmanship Fender is known for and a distinct tone that holds a special place in my heart.”

The Mike McCready Stratocaster is available now for $1,899.

Head over to Fender to find out more.

Pearl Jam’s groundbreaking 1991 debut album, Ten, struck halfway between the guitar-powered squall of Led Zeppelin, and the coal-eyed intensity of punk. Selling more than 15 million copies worldwide, it's an absolute feast for bass players, with Jeff Ament’s fretless featuring prominently throughout.

Describing his approach in the November 2020 issue of BP, Ament said: “I think over half of that record is fretless. Maybe Porch is fretted bass and I think everything else is fretless. There’s a 12-string on three songs. When we started out, I was a little bit pushier at that point, in terms of wanting the bass to be prominent, but my role has changed over the years.”

On one of the band’s most beloved tracks, Even Flow, the sound of the fretless bass guitar really hits the mark, with Ament sliding a harmonic just before the verse kicks in. Speaking to Songfacts Ament said: “So that harmonic, I'm kind of ripping The Firm's Radioactive. And I figured it out by accident.”

“I was always obsessed with playing harmonics on bass, but at some point I remember accidentally hitting harmonics and sliding on it, so I started experimenting with that part of it. So mistakes, and also having in the back of my head that sound of Radioactive.”

Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready later admitted that the rhythm parts were challenging in their own way. “We probably recorded that track 25 or 30 times, and we just never seemed to get it right. Jeff would fucking run outside because he was so mad about it. I remember it wasn’t about the technique of it as much as it was about how it felt. That’s the only time we recorded a song that many times. But it was just this endless puzzle of trying to figure it out.”

“I was really obsessed with fretless bass at that time,” said Ament. “I was listening to a lot of Jaco Pastorius, I was listening to a lot of Japan's Mick Karn, and I was listening to Tony Franklin. I knew at the beginning of Pearl Jam that the way we were writing, it was very Jimmy Page – very riffy. And because of Tony Franklin, I knew that fretless would add a really cool voice to rock music.”

Speaking of hero worship, Tony Franklin revealed on YouTube that he wasn’t the originator of sliding harmonics. “Before people give me any credit, I first heard it on a Paul Young song called Wherever I Lay My Hat. There’s a wonderful two note sliding harmonic that Pino Palladino plays in the intro. It’s a beautiful fretless part and when I heard that, somehow I figured out how to do it.”

Drummer Matt Cameron would later name Even Flow his favourite song from Ten. Speaking to Line of Best Fit, he said: “When I was in Soundgarden and we were making Badmotorfinger, Eddie brought up the mixes to Ten and I distinctly remember hearing the chorus for Even Flow and thinking that’s HUGE. Although we’ve played it a couple of thousand times since I’ve been in the group I think that’s the quintessential Pearl Jam song. Even though it gets played out, the nuts and bolts of that song are just amazing.”

Ten is available to buy and stream.

Stone Gossard may be playing his first shows with new Mason Jennings-fronted side-project Painted Shield, but he’s taking his Pearl Jam bandmate Mike McCready along in spirit, as he’s been sighted playing the lead man’s Fender Custom Shop Stratocaster.

Footage taken from the third night of Painted Shield’s debut gigs at Seattle’s Clock-Out Lounge shows Gossard giving the Fender Custom Shop Limited Edition Mike McCready 1960 Stratocaster a runout on eerie electro-rocker I Am Your Country, its bridge single coil accentuating his edgy fingerpicking.

Launched in 2021, McCready’s Custom Shop model recreates the PJ soloist’s iconic ’60 Stratocaster, right down to custom hand-wound pickups, a Callaham bridge block and, of course, every scratch and ding it has endured throughout Pearl Jam’s career. A more affordable version is apparently in the works.

It’s likely McCready – who tracked a number of solos on Painted Shield’s debut album – hooked his longtime rhythm partner up with the guitar, as he did St. Vincent, who brought the Strat into the studio with Willow earlier this year.

Gossard, who was running through a Deluxe Reverb guitar amp for the show, employed a few other surprise guitars throughout the set, including his rarely seen Bigsby-equipped Strat, which got an outing for Aerosmith-vibed riff rocker Evil Winds, while he switched over to Hofner Club-style bass on Knife Fight.

It’s not the first time Gossard has been sighted with an unlikely guitar choice. On Pearl Jam’s US tour last year, his go-to model was a Gibson Les Paul Signature Semi Hollow Gold Top – notable for its ES cutaway up top and Les Paul cutaway on the lower bout.

A mashup of ’70s glam, new wave, punk and trip-hop, Painted Shield has been an active concern since the release of their self-titled debut in 2020.

Besides Gossard and singer-songwriter Jennings, the band’s lineup also includes drummer Matt Chamberlain and keyboard player/vocalist Brittany Davis, while Seattle session vet Jeff Fielder handles the lion’s share of bass duties during live performances. Their second record, Painted Shield 2, landed in May 2022.

“I write a lot of songs, so there’s only so much real estate on a Pearl Jam record for my indulgences,” Gossard told us of the band’s origins back in 2020. “Luckily, Mason is still appreciative of some of my songwriting efforts! It’s so easy to do, because we just send songs back to each other.”

Grunge legends Pearl Jam formed in the now legendary music city of Seattle, Washington in 1990. Along with Nirvana and Soundgarden, they are probably among the most famous of all the grunge bands and have enjoyed a career that has spanned over 30 years and gone on to influence thousands of other rock and pop bands.

The group’s long-running, best-known line-up consists of guitarists Stone Gossard and Mike McCready, bass player Jeff Ament, vocalist Eddie Vedder and drummer Matt Cameron (formerly of Soundgarden.) Pearl Jam have never been particularly visible as rock stars, and have often shied away from making music videos or doing interviews. 

Their 1991 debut album, Ten, has become one of the most legendary rock albums of all time, having sold over 13 million units in the US alone. Although not perhaps viewed as quite so instrumental as Nirvana in taking grunge into the mainstream, it should be noted that Pearl Jam’s Ten album has actually sold more copies than Nirvana’s seminal Nevermind in the US. Pearl Jam have since gone on to sell over 85 million records worldwide and become one of the biggest selling rock outfits of all time.

Although often associated with the other grunge bands of the early 1990s, Pearl Jam’s sound is noticeably less heavy than some of their peers, and leans more towards the classic rock of the 1970s. Mike McCready was influenced by Jimi Hendrix, while Stone Gossard’s style has influences from funk intertwined with rock. Other artists that influenced Pearl Jam include Led Zeppelin and Neil Young.

Our track this month features blues-rock influenced riffs, grungy chords and pentatonic scale soloing. The initial guitar part is more in keeping with Stone Gossard’s funk influences, while the McCready-style solo is more akin to the Hendrix-inspired style that has been around since the 1960s. 

Our piece this month is in the key of A Minor (A-B-C-D-E-F-G), and the solo and many of the chords are built from the notes of that scale. However, there are a number of non-diatonic chords in the rhythm guitar part – notice that the A chord each time is actually an A Major (A-C#-E), and you’ll also spot a D Major chord (D-F#-A), also from outside the key of A Minor. 

Get the tone

Amp settings: Gain 7, Bass 5, Middle 6, Treble 7, Reverb 3

Stone Gossard and Mike McCready use classic guitars such as the Gibson Les Paul and Fender Stratocaster, and it would be good to aim for a humbucking pickup sound if possible. If you are using single-coil pickups, roll the treble down a touch if you find the sound too bright. For guitar amps, it's classic Marshall style gain, but not too overdriven. Add a hint of reverb.

Example 1. Rhythm

There’s much lively 16th-note funk style strumming in the rhythm guitar track. While some of the muted strums haven’t been written in the notation, it would be good to practise the part adding percussive strumming and keeping 1-e-&-a, 2-e-&-a, 3-e-&-a, 4-e-&-a movement going. 

You’ll find it makes rhythmic sense to play the longer dotted eighth-note rhythms with a ‘down’ stroke and the shorter 16th-note rhythms with an ‘up’ stroke.

Example 2. Solo

There’s nothing too taxing here, as it’s mostly pentatonic classic rock-style vocabulary. However, you might find it best to play the fast section in the third bar using strict alternate picking. But feel free to experiment, as grunge was never an absolute science and much more about youthful angst and attitude. 

In December 2019, Josh Klinghoffer’s world was upended when he was given the stunning and abrupt news that, after 10 years of membership in the Red Hot Chili Peppers, his services were no longer required and that the band’s longtime guitarist, John Frusciante, was rejoining. He didn’t see it coming, and for a period he felt numb, but given time and space he’s been able to process his dismissal and put things in perspective. 

“Obviously, it’s sad when something is taken from you,” Klinghoffer says. “I did a perfect 10 years with them, but for as much as I love those guys and loved playing with them, it was also enormously stifling creatively. They’re an established band with an established sound, and I learned over time how little deviating from that was possible.”

Asked to elaborate, he says, “When I first joined, I wouldn’t use certain chords when I was writing if they sounded like something John would play. Or if it sounded like a choice they would have made on their last album, I purposely went the other way.” 

He reveals that his efforts in trying to push the band toward new areas of expression proved frustrating at times, saying, “I thought I was doing a good job of writing music with them, but it wound up not kind of becoming part of my story, or if it is part of my story with them, it’s a small part. As much as I thought they were up for experimentation, they generally stayed in their own lane.”

Klinghoffer is quick to deem his tenure with the Chili Peppers “a blessing and a beautiful experience,” but he’s now able to view his departure from the band “the best thing that could have happened to me. I’m free to explore other musical avenues and perhaps find my own sound more than I was able to with them.”

It didn’t take him long to land on his feet. Shortly after he was cut from the Chili Peppers, he was asked to join Pearl Jam as a multi-purpose touring member, an association that soon led to him writing and recording with Eddie Vedder for the singer’s latest solo album, Earthling. 

Interestingly enough, that project – and a short tour coinciding with the record’s release – also included Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith. “It was great to play with Chad again right away,” Klinghoffer says. “It felt so comfortable and familiar.” 

Since 2019, Klinghoffer has released solo albums under the pseudonym Pluralone. First there was To Be One with You, and a year later came I Don’t Feel Well. His latest album under the Pluralone moniker, This Is the Show, is a dreamy, largely synth-driven set produced by the guitarist’s onetime Dot Hacker bandmate Clint Walsh. 

“I was always planning to do my own music even when I was in the Chili Peppers,” Klinghoffer says. “There probably wouldn’t have been so many albums in such a short period of time because I would have had to work around their schedule. Now it’s going to be much easier.”

Most guitarists dream of getting in one big band. You were a Chili Pepper, and now you play with Pearl Jam. What is it about you that all these bands want?

“[Laughs] That’s a good question! I think it’s a combination of a lot of things. Some of it’s pure luck and timing, but I also think it might have something to do with my thirst for musical knowledge. I love other people’s music, but I don’t try to emulate anybody’s playing. I’ve never lost this sense that I’m a beginner, and I think that gives me a more primal approach to the guitar, and perhaps that makes my playing sound individualistic.

“Also, I never really lost the fan side of me. Whether it’s the Chili Peppers or Pearl Jam, I come at them with the same adoration of any fan who was affected deeply by their music, but I’m also somebody who is now in this position of playing alongside them. I try to be loving and supportive. I think that’s part of what carries me through.”

How did the invitation to play with Pearl Jam come about?

“Originally, it was like, ‘Come join us for this next tour,’ because at the time the record they were about to release [2020’s Gigaton] had a lot of backing vocals and other sounds – keyboards, extra guitars and all these miscellaneous things. 

“They were batting around the idea of having somebody else with them, but they didn’t want to turn it into this huge band. But when I suddenly became available, they thought, ‘Oh, this is perfect. We like him, and he can play anything we need.’ I mean, obviously, no one’s going to be in Pearl Jam except those five guys. They’ve had Boom Gaspar playing keyboards as a touring member for a while. But it’s great. I’m honored to say that these guys are my friends.”

You hooked up with the Chili Peppers and Pearl Jam when they already had deep catalogs. In each case, did you have to learn 100 songs in a week?

“I was already in the Chili Peppers’ orbit before joining them. I was good friends with John, and I toured with the band in 2007 as a second guitar player. I generally knew what they did and didn’t play, so I knew what to work on. Some songs from Stadium Arcadium I wasn’t familiar with on the guitar, but I knew Blood Sugar backward and forward. In the case of Pearl Jam, I know their catalog from record one to five like the back of my hand. Albums from 2000 onward, I don’t know as well.” 

You were the sole guitarist in the Chili Peppers. With Pearl Jam, however, you’re one of three, sometimes four, guitarists. What kind of adjustment was that?

“It’s certainly nice to not have to solo and to have this kind of musical bed beneath you. When I play guitar with Pearl Jam, it’s very background and supportive. They’ve got their bases pretty much covered. If they need a background vocal or a little guitar or keyboard part, I can focus on that. 

“It’s a different thing entirely, but I enjoyed doing both. Soloing with the Chili Peppers, even though I didn’t grow up soloing and I didn’t so much care about it, it was always fun. It was always a new experience every time.”

You’ve put out three Pluralone albums in as many years, and you co-wrote tunes with Eddie for Earthling. Writing doesn’t seem to be a problem for you.

“No, not so much. The thing that’s laborious for me is lyrics, but the more I do it, the easier it gets. Actually, the hard part for me is coming up with what to write about. There’s so much going on in the world, and there’s tons going on in one’s inner world, and there’s also been so much that has been said before. 

“Trying to come up with a unique way of saying generally the same thing, and doing it in a way that fits rhythmically with the chords you’ve written, that’s the real work for me.”

You got to play a lot of rocking guitar on Earthling.

“Absolutely. It was great to play a lot of guitar on the record. I love my playing on Brother the Cloud, which they released as a single. But Andrew Watt does a lot of guitar, too. A lot of the guitar on the record is him.”

On the other hand, there’s not a lot of guitar on This Is the Show. It’s more of a textural element.

“The record was born out of 2020 Covid times, trying to do an album remotely with my old band Dot Hacker. I’d write a song and send it to Clint Walsh, and he would communicate with the rhythm section. But it was hard to get four people to agree, and the Dot Hacker thing kind of fell apart. There were things that Clint and I really enjoyed working together on, so we just decided, ‘Hey, why don’t we just make this?’

“As for guitars, I think we were both in the kind of headspace of wanting to make an album that was more about songs. We didn’t consciously set out not to use the guitar, but it just kind of took shape that way. But having said all that, I feel as if the next album I do will be a return to guitar, because it’s been a while now.”

When you tour with Pearl Jam this year, will you be playing any new guitars?

“I found a really nice Custom Shop Tele that I used on the Earthling tour. It’s a beautiful, very faded Olympic White Custom Shop Tele, and I’m going to put a B- and G-bender in it. That’ll come out with me. And the other day I got a beautiful 1928 koa Martin. I’m a big fan of those little Martins, and I’ve never owned a koa wood acoustic, so that was enough for me to want to get it.”

• Earthling is out now via Republic.

This feature was first published in Guitar World magazine in 1995.

“I’m so ignorant of this technical stuff,” says Mike McCready when asked to explain the intricacies of Pearl Jam’s hit-making writing process. “I’ve always done it by ear. Honestly, I’d rather do regular interviews. It’s more interesting to talk about whatever… anything other than guitars. I’m not into being a tech-head.”

He’s just being modest, of course. A guitarist doesn’t reach the top of the rock and roll heap without having a solid acquaintance with his instrument and gear. But then again, that’s what high-paid roadies are for. McCready, an accomplished musician, is not ashamed about being technically challenged. He prefers to concentrate on the more visceral aspects of rock guitar. Like stealing riffs.

“Everything I know, I stole directly from Ace Frehley, Angus Young and Keith Richards,” admits McCready. “That’s how you learn. I used to sit for hours and copy every lick on those early AC/DC and Kiss records. From there I went on to Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughan. After a while, you kind of develop your own style.”

Here are a few examples of McCready’s best thievery.

1. Reach Down (Temple of the Dog, 1990)

“That was my first lead on an album, and I was so excited. I’d been in a studio before, but never to record an album or anything. I did that in one take! I soloed through the whole thing and ended up with the headphones wrapped around my face. I was totally flushed. The guitar work on that track represents one of my proudest moments.”

2. Hunger Strike (Temple of the Dog)

“I remember thinking that this was a really beautiful song when I heard it. Chris Cornell showed me the riff. I had a ’62 reissue Strat and I wanted to use the fourth-position tone setting – between the bridge and the middle pickups – for the beginning of the song because I like that softer sound. Then I kicked it to the front pickup for the heavier part of the song. This is one of many amazing songs written by Chris.”

3. Even Flow (Ten, 1991)

“That’s me pretending to be Stevie Ray Vaughan, and a feeble attempt at that. Stone [Gossard, guitarist] wrote the riff and song; I think it’s a D tuning. I just followed him in a regular pattern. I tried to steal everything I know from Stevie Ray Vaughan and put it into that song. A blatant rip-off. A tribute rip-off, if you will.”

4. Alive (Ten)

“I copied Ace Frehley’s solo from Kiss’s She, which was copied from Robby Krieger’s solo in the Doors’ Five to One.”

5. Why Go (Ten)

“The thing I remember most about this song is how thunderous Jeff Ament’s huge 12-string bass was, and me getting to noodle over it. He had just gotten the Hamer Tom Petersson model, and Why Go was the first song he used it on. It sounded like a piano in your face. It was pretty intense.”

6. Black (Ten)

“That’s more of a Stevie rip-off, with me playing little flowing things. I was way into that trip – I still am, actually, but it was probably more obvious back then. I really thought the song was beautiful. Stone wrote it and he just let me do what I wanted.”

7. Dirty Frank (single, 1992)

“This is a song about our illustrious first bus driver, who we were convinced was a serial killer. [Laughs] It came out of a jam we had at a soundcheck when we were touring with the Red Hot Chili Peppers. We were influenced by their funky jamming; maybe it’s an homage. Eddie [Vedder, vocals] came up with the lyrics.

“We’ve tried to play it live a couple of times since, but it never works. I’ve heard it on bootlegs and it’s really bad. The recorded version is cool, but we never did it right again.”

8. Breath (Singles soundtrack, 1992)

“That was a really old song of Stone’s from his days in Mother Love Bone. It was just another chance for me to do a lot of leads. The song was kind of cool at the time because it reminded me of performing. For me, it was about playing live.”

9. Animal (Vs., 1993)

“I like the lead on that. George Webb, a guy who takes care of all our guitars and amps, was sitting there and I told him I’d do a solo for him. It ended up being the one we used on the record. I did it on a Gibson 335. That’s a fun song to play.”

10. Glorified G (Vs.)

“I wrote part of that one. I had this Gretsch Country Gentleman and I started jamming on this little thing in D [sings riff]; the riff just came out of that. Stone came up with his weird part. There were all these strange, disjointed parts that kind of turned into a song. Stone’s doing something weird, Jeff’s doing something weird and offbeat, but for some reason it works. I really don’t know why.”

11. Spin the Black Circle (Vitalogy, 1994)

“That’s me trying to do Johnny Thunder leads. I actually overdubbed those leads, but when I do it live, that riff is so hectic and frantic, I have to be warmed up or it sounds really shitty.”

12. Not for You (Vitalogy)

“Tom Petty sent me this amazing 12-string Rickenbacker, and Not for You was the first time I used it. It was like a Christmas present. One day it just showed up at my door. I called him up and thanked him. But it’s a cool song – an Eddie song.”

13. Tremor Christ (Vitalogy)

“I wrote part of that one. It’s kind of an odd, marching Beatles tune. It’s just a strange song. It was written in New Orleans. The groove reconciles itself after you get into it.”

14. Satan’s Bed (Vitalogy)

“That’s another Stone song. The solo is definitely my tribute to Angus Young; I was trying to do my Angus thing. I’m sure Eddie won’t like reading that.” [Laughs]

15. Catholic Boy (Basketball Diaries soundtrack, 1995)

“Jeff and I did that song with Jim Carroll, who wrote the song and the book the movie is based on. Jim came out to Seattle and Chris Friel, a friend of mine [from McCready’s high school band, Shadow], played drums. Eddie plays guitar, Jim sings, I play guitar, Jeff plays bass – Stone was off doing something else. We cut it at Bad Animals Studio in a day. We got to hang out with Jim Carroll all day. He’s so cool.”

Heart icon Nancy Wilson invited Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready onstage to jam a few songs at her recent Seattle show (October 2), with spectacular results – and now fan footage has emerged capturing their performance.

McCready joined Wilson and band for the close of the set to perform Heart hit Barracuda, before finishing on a barreling cover of Led Zeppelin’s Rock And Roll.

In what seems to have been a moment of rock fantasy wish-fulfilment, McCready appears to be using Wilson’s own 1963 Telecaster in Lake Placid Blue. 

The distinctive electric guitar has been a favourite of Wilson’s for over 20 years and features a PAF humbucker in the neck position with a single-coil bridge pickup. Wilson, meanwhile, brandished her Bigbsy-equipped Gibson SG throughout the songs.

Watch the video above to see fan-shot footage of both songs, including some fine fretwork from McCready on Rock and Roll’s solo section. 

“Well, how ‘bout that?” comments Wilson at the close of events. “I think you can safely call that rock and roll.”

It’s not the first time McCready and Wilson have shared a stage, though. The pair jammed (alongside Chris Cornell), when Wilson and her sister, Heart vocalist Ann Wilson, were inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 2013.  

McCready then dropped in to play with Heart at Seattle’s Bumbershoot festival later that year, before they reunited again – this time alongside Duff McKagan – to perform at MusiCare’s 2018 Concert For Recovery – again, in Seattle.

Wilson is currently on tour throughout the US with Styx, but she also found time to pay her respects at the Foo Fighters’ second Taylor Hawkins tribute show. In the process, she helped deliver one of the night’s best performances when she played Barracuda with Pink and the Foo Fighters.

Back in May, Total Guitar conducted a series of polls on GuitarWorld.com. A staggering number votes were cast – just over 150,000, in fact – and now the results can be revealed.

Because we wanted to represent every era, from early classics to contemporary guitar heroes, we divided up our polls decade by decade from the 1960s all the way through to the 2010s and 2020s. Here, we present the top 10 guitar albums of the '90s, as voted by you.

Throughout the '90s, heavy music was redefined by Rage Against the Machine, Pantera, Soundgarden and more. But incredibly, four of the decade’s greatest guitar albums were released within a six-week period in 1991.

10. Red Hot Chili Peppers – Blood Sugar Sex Magik (1991)

Leaning harder into the funk of funk-rock than any of their peers, the Chilis’ defining moment finds John Frusciante drawing as much on Parliament-Funkadelic and Sly Stone as Hendrix. 

It turned out that playing James Brown riffs with a grittier tone and a drummer who wanted to be John Bonham was a winner. Frusciante’s angular soloing on Suck My Kiss and the graunching string bends of Give It Away explored how percussive lead guitar can get, while Under The Bridge is the best anyone has appropriated Hendrix’s combined lead-rhythm style. Amps? You don’t need one – John did most of this straight into the desk.

9. Tool – Ænima (1996)

Unlike his former bandmate Tom Morello, there’s no single aspect of Tool guitarist Adam Jones’ playing that is identifiably unique. Somehow, though, the overall effect sounds quite unlike anyone else. The majority of riffs are in 4/4, but the band’s knack for placing accents in different places for each instrument makes Ænima constantly rhythmically engaging.

Jones’ Les Paul tone is gigantic yet clear, coming from an early blueface Diezel VH4. His use of flangers gave the tone movement, and he’s one of the few guitarists to exploit his guitar’s tone control. The grooves in Ænima are so hypnotic that epic tunes flash by.

8. Soundgarden – Superunknown (1994)

For all the success of Superunknown, a number one in the US, Soundgarden’s fourth album saw fearless experimentation with time signatures. Spoonman is in 7/4, My Wave in 5/4, and Limo Wreck in a head-spinning 15/8 (five ‘triplet’ beats per bar). Their wild tunings included Open C (C-G-C-G-G-E), and Open E5 (E-E-B-B-B-B). 

Nevertheless, MTV found Black Hole Sun irresistible. Chris Cornell and Kim Thayil somehow retained clarity amid such sludgy riffing, thanks in no small part to Cornell’s choice of a Gretsch Duo Jet and Silver Jet and a Fender Jazzmaster to record all the rhythms, split through a Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier and 50-watt Marshall JMP.

7. Pantera – Vulgar Display Of Power (1992)

Dimebag Darrell was one of metal’s great characters – Zakk Wylde and EVH mashed into one fret-melting force of nature. On paper, Pantera should have been too heavy to get as big as they did, but Dime’s riffs had such an irresistible groove that everyone got on board. His vibrato was wider than the Grand Canyon, and his chromatic licks were vicious. 

The 12/8 rhythm of Walk defines groove metal, and its hand-crossing tapping lick is just plain fun. Dime proved you didn’t need valve amps for brutality, either. His preferred Randall solid-state heads grind with an unceasing fury here.

6. Alice In Chains – Dirt (1992)

Riffing harder than any of their Seattle contemporaries, Alice In Chains brought metal and grunge fans together. Them Bones successfully turned a piledriving riff in 7/8 into a hit single without sounding remotely prog, and Cantrell’s drop D grinding and layered parts earned him the admiration of Dimebag Darrell and Eddie Van Halen. 

Producer Dave Jerden recorded a separate amp for each EQ band. A Rockman supplied the treble, and a Bogner Ecstasy brought the mids. Bass was either a prototype Dual Rectifier or a Bogner Fish preamp, depending who you ask, but either way the resulting tone is colossal.

5. Megadeth – Rust In Peace (1990)

Marty Friedman’s choice soloing made Megadeth the guitar connoisseur’s favourite thrashers, and he was never in better form than on Rust In Peace. With exotic pentatonic scales and artfully chosen ‘wrong’ notes, he never sounded predictable but he kept enough blues influence to be accessible.

Standouts like Tornado Of Souls show a vibrato Kirk Hammett could only dream of and a perfect balance of technique and melody. Dave Mustaine isn’t outclassed either – his ‘machine gun’ alternate picking is blistering. He delivered his best riffs and songs to date, and went toe-to-toe with Friedman for Hangar 18’s duelling solos.

4. Rage Against the Machine – Rage Against the Machine (1992)

There’s a lot to say about Rage Against the Machine’s musical innovation, but ultimately every landmark album needs great songs, and Rage had ’em. Their debut had the best set of Jimmy Page-inspired blues riffs since Led Zeppelin II, and frontman Zack de la Rocha created slamming hooks without the need for singing. Drummer Brad Wilk had a Bonham-esque ability to hit each snare slightly late and guitarist Tom Morello also sat behind the beat, sounding like a T-Rex stomping through New York.

Morello’s preference for neck pickup tones on rhythms made him stand out. He used his Arm the Homeless guitar for standard tuning and American Standard Telecaster for everything in drop D, with overdubs from a Les Paul. 

Sick of tone chasing, Morello picked one amp setting in rehearsal and has stuck with it ever since. Luckily, his Marshall 2205 sounded awesome. Innovation is part luck, and Morello happened to be the first breakthrough guitarist with a DigiTech Whammy. But he also had an astonishingly creative mind and a refusal to be limited by conventional approaches.

His DJ scratching, created with a killswitch and a wide-open wah pedal, was brand-new. At times he’d unplug the guitar and exploit the noises made by a live cable. Somehow, Tom made it all work in context without sounding weird for the sake of it.

3. Nirvana – Nevermind (1991)

The ’90s didn’t really begin until Nevermind came out. There had long existed a punk scene for people who felt alienated by bands like Mötley Crüe. By 1991, that was the majority, and a generation embraced Nirvana for rejecting what had gone before.

Kurt Cobain had bought his Fender Jaguar because it was the only decent lefty he could find, but it helped that it looked unlike anything on MTV. Where ’80s chorus had been digitally pristine, Kurt chose an analogue MXR Small Clone. Where their distortion had come from giant amps, Kurt had a $40 Boss DS-1. And where they had shredded, Kurt played the vocal melody.

Ironically, producer Butch Vig didn’t let Nirvana sound the way they wanted. Nevermind’s sonics reflect the tension between Kurt’s urge for rawness and Vig’s radio-friendly instincts. Audiences connected to Cobain’s raw emotion, but they might not have done so in such numbers had Vig not persuaded him to multitrack a slick wall of guitars.

Beyond the sonics were Kurt’s immaculately crafted songs. The soft-loud dynamics were undeniably effective, and he had a Beatles-like knack for unexpected but satisfying chord changes. Lithium dances between D major and D minor for its verse and changes key for the chorus, while In Bloom somehow weaves a beautiful melody around the most jarring set of chords.

It’s hard to think about Nevermind without thinking of the overall tragedy of Kurt’s life, but it’s a monumental testament to the power of music – and guitars – to communicate feeling.

2. Pearl Jam – Ten (1991)

Stone Gossard and Mike McCready’s smart approach to having two guitars gave Pearl Jam’s debut its expansive sound. Generally McCready plays a Strat while Gossard plays a Les Paul, and one plays high while the other plays low. The distinct tones and frequencies from each guitarist give everything clarity and fill the entire audio spectrum with sonic excitement.

Pearl Jam have been called Seattle’s Rolling Stones to Nirvana’s Beatles. Like the Stones they have the knack of “weaving sonic tapestries”, as Keith Richards put it. Their thoughtful part writing also left space for Jeff Ament’s enormous 8- and 12-string basslines.

Mike McCready’s undisguised Stevie Ray Vaughan passion saw him bring Strats back into vogue. After a decade of compressed humbucker tones, McCready’s dynamic single coils underlined that this was a new generation.

He described his playing on Black and Even Flow as an SRV “rip off”, while he saw the epic outro solo in Alive as a copy of Ace Frehley’s solo in She by Kiss, which in turn was taken from Robby Krieger’s Five To One with The Doors.

Both guitarists used JCM800s for dirty tones and Fenders for clean parts. The guitarists happily shared the spotlight, with Gossard often playing main riffs on songs where McCready took solos. 

Kurt Cobain may have sneered that Ten had too many solos for an alternative band, but Pearl Jam were reconnecting rock with more organic tones and blues-rock roots, more Hendrix than hair metal. Ten was a classic rock masterpiece disguised as a grunge album.

1. Metallica – Metallica (1991)

The standout guitar album of the ’90s. The best-selling heavy metal album of all time. A sonic and creative benchmark for the genre. Metallica’s self-titled fifth album, forever known as The Black Album, is also the inspiration for countless young guitarists, with lead single Enter Sandman an essential riff for every new player. And for Matt Tuck, leader of British metal stars Bullet For My Valentine, the influence of this album is profound.

“They were a big band before that anyways,” Matt says, “but as soon as they released The Black Album it went stratospheric. They’ve been untouchable ever since, as far as getting an album to connect with as many people as they did. The amount of sales, how relevant it is 30 years later – it’s just a phenomenon!”

Tuck tells a story millions of metal fans can relate to: “I was 14 years old. We had just got Sky installed so we had MTV. We put it on and there was this music video on of a truck smashing through a man’s bed, with all these crazy low-end toms raging. It was Enter Sandman. The moment I heard it I was like ‘What the fuck is this?’ I was hooked from that moment. Within a couple of weeks I went out and bought my first ever album, Metallica’s Black Album.”

In that moment, Matt Tuck’s future was set. “I started to learn to play guitar by myself that year, off the back of that album,” he continues. “I learned some basic chords, then put on that album and started to work it all out. I wanted to be James Hetfield!”

In the early ’80s, Metallica had risen to cult status as pioneers of thrash metal, a super-fast, super-heavy hybrid of metal and punk. After a doggedly anti-commercial start to their career, they had made their first MTV video, for the song One, in 1988. 

The following album would be a risky move into the mainstream. For this, they enlisted producer Bob Rock, best known for working with Mötley Crüe and Bon Jovi. James Hetfield’s touring guitar had long been emblazoned with a “Kill Bon Jovi” sticker, and some Metallica fans were nervous.

Rock was famously demanding in the studio. Tensions between band and producer are visible in the Year In The Life Of Metallica documentary, and there were times during the making of the album when band and producer were barely on speaking terms.

Matt Tuck compares the process to working with producer Don Gilmore (Linkin Park) on Bullet’s 2010 album Fever. “We’ve never had that kind of ascendancy,” he says, “but Fever felt like a big stepping stone for us. That took us from Brixton Academy to Wembley. Up until that point, nobody questioned the songwriting. Don Gilmore was the only guy that really challenged me as a writer and I didn’t like it! He’s trying to get us to take out double kick patterns and not dumb it down, but just try and make it a little bit more Black Album.”

Matt can understand Metallica’s difficulties with Rock. “It’s such an intimate long-term personal process. The first time you work with these guys you don’t know them, there’s no relationship, there’s no trust. It’s only really when the dust settles and you can look back on it a couple of years later that you actually appreciate the process.”

The Black Album’s monochrome cover both earned its nickname and invited comparisons to AC/DC’s Back In Black. The albums have more in common than just their ultra-noir sleeves. Both were made at the turn of a decade by bands in mourning (AC/DC for singer Bon Scott, Metallica for bassist Cliff Burton).

Both bands had begun with cult followings and made steps towards the mainstream with Highway To Hell (1979) and ... And Justice For All (1988) respectively. For both bands, though, black albums marked the leap to global stardom, securing their places in the rock pantheon – even if diehard fans still prefer their earlier work.

The AC/DC connection was conscious. Drummer Lars Ulrich told Uncut magazine’s John Robinson in 2020 that they listened to the Australians when writing The Black Album: “We thought about the art of simplifying and writing shorter songs... A little more bounce, to make the music more physical than cerebral.”

Where Metallica’s trademark in the ’80s had been fast and furious, AC/DC often made songs heavier by slowing down.

The Black Album was notable for establishing scooped mids as the dominant metal guitar tone. The main rhythm amp was a Mesa/Boogie Mark II-C++ as it had been since Master Of Puppets, but a modded Marshall JCM800 and a Boogie Mark V were among the other amps to hand. 

On Hetfield’s Mesa, mid control was at 0 and the amp’s graphic EQ was a shaped in a V, with the middle 750Hz band all the way down at -12dB. There were two further parametric EQs in the FX loop, cutting mids at 900Hz and 1.2kHz and boosting presence at 4.2kHz and 6kHz. By now, Metallica were using ESP guitars with EMG pickups.

It was directly the opposite of classic mid-heavy tones from bands like Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden, but Metallica did strategically replace some of the lost mids with the Marshall amp. Rock’s JCM800 was modified by Jose Arredondo, famous because Eddie Van Halen had claimed (falsely, it later emerged) he had modded Ed’s famous Plexi.

“James wanted crunch,” Bob Rock told Reverb.com. “Crunch to me is upper mids. Crunch to him is that resonance when he palm mutes and it goes gonk! It’s the sound of the room we made for the guitar sounds, it’s not all close mic’ed.”

Rock’s input on the guitars was huge. He suggested they tuned down to D standard for Sad But True after noticing all the songs were in the same key. He pushed Kirk to try harder on solos, insisting on him laying down an improvised solo with every live take of each song.

When lead guitarist Kirk Hammett recorded the final solos, they used the improvised takes for inspiration. Rock rejected Kirk’s initial idea for The Unforgiven, and suggested Kirk fingerpick the clean half of the solo – “really pull on the strings and slap them against the frets,” as Kirk recalled to Guitar World. His insistence paid off and Kirk can be seen grinning in A Year In The Life...

“It’s pretty much the type of guitar solo I’ve been trying to do for the last five or six years,” he said, “and I’m really proud of that.” 

It was also Rock who gave James the confidence to pursue the ballad Nothing Else Matters, notable for Hetfield’s first Metallica solo. The Black Album forever positioned Metallica as metal giants. And for Matt Tuck, is still stands tall as a masterpiece.

“We’ve managed to play a few festivals and shows with Metallica,” Matt smiles. “It’s always a bit of a headfuck, I’m not gonna lie. They’re such a huge part of my life from such an early age and they’ve defined me as a person and my career. It’s as big as that for me. So for them to pass me in the corridor at a festival and go, ‘Hey, Matt!’ just blows my mind. They’re the most important metal band there’s ever been, and The Black Album deserves every accolade. They are the kings.”

Stone Gossard, one half of Pearl Jam’s dynamic guitar duo (completed by Mike McCready), has added his two cents on the grunge vs hard rock debate, arguing that grunge was not to blame for the demise of its hard rocking predecessors. 

Speaking to VWMusic, Gossard instead makes a case for the transition as part of a broader “life cycle”. 

“There’s always renewal in the world,” Goassard tells Andrew Daly. “And with that renewal comes new perspectives. And I think that hard rock was really stagnating at that point in a way that gave an opportunity to what I’ll call ‘less musically talented’ musicians to say, ‘Hey, there’s another way to play rock songs… to have songs that are heavy… outside the normal color palette of a heavy metal song.” 

In the piece, Gossard discusses his early love of bands like Iron Maiden and the NWOBHM movement, alongside Motörhead, Led Zeppelin and Merciful Fate – groups that are not usually held up as influences by the archetypal grunge player. Instead, the guitarist explains, his contrasting playing style came about more by accident than design.

“I was into it,” he says. “[But] I didn’t really know how to play like that, so I was just doing what sounded right to me. And I think that in the late ’80s, there was a very free attitude about art and music that was brewing in the wake of hard rock, and a lot of people were experimenting with sounds, and the bands formed from there. There was something about it that was fresh, that really captured people’s ears, and that had a huge effect on it all too.”

Gossard’s case for rock’s evolution in the early-’90s is more nuanced than the narrative we’re used to hearing. History is painted by the victors, and usually in broad brush strokes, but the classic tales of rock’s various slash ‘n’ burn moments are highly simplified. 

• Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready looks back on 30 years of Ten

Contrary to popular opinion,  punk – grunge’s spiritual predecessor – was populated by many musicians who (mostly privately) respected the experimental tendencies of the prog musicians they were positioned to ‘destroy’. 

Similarly, Gossard’s take is that grunge’s mission statement was not as simple as erasing the hard rock scene. That is something that fans and listening habits took care of, and not completely…

“You know, a lot of those heavy metal bands you’re talking about are still around,” says Gossard. “So clearly they all didn’t die. Sure, a lot of them had to regroup, and yes, some did die, but that’s part of the life cycle, right? There are still a lot of fans out there who love hard rock, and I’m one of them. I love hard rock, and I always have, but renewal and rebirth are a part of art.”

Fortunately, Pearl Jam have often taken care of their own renewal and rebirth – one of the reasons they're still with us – case in point, their recent move to digital amps. 

Pearl Jam brought out Johnny Marr during their set at BST Hyde Park on Saturday (July 9).

The Smiths guitarist joined the veteran Seattle rockers midway through the set for their cover of Throw Your Hatred Down – originally from Neil Young’s 1995 album, Mirror Ball – playing the track’s extended guitar solo during its outro. 

Marr also appeared for the final song of Pearl Jam’s set – a cover of The Who’s Baba O’Riley – alongside producer Andrew Watt, who accompanied frontman Eddie Vedder on his recent Earthlings solo tour.

Much to our minor disappointment, Marr didn't pull out his monstrous nine-pickup Strat for the performance, instead opting for a Gibson Les Paul.

Pearl Jam’s Saturday set at BST Hyde Park was the second of the band’s two performances at the London festival, following a vastly different set on Friday evening (July 8).

Highlights of the band’s Friday set included Better Man – the first time the band have played the Vitalogy cut as an opener since 2014 – a cover of Public Image Ltd’s Public Image, and staple encore outro, Neil Young’s Rockin’ in the Free World.

The group’s Saturday set featured hits including Animal, Alive and Dance of the Clairvoyants, and Not for You, which the audience requested over Whipping.

• Learn Johnny Marr's rhythm guitar secrets

Pearl Jam wrapped up their recent US tour in support of 2020’s Gigaton early after bassist Jeff Ament tested positive for Covid.

Aside from the last-minute cancelations, the tour served a host of notable moments, including a performance of Eruption by guitarist Mike McCready in tribute to Eddie Van Halen, and a tribute to late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins featuring Chad Smith and the band’s resident touring guitarist Josh Klinghoffer.

Also of note: McCready – known to be a tube amp man – was seen playing through Fender Tone Master digital guitar amps, while frontman Eddie Vedder and guitarist Stone Gossard busted out some rare Gibson electric guitars for the trek.

Pearl Jam’s current European tour is set to wrap July 25 in Amsterdam, after which the band will take a month off, before heading back to North America for a string of dates from September 1.

Pearl Jam have canceled the final two shows on their current US tour following the news that bass guitar player Jeff Ament has tested positive for COVID-19.

Dates affected include yesterday's (May 18) concert at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, California, and Friday's (May 20) show at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The news comes days after Pearl Jam drummer Matt Cameron also tested positive for the virus, leading to the band to recruit founding drummer Dave Krusen for a recent show in Fresno, California.

“This is horrible for everybody involved and we are especially sorry to those out there who have made plans to attend these shows,” the band wrote in a new social media post.

“Our attention to staying inside the bubble has been constant. We have truly done all that we could have to remain clear of infection.

“Regretfully, the Sacramento and Las Vegas shows are canceled. Ticket refunds will be automatically processed to ticket holders' method of purchase. We are so very sorry. Be safe out there.”

Pearl Jam are set to embark on a 17-date European tour from June 18, hitting cities including Berlin, Stockholm, London, Paris and more. After wrapping the leg up in Amsterdam on July 25, the band will have a little over a month's downtime, before heading back to North America for a string of dates from September 1.

The current US tour has played host to several standout moments, including a performance of Eruption by guitarist Mike McCready in tribute to Eddie Van Halen, and a tribute to late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins featuring Chad Smith and the band's resident touring guitarist, Josh Klinghoffer.

Also notable: McCready – a known tube connoisseur – has been seen playing through Fender Tone Master digital guitar amps, while frontman Eddie Vedder and guitarist Stone Gossard have busted out some rare Gibson electric guitars for the run.

Mike McCready has paid tribute to Eddie Van Halen at a recent Pearl Jam show by performing EVH’s classic electric guitar workout, Eruption.

During the Seattle rock vets’ set in Glendale, Arizona on May 9, frontman Eddie Vedder gave a short speech on musicians and friends the band had lost in recent years, noting, “I don’t think we’ve played a show since Eddie Van Halen passed away, and he was another legend that we miss. And so we’ve been wanting to play one for him.”

McCready then kicks on his MXR Phase 90 and dives into the EVH classic – on a vintage Strat, no less. It’s a looser interpretation than some covers – with a somewhat shaky start – but soon settles into the Van Halen cut’s trademark pyrotechnics, including the palm-muted runs and marathon two-hand-tapping outro, with a cheeky tease of the You Really Got Me riff to close.

The guitarist has tackled Eruption several times over the years – his debut rendition of the track with Pearl Jam was back in 2012 – but the Glendale performance marked the first time McCready had played the song live since Van Halen’s passing in October 2020.

You can watch the performance below (Eruption starts at 1:38).

During his speech, Vedder also paid homage to Taylor Hawkins, revealing he only got to know the Foo Fighters drummer over the past year, but noted drummer Matt Cameron’s closeness with the late musician. The band had paid tribute to Hawkins two days previously at LA’s Forum, performing Foo Fighters’ Cold Day in the Sun with Cameron on guitar and vocals.

Pearl Jam’s long-awaited trek in support of 2020’s Gigaton has served up a number of surprises so far, not least a revolving cast of drummers following Matt Cameron’s positive Covid diagnosis on May 12, leaving touring member Josh Klinghoffer and fans as young as 18 years old to handle drum duties.

The tour has also seen a gear shake-up or two, with McCready tapping up Fender’s digital Tone Master amps for his clean backline, while Vedder and Stone Gossard have been employing two rare and unusual Gibson guitars throughout the sets.

After a long wait, Pearl Jam are finally out on tour in support of 2020’s Gigaton album, and eagle-eyed fans have already spotted some substantial changes to their onstage rigs.

Most notably, tube connoisseur Mike McCready has a pair of fresh Fender guitar amps stacked behind him, both of which bear a telltale Tone Master badge in the bottom right-hand corner, confirming them as combos from the Big F’s foray into digital versions of its classic amps.

The series’ Deluxe Reverb and Blonde Twin Reverb feature in McCready’s rig alongside a Lead Custom from Seattle amp builder Rola, which runs into a Marshall 4x12. Presumably, the Fenders handle clean tones, while the Rola gets switched in for dirtier sounds.

McCready’s live endorsement is one of the biggest seals of approval for the digital amp series yet. Of course, Fender no doubt hooked the Seattle soloist up with a combo or two when working on the Custom Shop replica of his ’60 Strat, which is set to be released as a more affordable production-line model in the near-future.

The tour has served up a few other surprises on the gear front, too, not least from co-guitarists Stone Gossard and Eddie Vedder, who have dug deep into their collections to pull out two rarely seen Gibsons for the run.

Gossard has been sighted with a Gibson Les Paul Signature Semi Hollow Gold Top – notable for its ES cutaway up top and Les Paul cutaway on the lower bout.

Launched in the early ’70s, the Signature Semi Hollow was the fourth and final guitar designed by Les Paul as part of a late-’60s reunion with Gibson, and features a pair of low-impedance pickups that excel at clean tones.

Judging from footage of recent shows, the rare semi-hollow has become one of Gossard’s main guitars on the trek, seeing use during standard-tuned tracks including Glorified G, Not For You and Seven O’Clock, as well as setlist staples Black and Alive.

Eddie Vedder, meanwhile, has further indulged his love of Pete Townshend and added the Who guitarist’s signature Gibson Les Paul Deluxe to his onstage arsenal.

A 2005 replica of Townshend’s heavily customized 1976 Cherry Sunburst #9 Les Paul, the guitar boasts a pair of mini-humbuckers and a DiMarzio Super Distortion humbucker – just 75 were made and came with a #9 decal, not displayed on Vedder’s model.

The guitar is currently employed for standard-tuned tracks including Corduroy, Not For You and Lightning Bolt.

Both guitarists are still playing their regular squeezes alongside the new additions – so, for Gossard, that’s a Bigsby-equipped Les Paul Sunburst, while Vedder uses his target-sticker-adorned Telecaster for tracks that require a cleaner tone, such as Better Man. McCready, of course, sticks to his ’60 Stratocaster, but a Les Paul with uncovered humbuckers and a P-90-equipped Firebird have also seen some action.

Pearl Jam kicked off their 2022 tour in San Diego on May 3, with the run set to conclude on May 20 in Las Vegas, after which the band head over to Europe for a series of summer dates, before returning to the US and Canada in September.

The treks mark the touring debut of former Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Josh Klinghoffer, who officially joined the live liveup last year.

Last week, the band paid tribute to Taylor Hawkins with a cover of Foo Fighters’ Cold Day in the Sun, led by PJ drummer Matt Cameron on guitar and vocals.

Pearl Jam have paid tribute to Taylor Hawkins, covering Foo Fighters track Cold Day in the Sun during their May 7 show at The Forum in Los Angeles. 

The performance, captured in fan footage above, is led by drummer Matt Cameron, who makes a temporary switch to guitar and vocals, and whom Vedder describes as having been “very close with Taylor”.

“It’s never easy when you lose someone,” says Eddie Vedder, in his introduction. “As you get older, you’ll notice it starts happening more and more. It’s just where you are on the timeline and where your friends are on the timeline. But sometimes, like this, it’s so unexpected. But also makes it harder because he was someone who truly, truly loved living life on this planet. So I guess the one thing we can be consoled by is the fact that he never wasted a moment, and he did live his life to the fullest. We just want more of it.” 

Cameron’s position on the drum stool is covered by Mark Guiliana, the renowned jazz player who performed on David Bowie’s final Blackstar album. Meanwhile, Vedder is joined on the back left of the stage by Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith (who makes do with a tambourine) and Pearl Jam touring guitarist (and former RHCP man) Josh Klinghoffer. 

Cameron puts in a strong performance of a track that was written and sung by Hawkins for Foo Fighters’ 2005 album, In Your Honor. The drummer had previously worked with Hawkins on their 2020 project Nighttime Boogie Association and expressed his sorrow at Hawkin’s death back in March, writing on Instagram: 

“I love Taylor Hawkins. He brought so much joy and happiness to my life. I can’t believe he’s gone. I miss him already damn. My deepest love and condolences to the entire Foo Fighters organization and to the beautiful Hawkins family.”

The shock of Hawkins death, aged 50, continues to resonate throughout musical circles, with performances and tributes from Paul McCartney to Sammy Hagar, Scott Ian and Mammoth WVH, among many others.

One of 2021’s most drool-worthy gear releases was Fender Custom Shop’s Mike McCready Stratocaster, a recreation of the Pearl Jam great’s heavily used ’59 ’60 Strat.

However, with a price tag of $15,000, the hand-built replica was out of reach for the vast majority of guitarists. Thankfully, however, it seems a more affordable version will be available before long, according to a new Guitar Player interview with McCready.

“They did such a great job that I’ve actually confused the new model with the original at times,” he says of the Custom Shop replica.

“I did wonder for a moment if my original might feel a little different once they’d taken it apart and reassembled it, but it was in the hands of Master Builders, so the mojo was still there when I got it back. I guess I’ve done maybe a thousand shows with it, so it’s a part of me.

“We’re working on a more affordable signature model now, because obviously this limited-run Custom Shop model is a relatively expensive guitar.”

Elsewhere in the interview, McCready reveals Pearl Jam fans shouldn’t have to endure the same agonizing seven-year gap between albums, as experienced with 2013’s Lightning Bolt and 2020’s Gigaton.

“Assuming all goes according to plan, we’ll be touring the States and Europe in 2022, and then we should be looking at making an album after that,” he tells GP. “So I don’t expect there to be anywhere near as long an interval before the next record comes out.”

Indeed, McCready spent much of the pandemic working on ideas for the upcoming record, so writing is already well underway.

“Just as lockdown kicked in, we were all rehearsed and ready to go on tour,” he says. “I learned to use GarageBand, and since I had a lot of time on my hands, I got pretty good at using it and worked on a lot of song ideas. It helped me keep my sanity. I’m always learning, working on improving my songwriting ability and staying in gratitude. I try to keep learning new things all the time.”

Given Pearl Jam are touring from May through to late-September, it could be a little while before the Seattle vets hit the studio proper, but fellow guitarist Stone Gossard has confirmed the group have already laid down some riffs with Andrew Watt, who is lined up to produce the record following his collaboration with frontman Eddie Vedder on recent solo effort, Earthling.

The production gig is yet another dream come true for Ozzy Osbourne producer Watt, who has been living his wildest Mike McCready fantasies onstage with Vedder, tearing through Pearl Jam classics and deep cuts on the singer’s recent tour.

For the rest of the interview with McCready, in which he shares five guitar highlights from his storied career, pick up a copy of the new issue of Guitar Player from Magazines Direct.

Eddie Vedder recruited Guns N' Roses bassist Duff McKagan during his show at Benaroya Hall in Seattle, Washington on Monday (February 21) for a cover of Precious, from The Pretenders' 1979 self-titled debut album.

Joining Vedder's backing band, The Earthlings – which boasts an all-star lineup of Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, former Chilis guitarist Josh Klinghoffer, Jane's Addiction bassist Chris Chaney, The Frames guitarist Glen Hansard and Ozzy Osbourne producer Andrew Watt – McKagan handles the track's low-end armed with his signature Fender Precision bass guitar. Check out the performance below.

The Pearl Jam frontman is currently on tour in support of his latest solo studio album, Earthling. The trek kicked off at the Beacon Theatre in New York on February 3, and the last originally planned show at Benaroya Hall in Seattle took place last night (February 22).

Due to an outbreak of Covid in Vedder's touring party earlier this month, shows at San Diego's The Magnolia and Los Angeles' YouTube theatre on February 15 and 17 will now take place on February 27 and 25, respectively.

Alongside a host of tracks from Earthling – like The Haves and Long Way – and a selection of Pearl Jam cuts, Vedder's Earthlings Tour setlist has included covers of The Beatles' Here Comes the Sun, Prince's Purple Rain and Jimi Hendrix's All Along the Watchtower.

And during his show at Benaroya Hall last night, as Setlist.fm reports, Vedder reportedly paid tribute to Screaming Trees lead singer Mark Lanegan, who recently passed away at the age of 57.

Vedder released Earthling – his first non-movie soundtrack solo album – earlier this month. Alongside contributions from Ringo Starr, Elton John and Stevie Wonder, the LP also features guest vocals from his late father.

“I didn't really get to know my real father,” Vedder said in a January interview with Mojo (per Louder). “I met him maybe three or four times as a kid, but he was, you know, a friend of the family. It would have been nice to have been in a room with him at some point before he died when I was 13. It would have been nice to share that I knew that he was my pop, but it didn't happen.”

Vedder then revealed that around 10 years ago, a contact gave him some photos of his father and, later, a disc of vocal recordings made by him.

“I carried that disc around for two, three months in my suitcase, not ready to hear it,” he continued. “Finally, I got the guts, and after a couple bottles of wine played it one night in Argentina. And he was good. It was incredible – like he left a message for me.”

The recordings were subsequently reworked by Vedder and producer Andrew Watt for inclusion on Earthling.

Eddie Vedder has set off on tour in support of forthcoming solo album Earthling with an all-star band that includes Red Hot Chili Peppers and Jane’s Addiction members – and the setlists so far have played host to a wealth of classic covers and the occasional Pearl Jam deep cut.

The Earthlings band includes Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith alongside his former bandmate (and new PJ touring member) Josh Klinghoffer – who handles guitar, vocals and keys – as well as super-producer Andrew Watt on lead guitar, Jane’s Addiction bassist Chris Chaney and singer-songwriter Glen Hansard on guitar and backing vocals.

It’s a supergroup of a lineup by all accounts, and accordingly, the band weren’t afraid to tackle some of rock’s greatest hits during their debut shows, which kicked off on February 1 at New York’s Capitol Theater.

Setlists so far have included Vedderized versions of Tom Petty’s Room at the Top and the Beatles’ Here Comes the Sun, as well as Jimi Hendrix’s take on Bob Dylan’s All Along the Watchtower.

Perhaps the highlight of the sets so far, however, has been the band’s performance of Prince’s Purple Rain at the Beacon Theater on February 4, which not only finds Klinghoffer taking lead vocals, but also showcases Pearl Jam super-fan Andrew Watt’s blistering Strat chops.

A number of Pearl Jam standards – Wishlist, Porch, Better Man – have also cropped up on the setlist, as well as Dirty Frank, a Ten-era deep cut musically inspired by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, who the group were touring with at the time. Vedder’s Earthlings even break into the Chili Peppers’ Freaky Styley during the track’s breakdown.

Much of the remainder of the sets was made up of new material taken from Vedder’s forthcoming solo effort, Earthling, which was produced by Watt and also features Klinghoffer and Smith. Other special guests set to appear on the record include Ringo Starr, Elton John and Stevie Wonder.

Earthling is out this Friday (February 11).