Comes courtesoy of Message Pit

Hey everyone!

I’m a first-time poster here. I’m mostly a lurker over at Red Mosquito but that message board’s been down for several days.

Anyway, something happened yesterday that I just can’t keep to myself. I’m a life-long Pearl Jam fan who’s seen them numerous times dating back to 1993 and as recently as two shows in 2006, but I won’t bore you with any more fandom stories …

Anyway, I’m currently a student at the University of Montana and we had a guest speaker in my Entertainment Management class yesterday (Oct. 23) and it was none other Jeff Ament. All semester our syllabus had listed “Featuring Special Guest TBA” and we were not told who it was until he walked into our classroom.

He spoke for almost an hour and a half and fielded questions for most of that time. Jeff is originally from Montana and keeps a home around the Missoula area, where the University of Montana is located.

Anyway, knowing that I was witnessing something rare, I started taking notes and thought I’d share what Jeff had to say to our class. There was no media present, and I think his appearance was kept secret so that there wouldn't be a circus.

These are paraphrased comments, so don’t interpret this as direct quotes. He was very candid, and I don’t think he’d mind me sharing this, otherwise I wouldn’t post it.

- The first real gig Jeff ever played was with some friends at a bar in downtown Missoula called the “Top Hat.”

- He was an art student here for a short time in the early 80s before dropping out and moving to Seattle to start his music career.

- He said he had only $60 to his name when he arrived in Seattle.

- Because he was speaking to an entertainment management class, he said networking was vital to his career. He described having a network of about 150 people in the Seattle punk scene.

- Jeff said Pearl Jam has maintained a lot of control over their work through the years and has never really worked with any heavy-handed producers.

- He talked a little bit about the evolving music industry and mentioned that some producers and managers are steering their bands toward providing music for commercials. For some bands it’s hard to turn down that kind of money. He said Pearl Jam is fortunate that it hasn’t had to do that and he said the band is approached all the time about providing material for ads, but they turn them down.

- Jeff was asked about how Pearl Jam formed and he told a short story about picking Ed up at the airport and going directly into a room and playing music for five or six hours, then they shared a bottle of wine and immediately started to get to know each other. He said at that point he and Stone wanted to be in a band that was serious about music and wasn’t about partying all the time and getting chicks. He said Pearl Jam was all business right from the get-go.

- He said there are three members of the band who are “super heavily opinionated.” He did not elaborate, but I’m sure you can guess who those three are.

- He said the band is very good to its crew, which numbers between 40 and 50 during tours. He says they have profit-sharing programs and some of the crew members who have been around for a long time have made good livings.

- He said “Stone and I have our own little language” because they’ve collaborated together for so long. He says this sometimes confuses other band members during jams or the music-writing process.

- Jeff noted that he used to do all the artwork for the band but it became too demanding as they rose to fame. He said the record company would call him some days and say “we need artwork for the single – you’ve got two days” and then he decided he couldn’t do it all anymore.

- He talked a bit about his upbringing in Big Sandy, Montana and that being a “jock, a punk rocker and a basketball player” didn’t go well together. He drew a lot of laughter when he said this.

- He said the names “Mookie Blaylock” and “Pearl Jam” were last-minute names. Somebody asked him how they came up with Pearl Jam and it was interesting to hear his explanation after it was such a secret for so many years. He told the same story that’s only recently come to light. He said many names were floating around and everyone in the band liked “Pearl” and thought something needed to go with it. Then Ed, Stone and Jeff went to New York to sign a deal with Sony/Epic and they went to a Neil Young show where Young only played about eight songs but they were all “20 minute jams.” Jeff said he thinks he said suggested “how about Jam?” to Ed and Stone and that’s how it was added to make Pearl Jam.

- He added a funny anecdote to this story. Three years later when Pearl Jam played the Bridge School Benefit and met Neil Young for the first time Young showed up in a ’55 Cadillac with a customized license plate that said “Pearl 10.” It was a total coincidence, but it gave the band members shivers.

- Jeff thinks YouTube is great and doesn’t mind seeing Pearl Jam stuff up there. He just hopes that a five minute video of him playing with his fly unzipped never shows up there.

- He talked about the band’s official bootlegs and told a funny story about being in a record store in New York years ago before MP3s were around and REAL BOOTLEGED COPIES of their shows were being sold for $30 or $40. He said there were three rows of Pearl Jam bootlegs and Mike McCready grabbed a copy of each one, walked up to the cash register and said something to the effect of, “I’m in this band. You are selling these illegally and I’m taking them and there’s nothing you can do about it.” Everyone in our class laughed, and I don’t know how much of that story is true, and how much of it is a joke or whether Mike really walked out with them.

- Jeff was asked about fame and said that Pearl Jam really got big here in the states when they were touring in Europe for the first time and it caught them by surprise when they got home. He said when the band got back from Europe they played a show in Columbus, Ohio for a pretty big crowd by their standards at the time. He said that after the show the band could barely get to their bus because so many people were loitering outside wanting to meet them. That’s when they first realized that their music was catching on.

- He said the whole Nirvana feud was generated by the media, and there was a time when they couldn’t get through an interview without a reporter pushing the issue. He said it got ridiculous.

- Continuing his discussion of fame, he said there was a time when he couldn’t go to the grocery store without it being weird and the band eventually had to pull back. He said it was good for the band.

- Somebody asked him who he listens to and he said Kings of Leon, The Strokes and My Morning Jacket and lots of others. He says people often complain to him that there’s no good music coming out anymore and he responds that that’s crazy. He said there’s lots of great stuff out there and technology has made it more accessible.

- Somebody asked him what’s next for the band and he said he didn’t really know. He said they’re on “hiatus,” but they have one show already booked for next year. He says eventually band members will start calling each other and get the itch to start working together again. He said Ed usually is the last one to come into the fold.

- Jeff said Ed’s work on Into the Wild is awesome and he appreciated it even more after seeing how it fit into the movie.

- Someone asked him how many songs surface during the recording process but don’t make it onto the albums, and he said everyone usually brings 4 or 5 songs to the table and gets one or two of them on the album. He said a song doesn’t make the cut unless someone else in the band champions it. So if you’re a member of Pearl Jam and you want one of your songs on the next record, at least one other band member needs to be a big fan of it. He said there are songs that people have gotten onto the record that in retrospect probably didn’t belong, “myself included.”

- Someone asked Jeff what he does during these “hiatuses.” He said the breaks are great and he still spends a lot of time jamming and recording music. He’s also very involved in the Missoula community and has championed local efforts to build skate parks and other things for the community.

- The final question asked of Jeff was “Red Sox or Rockies.” His answer: Red Sox.

There you have it. Hope you enjoyed.

- Evil Beaver

then evilBeaver followed it up with:

You nailed it
I should have included that. Jeff DID say the show they booked next year is Bonaroo.

You heard it here first.

But who am I? Just some jerk university student who happened to be in the same room where Jeff gave a speech yesterday.

who you are on RM Beav, thanks for all the great info!

Here's hoping that this leads to a small tour of the south/midwest.

and in case anybody doubts the veracity of this, some guy at synergy found the course syllabus online, and actually CALLED the prof to verify that Jeff came in.

i love pj fans

talk about an awesome guest speaker!

he has a great taste in music

thats awesome! bonaroo would be nice .. but i wouldnt count on it (even if it did come out of jeff's mouth). havent they been rumored for it before? itd be awesome though ..

lets think about how funny this is for a second...the guy lives in like new york and called a prof of an undergrad course from the university of montana to verify the identity of one of his guest speakers. the prof must have been a wee bit confused

That was awesome! Thanks a lot for posting, DeLima.

Great interview.

They need to get their lazy asses back into the studio. None of this hiatus nonsense

and that same douche makes 230g a year and a 2 minute phone call was nothing for him. i miss the days where fans were fans and not stalkers calling a professor to see if what was posted on stupid fan board was true or not.

Great write up.
Bonnaroo huh? I'm always skeptical but if true you can't argue the source
Doesn't Bonnaroo have their artists sign off that they won't perform within X number of miles within so many months?

Hmmm...I wonder why Stone didn't want to be in a band that was "all about getting chicks."

I am who I am.

Posting the notes I took from Jeff's speech has been one of my weirder experiences . People actually called my professor and deluged him with e-mails because they thought I was a phony.

I'm trying to turn this into a positive experience, so if any of you want to know why Mr. Ament was at the University of Montana, it was because he was speaking to a group of students seeking careers in entertainment management.

You can learn more about the program here:
http://umtentertainment.org/

and here:
http://www.business.umt.edu/entertainment/

Good day.

man...i hope it doesnt get you into any trouble with your prof....people can really go over the top huh

And these are the quiet days. Imagine what it was like in '93 or '94.

Hopefully, Bonnaroo will record the show. Every year, I'm so disappointed I can't go. When am I going to get to see PJ live again?

Isn't it a surprise when anyone shows up at the University of Montana?

Now that I've actually read it, thanks for the write-up!

thanks for sharing your experience. so awesome. sorry about some of the loser fans bothering your prof.

one of the freshest interviews a pj member has ever given...mostly because there was no media shit

great stuff