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Riffing on a hidden disease
Pearl Jam's Mike McCready works through his embarrassment to help others
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
BRIAN SMITH
The Oregonian

Standing on a stairwell on top of the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco, Pearl Jam lead guitarist Mike McCready looks down and studies the scene below.

Four blocks' worth of fans. Standing, talking, waiting. Some have already met. Some are just beginning to touch each other's lives.

The line began forming the night before. Another will begin as soon as Pearl Jam exits the stage (the band is in the midst of a sold-out three-show run in the city).

"It's incredible," says McCready with a warm smile. "I mean, we've always done well. That's not the thing. It's just that, this time around, it feels like there's a conversation going on around us again. It hasn't been this way since, well, maybe 1995."

Now, jump to a scene just 30 minutes later.

Backstage, McCready sits in a chair, doubled over. His left arm is draped across his stomach. His right is held up in the air, waving. On his face there is an unmistakable look of anguish and suffering. And though McCready's going through a re-enactment, he knows the lines all too well.

"It's this horrible, nonstop pain," McCready says. "You're not ready for it when it starts. You don't know when it's going to end. It's the worst feeling you can ever imagine. And it's gross. It's just a disgusting, gross disease. It can really mess up your life -- I know."

What the 40-year-old guitarist is referring to is IBD: inflammatory bowel disease.

IBD is the category under which Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis fall. Both Crohn's and ulcerative colitis affect a person's immune system, disrupting bowel function and wreaking havoc on something most people take for granted: using the bathroom.

It is estimated that at least 1 million Americans have IBD. But until recently, it was largely ignored by the public. And it was hidden like a secret by those it afflicted.

"The biggest thing for us is increasing awareness," says Steve Wright, executive director of the Northwest Chapter of the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation for America (CCFA). "There are so many people out there who have these diseases, but they're too ashamed to come forward. We're doing our best to reach them and provide them with help and the answers they need."

Pearl Jam, along with openers and friends David Cross and Sleater-Kinney, will play a show tomorrow at Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall as a benefit for CCFA.

Tickets to the concert sold out quickly.

"This is the biggest thing that Mike and the band have ever done for us," Wright says.

And while it's been a year since he last felt the effects of IBD, McCready knows that his fight has only just begun.

"I've been dealing with it for 20 years now," McCready says. "There's no cure. And there isn't a specific cause. For some people it relates to their diet. For others, it's something different. But I could have it so much worse. I just want all of the other people out there who have it to know that it's OK."

Asked why it took him so long to go public with having the disease, McCready doesn't flinch.

"I was ashamed of it. I didn't want to talk about it," he says. "I felt that it was a personal thing of my own. I was in denial. I thought it would go away if I didn't think about it. And, of course, it didn't. It just got worse."

In fact, it wasn't until a benefit luncheon for the CCFA in Seattle in 2003 that McCready spoke openly about having IBD.

"The first thing he did for us was that luncheon," says Wright. "And on that day alone, he took us from raising $50,000 to $100,000. Just by showing up."

From that point on for McCready, there was no looking back.

"After that luncheon, I think Mike saw what he could do," Wright says. "He and Ashley (O'Connor, McCready's wife) have just done so much for us."

O'Connor is an active board member of the CCFA; while McCready was playing San Francisco, O'Connor was at a camp for children with Crohn's and colitis in rural California.

And McCready fully credits his wife with pushing him to act.

"I'd be a complete mess without Ashley," McCready says unabashedly. "I'd just complain, let the disease eat away at me and be depressed all the time. She saved me."

Taking McCready's cue, Pearl Jam's fans -- known for being socially active -- have avidly taken up the cause.

Using Internet message boards, the band's fans have organized pre- and post-show fundraisers for the CCFA.

"Their fans have been as great to us as McCready and his bandmates," Wright says. "When Pearl Jam's tour is over this year, their fans will have raised somewhere around $30,000 for us."

Perhaps coincidentally, ever since McCready made his announcement, Pearl Jam has taken its sound and live shows to another level, arguably joining U2 as a band that combines pop music and wider cultural relevance.

"We try," McCready says, laughing. "Everyone in the band has been so supportive of me. And this life that I'm living right now, even with having Crohn's, is a very fortunate one."

Brian Smith: bts@pdx.edu

that's a real intetresting article...I remeber reading in a book the Kurt Cobain had terrible stomach pain there was never a proper diagnosis as to why. Of course he used heroin as his medicine. Mike used alcohol back in the day. Maybe if he'd figured out what was wrong like Mike did he'd still be around and wouldn't have gotten so depressed and killed himself.

The cool thing is thanks to Mike maybe the next kid with this problem can get help and won't end up like KC.

I'm pretty sure the stomach pains Kurt suffered from were the result of heroin withdrawals, which is why heroin made them go away.

Just saying.

I recall the book that badabing is refering to...if I remember correctly, the book mentioned something about a stomach disorder on Kurt.

PBM

I thought it was a back problem.

I hurt my back really bad a few years ago, and for 6 months my stomach would lock up once or twice a day and it would last for 30-40 minutes....just hellish pain...and a lot of times it would induce to vomit painfully. It hurt more than anything else I've experienced. Even though the pain was in my stomach, the damage was along my spine.

Wasn't it something he already had as a child?
Anyway, I think it's good Mike uses his fame for a good cause like this. Many people just don't understand it because they don't know about it. Raising awareness can help a lot!

groetjes,
Mirella

That was a good article, thanks for that

Thanks. That was interesting.