In a shocking growth, drummer Matt Cameron, who joined Pearl Jam in 1998 shortly after Soundgarden break up up, is stepping away from the band.
In a press release posted this morning (July 7) on social media, the 62-year-old musician wrote, “after 27 incredible years, I’ve taken my last steps down the drum riser for the mighty Pearl Jam. A lot love and respect to Jeff, Ed, Mike and Stone for inviting me into the band in 1998 and for giving me the chance of a lifetime, one stuffed with friendships, artistry, challenges and laughter.”
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“I’m endlessly grateful to the crew, workers and followers the world over,” he continued. “It’s been an unbelievable journey. Extra to observe. Thanks all from the underside of my coronary heart.”
In their very own assertion, Pearl Jam wrote, “from being one in all our first musical heroes within the bands Pores and skin Yard and the mighty Soundgarden, to taking part in on our first demos in 1990, Matt Cameron has been a singular and true powerhouse of a musician and drummer. He has propelled the final 27 years of Pearl Jam reside reveals and studio recordings. It was a deeply vital chapter for our group and we want him properly at all times. He shall be deeply missed and is endlessly our good friend in artwork and music. We love you Matt.”
A San Diego-area native who moved to Seattle in 1983, Cameron was already a scene heavyweight by the point he joined Soundgarden three years later — able to thundering by way of jagged time signatures, gifted with ghost notes and able to make use of extra stately rhythms when a tune known as for them. Maybe greater than another drummer of his technology, Cameron has been a galvanizing pressure for each lineup he’s joined.
By way of his friendship with future Pearl Jam members Stone Gossard, Jeff Ament and Mike McCready, he performed on early demos of fabric that would seem on the band’s 1991 debut, Ten, and likewise manned the package for the 1990 Temple of the Canine album in tribute to late Mom Love Bone singer Andrew Wooden (the latter featured a then-unknown singer named Eddie Vedder). And whereas he loved huge success with Soundgarden by way of the primary half of the Nineteen Nineties on the energy of albums akin to Superunknown and Badmotorfinger, Cameron was a free agent at simply the proper time within the spring of 1998 when Pearl Jam’s then-drummer, Jack Irons, opted to go away the band.
His first present was on Could 7, 1998, in Seattle, and barring a handful of COVID-19 associated absences lately, he’s been a rock behind the drum package for Pearl Jam ever since, even whereas pulling double obligation with Soundgarden following their 2010 reunion. He performed on each Pearl Jam album since 2000’s Binaural, and his last efficiency with the band was on Could 18, 2025, in Pittsburgh on the finale of the tour in assist of 2024’s Grammy-nominated Darkish Matter.
“Working with them is completely professional,” Cameron informed SPIN of Pearl Jam in 2001. “They’ll promote out any enviornment anyplace on the earth. They’re form of in a particular league. They’ll tour actually comfortably however preserve it kinda small as properly. Punk-rock enviornment rock is the best way they strategy it.”
With the bombast and precision of a top-shelf metallic drummer however a deep information of punk and storage rock and a aptitude for oddball time signatures, Cameron has gathered huge respect throughout generations. When British electronica stars the Prodigy wished to beat America and cross over to rock followers, they sought Cameron out to offer drum loops for 1997’s The Fats of the Land. When Rush frontman Geddy Lee made his first solo album, 2000’s My Favorite Headache, he selected Cameron to occupy the stool normally held down by Neil Peart. Cameron has additionally served as a mentor to quite a few youthful drummers, notably late Foo Fighters member Taylor Hawkins, with whom he additionally recorded music.
Cameron’s fashion in Pearl Jam was highlighted on Darkish Matter on the behest of producer Andrew Watt, who informed SPIN final yr, “I had a dialog with a good friend of mine who was like, what’s Matt Cameron in Pearl Jam? Matt Cameron in Pearl Jam is like Temple of the Canine, proper? It’s Soundgarden drums over Stone riffs. You additionally should do not forget that Matt Cameron additionally performed on the demos of Ten. When Eddie Vedder went browsing and listened to that authentic instrumental cassette, he was listening to Matt Cameron’s drums, not Dave Krusen’s. Once you’re collectively for a very long time, everybody turns into higher musicians and a grasp of their craft. In Pearl Jam, there was a time the place every man would convey of their demo and have already got an concept for the drums. Matt would do what’s proper for the tune and broaden on it a little bit bit. I didn’t need that to occur right here. I wished every of their instincts to have the ability to come out recent and unaltered, and that’s what’s on this report, which was written by each member of the band on each tune. Each tune began with a riff after which went by way of the filter of every man collectively.”
Pearl Jam is off the highway by way of the remainder of 2025, leaving them time to determine on a Cameron substitute. In the meantime, Soundgarden’s surviving members proceed work on music recorded previous to Cornell’s 2017 suicide, following the decision of a lawsuit along with his widow over subsequent steps.
To see our working checklist of the highest 100 biggest rock stars of all time, click on right here.
