Pearl Jam has certainly chosen its new drummer, however the band shouldn’t be making any grand reveals forward of what’s going to be its first present with Matt Cameron’s alternative on Sept. 27 at Eddie Vedder’s Ohana competition in Dana Level, Ca. Former Soundgarden member Cameron exited Pearl Jam amicably in July 2025 after a 27-year-run.
“I like the thriller of all of it. It’s so thrilling,” guitarist Stone Gossard mentioned of Pearl Jam’s subsequent iteration in a brand new interview at the moment (Might 21) on SiriusXM’s Pearl Jam Radio. “There’s not sufficient thriller on the earth. I believe the band may be very excited that we’re truly attending to play. It’s been some time and the truth that we get to do it at Ohana makes it even doubly thrilling. And the truth that no one is aware of who’s going to play drums with us even makes it triply thrilling. So, it’s our thriller wrapped in an enigma and we’re relishing in it proper now.”
The tenth anniversary Ohana lineup at Doheny State Seashore will even function headlining units from Vedder and unnamed buddies on Sept. 25 and Tyler Childers the next evening. The undercard boasts Mexican rock legends Maná, Billy Idol, Dangerous Faith, Courtney Barnett, Bob Mould’s reunited Sugar, Alabama Shakes, Jon Batiste, Males I Belief, Fontaines D.C., Pixies, Rilo Kiley, the Format and Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament’s facet band P.E.S.T. Click on right here for tickets.
“Matt Cameron has at all times come at issues with an openness to all of the folks within the room and with grace and love for this course of,” Gossard mentioned when requested about Cameron’s contributions to Pearl Jam, which started way back to 1990 when he drummed on a few of Gossard’s earliest band demos. “His enjoying speaks for itself. Matt’s at all times going to be our brother.”
“He was prepared for a shift and prepared for a change,” he continued. “God bless him, and we love Matt at all times. However I believe it’s additionally going to be good for us to in a way of letting that unknown enter into the equation once more [and] giving us an opportunity to to regroup and attempt to nonetheless be good. That’s a cool problem. The place do you go after Matt Cameron? It’s an enormous query, and he at all times served the music [in an] excellent [way]. He at all times performed with energy and with vitality, and it’ll be a tricky activity to determine that out. However I’m assured that we’re going to have the ability to do it.”
Requested what he’s been doing to remain sharp throughout Pearl Jam’s year-long break from the stage, Gossard reported, “I’ve truly been enjoying extra guitar than I’ve in a very long time, which is nice. It’s a part of my each day routine [to] choose it up, fiddle [and] play together with some stuff simply to maintain my fingers nimble. However [I’m] additionally spending a number of time within the studio making demos, making an attempt various things [and] dreaming about what Ed would possibly like and the place may we go that may be enjoyable? I believe everybody within the band has executed the identical factor. So, everybody’s itching to play.”
One drummer who apparently received’t be becoming a member of the band is Dave Krusen, the primary individual to serve behind the equipment for Pearl Jam from 1990-1991. Krusen, who additionally performed on the band’s landmark 1991 debut album Ten, was inducted with Pearl Jam into the Rock & Roll Corridor of Fame in 2017 and carried out along with his former colleagues on the New York induction ceremony for the primary time in 26 years. Replying to a fan’s Instagram query earlier this week about if he was “coming again,” he replied, “no, they’ve a brand new drummer already.”
