Echo of Mike McCready with Pierre Robert on WMMR.FM,
November 26, 2002 in Philadelphia, PA

Transcription credit: WMMR

(Music used in the interview: "I Am Mine", "Save You", "Bu$hleaguer", and "Baba O Riley" from Bootleg 46 (Philadelphia)

Pierre Robert: It's WMMR here in Philadelphia on the line with us is Mike McCready.
Mike McCready: Hello
Pierre: Hi Mike
Mike: How are ya?
Pierre: Good Thanks
Mike: Good.
Pierre: How many of these are you doing?
Mike: It looks like I've got a bunch today.
Pierre: Oh, alright. Are you beginning with me?
Mike: You are the first, so I'm fresh and awake right now, so hopefully I'll be somewhat coherent.
Pierre: Alright. Mike, you guys just did a couple of appearances last week on Letterman, and I found it pretty interesting when he looked at you. It was kind of an inside joke when he said, "Did you get enough sleep?"
Mike: Yeah (laughing)
Pierre: Where, in fact, both the shows are taped on the same day, I don't know if you guys changed clothes for the second one or…(laughing)
Mike: I just took off my jacket ( Pierre laughs) and I was equally surprised when he came walking up to me to say that. And then of course it went completely over my head. I just laughed because it was David Letterman. Ya know?
Pierre: Right! (laughing)
Mike: Then I thought about it like five minutes later. I was like, "Oh yeah, we didn't come back the next day." And so… I knew we did them both the same day, but he was just so…He's so Letterman, I had to start laughing.
Pierre: Right. And he's not known for hanging with the guests either.
Mike: Not so much, I mean, he comes over and says, "Hi.", and shakes hands and stuff, but he's definitely got his hands full there, and, uh… but he's definitely good to us. I mean, he takes care of us and stuff. And we were glad to be playing again.
Pierre: You guys have been more accessible to the press on the release of this album. Is that going well for you? I was curious as to why you had kind of backed off from a lot of press coverage in the past few years.
Mike: Well, in the past… when everything kind of blew up, ya know, back in the early nineties…and things like that, we tended to want to move back and kind of get our private lives a little bit in order. Especially Eddie, on that one, so that was a big incentive to, ya know, pull back and not do those kind of things. Now, we're kind of feeling more comfortable with where we're at in our careers. Ya know, we've been around for ten years now and we're just feeling like, ya know, we're all proud of this record, so lets do some promotion on it. And my idea was like, hey, if we can do, like one tenth of what U2 did for their last, ya know (laughing) record, press wise or something like that, then uh, I think that's a positive thing. Its just, we're all kind of in a better space now, we're, ya know, not as crazy as we were when everything blew up before.
Pierre: We're speaking with Mike McCready from Pearl Jam here on 93.3 WMMR.
Mike: Yep!
Pierre: And, I want to ask you about some of the songs on the record. We don't have a whole lot of time, but you've said "Ghost" is a fun one to play.
Mike: Yeah, that's a rocker. That's a fun one. Matt came in with that song. And it's just a good tune to get together and jam on. And it's great because Matt Cameron's been more integral in the band then in the past, so it's just a fun thing. Ya know, to have his input in there, it just makes the band rock a little bit harder, I think.
Pierre: You've also said "Save You", obviously is a song that began with a guitar riff that you had created
Mike: Yes.
Pierre ….and kind of blossomed into a whole song, and I'm kind of curious what that process looked like from you jamming a little bit and then all of a sudden it bloomed into a whole tune.
Mike: Well, what happened with all that was, I was sitting down with Stone, and I had two ideas, and one idea I worked really hard on and thought it was totally great and then I played it for him, and he goes, "Well, that's not…well that's o.k. You got anything else?" (laughs, Pierre laughs) And so, the other thing I had was the "Save You" riff, and he goes, "Oh, that's cool." Ya know, so it's… I was really built up to wanting to play this other song, and uh, nobody seemed to be very excited about it…but they were about the "Save You" riff. It's something I came up with, I live in California, I just came up with the riff down there, and then Stone and I kicked it around in the studio before we went in, and it just… it had good energy to it. And, uh, it was more his excitement about it that made it happen.
Pierre: Huh. I was curious if the other one might be "Down", 'cause that's turned into a b-side now.
Mike: No, the other one wasn't "Down", but, "Down" was... "Down" did turn into a b-side, and that's one that came towards the end of the session, and after listening to all the songs together, I kind of felt that "Down" wasn't…didn't kind of mix with the other songs for some reason. It just didn't have the same feeling as the other ones, so we relegated it to the b-side. I mean, I still like it, but I just…it didn't have…it didn't feel right when we listened to all the other songs in the order.
Pierre: Songs being kind of like your children, was it hard to let it go?
Mike: Sure.
Pierre: Yeah, I bet.
Mike: Yeah. It's…I mean, that's an ego thing too. It's just, you kind of hope for the best, and then if…once it goes to the Pearl Jam, kind of wheel of fortune or misfortune, or whatever, being the five guys and their opinions on it…I just kind of have to accept the fact that sometimes it's not gonna make it. And, that goes with everybody's songs, ya know? So, I try not to have too high expectations. I'm glad it came out on something though.
Pierre: Yeah, that is cool that it's out for fans. In terms of the song "Bush Leaguer", it has to be one of my favorites, not being a tremendous fan of George W.
Mike: Uh huh.
Pierre: It's kind of, it's eerie that it's sort of spoken word-ish in the way it's all put together. Do you join Eddie in his political philosophies in terms of having been a Nader fan and that sort of thing?
Mike: Uh…I was behind Nader a bit, but I'm…my politics, I try to keep separate from the band, because it's…any time you get too political in a band situation, I believe that it sounds too preachy, and uh…it can be…it just…it doesn't work - for me. And I get very turned off by bands that do that. Although, you know, with "Bush Leaguer", I think it's kind of funny, there's some funny stuff in it, so, when, it's tinged with humor, I enjoy that. If it's totally down your throat, like, I hate this, ya know, I hate this candidate, or whatever, then it's…it's kind of telling people what to think, and I don't…I immediately coy away from that. There's certain political bands like The Clash and things like that, that have done very well in the past, and I look up to those kind, but I think it has to have a sense of humor to it, and I believe "Bush Leaguer" does.
Pierre: Do you think that you guys have occasionally or at least Eddie has occasionally alienated potential fans by being as outspoken as he was?
Mike: I really don't know. He may have…I think we've alienated fans in the way we've…when we would try to take on Ticketmaster in the past, I think that caused a whole bunch of confusion on how to get tickets, and we had to play certain different venues, and we're now working with them again, but that was one that I know actually alienated the fans, they were kind of like, "Hey we wanna come see you play, we don't want to have to jump through all these hoops to go and see you at different, you know, kind of crappier venues", and things like that, so… I think that's the one where it alienated. His political views…I'm not sure, I couldn't tell ya.
Pierre: And yet, both are sort of motivated by sort of noble interests. It's just the devil being in the details, I guess.
Mike: Yeah. I mean anytime you try to take on a big corporation that's worth billions of dollars, it's very hard to, you know, actually win those kind of situations, and I think out of that situation, some other ticket agencies popped up, and people were aware of it, and that's all we can hope for. We're kind of tired of fighting all that, and we just want to go out and play right now too…I mean we still support many causes now, but we keep them more quiet.
Pierre: We're speaking with Mike McCready here on MMR. The album is dedicated to Ray Brown and Dee Dee Ramone and also John Entwistle.
Mike: Mmhmm.
Pierre: I don't know too much about Ray Brown, I must confess, but Entwistle and Dee Dee Ramone are legendary figures, both of whom we lost this year, and particularly The Who has had a strong connection with Pearl Jam over the years. Right?
Mike: Oh yeah. I love The Who, everybody in the band does and especially Eddie. The Who were a huge influence on him growing up. And then Ray Brown,...I'm not really…I'm with you on that, I don't know, I think he's a jazz bass player.
Pierre: O.k.
Mike: ...and I should know these things (laughs, Pierre laughs). But, certainly, the other two I know, and yeah, The Who were just a very huge influence on Eddie and all of us growing up. I remember seeing them on Woodstock as a kid and just their power and their intensity and their song writing, and John Entwistle was part of that…so, it was a great loss when he died and certainly Dee Dee too cause I know Jeff was into Dee Dee …he was a huge influence on Jeff when he first started.
Pierre: In terms of your guitar playing style, Mike…you've said you always play by ear, you're not technically proficient. You still think that's a correct assessment of your playing style?
Mike: Yeah, I think so…I think I learned early…I took lessons early on when I was like ten or eleven, and then I learned some technical things… but I stopped, I just kind of wanted to learn Kiss songs and Aerosmith songs back in the day and I learned from playing off of records…you know, playing an Aerosmith record or an AC/DC record, just a great way to learn guitar and then playing in bands forever, just learning from other musicians and listening, and that's how I still do it. If I try to get too technical or think about it too much, it just doesn't sound good, so I try to be as feeling oriented as possible.
Pierre: Do you still have your Scottie, Maggie?
Mike: Uh, my ex-girlfriend has her actually.
Pierre: O.k. (laughing, Mike laughs) sorry to hear that!
Mike: No, its alright (laughing)
Pierre: Um, I just love dogs, so…
Mike: Well she's doing fine
Pierre: O.k.
Mike: I saw her about three months ago, so.
Pierre: I know you're in a hurry, so the last question I will ask you is, the success, the band having been through ups and downs, both tremendously high ups and incredibly low downs, have you come to peace with the success that you and the rest of the lads have achieved?
Mike: I believe so. I'm just…right now I look at everything as…I'm very grateful just to still be around obviously a lot of the bands that were from here are not around anymore, and I just…I'm still blown away that we're friends, first of all, and then playing music second of all, and third, people are enjoying it, so…to me, everyday is a gift and it's…I'm grateful…I'm grateful we're still around, so its...yeah, I've kind of come to terms with that and it's a really great job and I feel very lucky that, we're, you know, still doing it.
Pierre: Are you excited about the upcoming tour?
Mike: I can't wait (Pierre laughs). I'm really excited to go out. I've been pretty bored, so…(laughs)
Pierre: Excellent. Well, we're technically out of time, so, I thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us.
Mike: Thank you, Pierre.
Pierre: We are here on MMR, and say "Hi" to Stone, we had him in with Brad a couple of weeks back and had a great time with he and all the guys in Brad.
Mike: I will do that.
Pierre: Alright. All the best.
Mike: O.k.
Pierre: Thank you.
Both: Bye bye.