Audio courtesy of Couzin Ed at WYSP.FM (Right-click and Save As to download) www.couzined.com/

Transcription credit: ames addiction

Echo of Mike McCready interview with Couzin Ed of WYSP.FM 94WYSP, November 21, 2002, Philadelphia, PA

Mike: Hey, how you doin'? It's Mike McCready.
Couzin Ed: Honestly? Because I've been waiting for years for this and this was could be one of my friends because they've to pulled tricks on me like this.
Mike: Well, I talked to your friends and said I would actually call you.
Couzin Ed: I follow your asses all over the world but no one in the band ever talks to me and you talk to my friends?
Mike: They all have some funny stuff to say about you.
Couzin Ed: Mike, I have to apologize. WYSP did a contest two weeks ago to promote the new cd Riot Act and the grand prize was a trip to the Dec. 8 show in Seattle and I called the grand prize winner on the air and I acted like I was you and they bought it.
Mike: Oh no! [laughs]
Couzin Ed: I would've done an Eddie Vedder impersonation but I think they would've definitely thought that was a joke.
Mike: Right, he had more of a...do you go for more of a kinda whiny voice or something like what I have going on right now?
Couzin Ed: Well, I just figured the general public didn't know exactly what your voice may sound like and Eddie's just a little obvious.
Mike: Yeah, they would know.
Couzin Ed: I think everybody does an Eddie impersonation.
Mike: The deep, baritone sound for sure.
Couzin Ed: Can you do it?
Mike: [does an EV impersonation] Uh...hey...uh...yeah...hey, what's going on?
Couzin Ed: [laughs] Mike, you thought you were calling in for yet another cliche radio interview w/ some radio dork but fortunately for you you've got a a radio dork who's also truly an obssessed PJ fan.
Mike: All right!
Couzin Ed: I mean I alone could've at least paid for one of your cars. You do have a car, right?
Mike: I do have one, yes.
Couzin Ed: You see, I don't and I have over 200 PJ cd's.
Mike: Well damn, trade them for a car.
Couzin Ed: If you were in a car right now or somebody else's and a PJ song just happens to come on the radio, what do you do w/ that situation?
Mike: Um I usually pretend like I'm not listening to it but I'm very happy that it's on the radio.
Couzin Ed: So you don't change it like, "Ugh! I can't hear myself!"
Mike: Yeah, I'll do that. Yeah, I can't listen to this but then if someone's not paying attention to it, I'll turn it right back and listen to it.
Couzin Ed: What do you do if a Creed or Nickelback song comes on?
Mike: Oh wow...I don't know...I don't wanna comment on that. I just...I...I don't mind Nickelback at all. That's funny, there's another obsessed fan here in the ??? system...program director Gill...and he and I were both glowing yesterday over the fact we found out you were calling in and somehow we got on the topic of which PJ member would it be best to have a drink w/ at a bar and we both agreed it would be you or Jeff.
Mike: Right [laughs]
Couzin Ed: So just in case the stars do align, somewhere down the future I have to buy you a drink. What would it be?
Mike: Well, for me you would probably have to buy me a 7Up b/c I don't drink anymore. You're kinda right in that...back in the day, I was definitely the guy to buy a drink. Jeff might get one for me though.
Couzin Ed: All I know about you guys...unfortunately b/c I never get the chance to talk to you guys...is what I hear from my other sources. Now that I have a reliable source, someone actually from the band...I just wanna get some true insights on you guys...just as regular people...Can you give me one descriptive adjective for each member of the band?
Mike: I'm trying to think. Uh [sighs], me would be mellow and neurotic, I guess that would be two. Eddie would be intense but funny. Stone definitely funny. Matt uh...workman-like...just a regular guy. Uh Jeff...in control.
Couzin Ed: In control?
Mike: Yeah, I guess.
Couzin Ed: That's fine. I got a chance to go to nyc last week to see you guys on Letterman. Now when you did the song "Save You", that was the show I saw on Fri., now the word fuck made a quite a few appearances on that song.
Mike: Yes.
Couzin Ed: Was there like this Ed Sullivan slash Doors like meeting w/ David Letterman before the show about the lyrics?
Mike: No, there wasn't any meeting. Eddie just kinda changed the word around.
Couzin Ed: He took it upon himself b/c he said "kcuf" alot.
Mike: I mean he knew that there would be that kind of meeting or something and he just kinda...he just took it on himself to sing it that way.
Couzin Ed: He was the professional.
Mike: He was...He stepped up, yeah.
Couzin Ed: Al Gore was the guest that night and I thought you guys at least...there was a chance that you guys might do "Bushleaguer".
Mike: Right [laughs].
Couzin Ed: Did that thought crossed your mind?
Mike: Uh I think it might've crossed my mind but uh...actually we didn't really talked about doing "Bushleaguer". We talked about doing another song called "1/2 Full".
Couzin Ed: I noticed Dave had the vinyl too of Riot Act. How do I get my hands on that thing?
Mike: Ah! I don't know...It's gotta be at the record stores I imagine. We usually release that first.
Couzin Ed: Anybody in Philadelphia w/ a record store that has that, please call me now.
Mike: There you go.
Couzin Ed: Was there any David interaction backstage? I mean did he seem he was into PJ? I mean does he spend all his hard earned money to see you guys all over the world as well?
Mike: Uh, I don't know if he follows us around but he's definitely really...he's very cool to us and we get to come back to his show and he's very good to us. So I think he's a fan. We didn't really get to hang out w/ him backstage but I think he has this whole pre-show ritual...you know, get ready to go...We just kinda hang w/ ourselves a little bit and I talked to Chris Elliot a little bit and that was fun.
Couzin Ed: I went to the last tour opener in Portugal plus 10 other shows for the Binaural tour and I was planning on going for the opener on the Riot Act tour. I heard there was a rumour between Hawaii and Australia. I have no desire to go to Australia. Mike, I wanna go to Hawaii!
Mike: Ah you should go to Australia, it's amazing over there.
Couzin Ed: What's there for me? Well, besides you guys?
Mike: Amazing beaches, really cool people, good food...
Couzin Ed: Will the tour be ending in Seattle this year or this tour coming up?
Mike: I'm not sure, we're talking about maybe not ending in Seattle this year b/c we're gonna do some shows here in Dec. So we're not too sure, we're working it out. Maybe somewhere in the east coast.
Couzin Ed: I saw the final show of the last tour.
Mike: Oh great.
Couzin Ed: Front and center, I waved to you but you didn't waved back.
Mike: I owe you a wave then.
Couzin Ed: It was the best show I've ever seen. I mean, your friends and family over there, you guys were happy and relaxed. I mean, is that your favorite place to play?
Mike: Honestly, it's the most nerve-wracking b/c my friends and family are there so I always feel like I have something to prove to mom and dad or something...so out of that, maybe that nervousness made that a really good show. I recall that as being a great show.
Couzin Ed: Did you really move from Seattle b/c of the rain?
Mike: I did but I'm up here right now. I kinda live in between both places, Cali and Seattle, but I like Long Beach.
Couzin Ed: Guitarist for the band Stillwater.
Mike: [laughs] Yeah.
Couzin Ed: Sorry to blow your cover man.
Mike: [laughs] That's alright.
Couzin Ed: Do you think anybody knows that besides me?
Mike: That's not really a well-known fact.
Couzin Ed: Everybody seems to label you guys as quote on quote "anti-media." What the hell are you doing on my show?
Mike: We uh...are not as anti-media as we've been labeled but we've been anti-media in the past.
Couzin Ed: I read a recent article that the band withdrew itself from the media simply to try to re-gain their lives.
Mike: Sure.
Couzin Ed: It's obvious that it must be very hard for Eddie to go anywhere in public but do you also have a problem w/ being noticed?
Mike: I honestly don't. It'll happen occasionally but it's generally where shows are happening or something...where you expect to see somebody in a rock band.
Couzin Ed: I heard once that Eddie had a hard time singing the lyrics that were written by other members of the band and in that same respect, is it odd for you to play a guitar riff that someone else in the band has come up w/ for you?
Mike: It's not hard. Um alot of the times someone doesn't come up w/ a riff for me to play so I'll just come up w/ my own idea. Um so that's nice. When it does happen, it's already kinda mapped out and then I just kinda play along with it. There are actually some songs that I like that Jeff wrote the guitar part to.
Couzin Ed: The new cd Riot Act seems to have the most Mike McCready guitar solos in it. Is that true of false?
Mike: I would say yeah, it's got alot.
Couzin Ed: Now that you did more work than normal, do you have a paycheck with an extra zero on the end?
Mike: I don't know if it has an extra zero. I just know I got the extra callous from playing a little bit more [laughs].
Couzin Ed: What's the program of the rarities like and do I have everything that would be on that cd?
Mike: You might have a bunch of it but we have about 50 other songs that we have to go over and go, "Hey, this is cool". Everything from the first...from Ten on...There's some outtakes so we have a list of about 50-plus that we're going through so there's some B-sides on it and there's also stuff that you might not have.
Couzin Ed: So the last album you owe to Sony is coming up. Would that be the rarities? Is the rarities album the last album?
Mike: The last one is the one right here.
Couzin Ed: What's gonna happen after that? Are you guys gonna do your own thing? I mean I've always thought the band really wanted to get away from all the traffics of fame and it's just about the music. Why won't they just make music on their garage and sell cassette tapes for a dollar in the neighborhood to kids and leave it at that?
Mike: Ideally you wanna do all those kind of things but you know it's good to have a record company to actually put it out all over the world.
Couzin Ed: Right.
Mike: Because if we try to distribute it ourselves, it might be a little crazy you know? We would end up becoming a record company ourselves and certainly not one of us would wanna do that.
Couzin Ed: Clear up this rumour for me and I'll let you go. I once heard that the front door to Eddie Vedder's house in Seattle is red and three feet high.
Mike: Uh [long pause], I have no comment on that [laughs].
Couzin Ed: [laughs] Mike McCready thank you for taking the time to do interview and pretending you're my friend.
Mike: You got it Cousin Ed.
Couzin Ed: What's Philadelphia's number one rock station?
Mike: 94 WYSP!