Richard: Well, this week I got to speak with Stone Gossard, guitarist with Pearl Jam, also guitarist with Brad and both Brad and Pearl Jam are coming out to tour Australia early on in the new year. And the first thing I asked Stone was basically how his year has been.
Stone: Aah, 1997 is pretty good. I'm having a very good time. Did some really fun Brad touring and made a PJ record that I'm really psyched about. And um, just gonna close it up by going over and spending some time in Australia, so I'm excited about that.
R: Yeah, I know. You're coming back to Australia. We'll talk a little bit about the forthcoming PJ tour, but of course Brad's coming out in January. You must be excited about also touring with Ben Harper too.
Stone: Which is a TOTAL treat. I mean, we couldn't have picked a better situation for us to come over there for our first time, you know. To open up for Ben Harper and we're gonna play for him, you know. I think we're gonna play for 40 minutes or an hour or something so we'll be able to play all the songs and, you know, it's gonna be great. Gonna see Ben Harper every night. He's a sweetheart. Him and his band are great. And we're psyched!
R: Yeah, you must be very pleased also with the news, or maybe you haven't heard that the tickets have been selling like hotcakes too.
Stone: Oh good, I didn't know that.
R: Yeah, shows have sold out in Sydney, extra shows added in Melbourne, so it's doing well.
Stone: Great!
R: Now, the Brad shows that you did earlier this year as well...is that right that they were the first shows that the band has ever done on stage?
Stone: Yeah, we just...we started touring in July...we did a month in July I think and then a month in September and those are the first dates we've ever done, so you'll get a relatively seasoned Brad at this point. But, it's been great. We've been having a great time. And it's been very fun playing.
R: Yeah, obviously you didn't tour when the first album came out a few years ago back in 1993. You didn't tour then.
Stone: No.
R: Was there many nerves happening backstage before that very first performance?
Stone: Aah, no. I think we all had enough to drink where we didn't care any more.
R: [laughs]
Stone: I was just joking people!
R: Yes, of course.
Stone: Don't overdrink - it's horrible.
R: [laughs] Have you ever gone on stage completely drunk where you just haven't known what you're doing?
Stone: ...aaah...you know...I don't think I've ever been so drunk that I didn't know what I was doing, but I've been so drunk that I knew I was sucking.
R: Bad feeling?
Stone: Ah, yeah. It's not good. You don't wanna cross the line. You kinda just, you know, if you have a nice buzz going on stage, it's kinda fun. You can have a good time playing rock music doing that. But you cross that line and suddenly you're feeling like a jerk.
R: Yeah, totally, and then everyone's looking at you and everyone's hearing it and you're not the only one in the room who knows it sucks.
Stone: But then again, it makes for a great story, so later on, you know, maybe you'll be able to write a 'chapter' in your new book, or....no that's a horrible thought. I retract that statement.

[Track - "Lift" from Brad played]

[Track - "Those Three Words" from Brad]

R: [laughing] 'What are you doing back in the country so soon?' ...Ah, you guys have already played a few shows as Pearl Jam for the new album.
Stone: Yeah, yeah, we just played some shows with the Rolling Stones.
R: Wow!
Stone: Yeah!
R: How was that?
Stone: It was just incredibly exciting. I don't know if you would think that or not and I didn't know that I was gonna think that until we actually did it and we just had a blast, so it was very good.
R: What sort of venues?
Stone: Ah, we played the Oakland Coliseum - 4 nights. You know, like 50,000 people or something.
R: Jesus, that's huge!
Stone: Yeah, it's actually a really beautiful stadium because it's a baseball stadium, so the stands are pretty close to the stage. It's not like you're 2 miles away if you're in the stands and they let us use their big old screens and so we got projected onto the screens. We just had a great time, you know. One night it just poured down rain and we were just dancing around in our raincoats and playing music and it was very fun.
R: Was everyone in the band excited about playing with the Stones as well?
Stone: I think everyone was excited and I think everyone kinda went into it thinking we don't really know what's gonna happen but we decided collectively that it would be fun to take a stab at playing with the Stones, opening up for them, just to say that we did. And you know, they paid us well and it was good you know, it was a fun experiment and it paid off because 1) we got to rehearse and kinda get our new songs worked up so we didn't have to do that all right before we went to Australia where there'd be much more pressure. So we kinda got a handle on the songs and 2) it was just a good excuse to get together and do something for fun.
R: Getting your songs together though on stage in front of 50,000 Rolling Stones fans doesn't sound like an easy task.
Stone: Well, you know, we only played 2 or 3 new songs a night, so it was important for us to at least have that time to get some new songs together and also rehearse the old ones and make sure we still knew how to play. That way we only have to rehearse for another 8 or 10 days or something, next time we go out and we should be relatively tight. It's only Australia. They don't care though, too much.
R: No, you know, tours always start in Australia because they go 'ah look, we can just rehearse onstage down in Australia.'
Stone: We can muff it up.
R: Yeah, totally. We always get the raw end. We either get the band right at the beginning of the tour when they wanna work out the stuff or right at the very end when they're completely exhausted and over it.
Stone: Yeah, it's like it doesn't matter. It's like we're not doing an encore tonight. You'll have NO encore. How's that?
R: Yeah, thanks for your bucks. See ya. We're outta here. Ah, did you get to meet Keith or Mick or any of the guys?
Stone: Oh yeah! We got to hang out with Mick a bit and Charlie Watts who is just, I mean, both of them are sweet, but you know meeting Charlie Watts and having him be as funny and as down to earth as he was was just a thrill. And Mick and I think Ed got to hang out a bit with Ron Wood and so it was really pretty exciting stuff. You kinda think that's no big deal but then you think, god that's kind of exciting.
R: Oh god, I can imagine for a guitarist as well, just meeting Keith Richards.
Stone: Sure.
R: What a thrill.
Stone: For me, he even ignored me which is even, you know, I love people who play hard to get, so I love him even more now.
R: [laughs] He lived up to expectations or beyond it.
Stone: Yeah.
R: Why do they keep going? Did you get any insights there? Why are they still doing what they're doing?
Stone: Man, I don't know. They look like they're having a good time. I think they're making a shitload of cash and I thing they really love to play music still. Although I don't think they need to go our on such long tours. I think they're gonna burn themselves out that way. But Ed was telling me that when he hung out with...you know...one night that they all had their record collections out and Keith was playing him all these old blues tracks. You know, he's excited about music. He loves music. He loves to play. He's a natural treasure for England for sure. I don't know if I condone, like, [laughs] he probably has a diet that I wouldn't necessarily recommend, but um, in general he's looking great. He's a great guitar player and everything I've heard about him is that he's as sharp as a pistol too. I think there's a lot of talk about how he's burnt out, but he's not. I don't see that.
R: Yeah, it's a bit funny. Talking about the Rolling Stones burning out after 30 plus years or something..
Stone: Yeah and they rock! Totally! You know.
R: Keith came in here, I didn't, ah, get to interview him unfortunately but he came in here and he brought in...I didn't see it myself, but there was a little esky brought in by the record company which had vodka in there. This is like 4 o'clock in the afternoon!
Stone: Sure.
R: Had the vodka in there and...I don't know how he keeps it together.
Stone: Bacon sandwiches too man....every day.
R: Bacon sandwiches?!
Stone: Bacon sandwiches. He's got a cement colon. Or Iron. It must be iron.
R: Yeah, a constitution like steel they say. Ah, OK.
Stone: His latest quote was that the biggest problem in America is their hypochondria. So, I think he's pretty much got the whole mental...my mental health is...he's got that figured out.
R: Yeah, it's all mind over matter. If you believe that, yeah. I've heard that one before.
Stone: Yeah. [laughs] Right before somebody croaks it!
R: Yeah, exactly. It's all mind over matter.
Stone: One more bacon sandwich!
R: [laughs]
Stone: That's it! That's all I want!
R: OK, and quickly Stone, let's talk about the PJ album, I believe it's called "Yield".
Stone: Yeah.
R: Okay....
Stone: [laughing] alright then...
R: Is "Yield" a track off the album or is "Yield" an inspired title for it?
Stone: Ah, well I don't know whether it's either really. It's just THE title for it.
R: [pause] That's a good answer, Stone.
Stone: Yeah.
R: [laughs] Thanks for that! Is Eddie there? Can I speak to the singer now?
Stone: [laughing] Yeah, he's right behind me. I'm gonna have you over to him.
R: [laughing still]
Stone: [hushed voice] ah, hello....hey, this is Eddie. [laughs] ....yeah, I gotta go. Okay, that was him.
R: Yeah, great to speak to you Eddie, thanks for that. OK, so "Yield" is the exciting new title for the PJ album. Build it up for us a bit more now Stone in terms of what we can expect from it.
Stone: Well, it's got a lot of new, great songs on it and ah, if you like that old PJ feeling, I'm sure you'll love this one.
R: Oh really, it's just more of the same is it?
Stone: We're just cranking out the same old regurgitated songs once again...it's probably the best record we've made in a while. I think that everyone had a big, B influence into the songwriting. I definitely wrote a bunch of songs on it and Jeff and Mike wrote a couple of really killer songs and it's a really good band album. And it sounds really good. And we had a great time making it. And...I think that if you're a PJ fan, you're gonna be excited about it and if you're not, you probably won't be.
R: You're not gonna get turned on at this late stage?
Stone: Probably not! You never know, I mean...nah we have a coupla experiments on it, but for the most part, it's pretty straight ahead.
R: Hmmm. I've heard, ah well, I've heard as much as I can hear off the internet of Given To Fly which is the single out real soon. Did you guys leak that to the internet?
Stone: No, I don't know who did that.
R: Does that sort of stuff shit you off?

["Given to Fly" in background (very very faintly)]