Here’s every musician who’s been an official member of Pearl Jam.
Some bands keep the same lineup throughout their entire career, others have a revolving door of musicians that join and quit overtime. Pearl Jam are somewhere in the middle of the spectrum, though they lean closer to the former of the two extremes, as they’ve only had nine official members.
Coincidentally, the only position in Pearl Jam that’s ever been permanently replaced is their drummer. Eddie Vedder has been their frontman, Stone Gossard and Mike McCready have played guitar and Jeff Ament has played bass since the band formed as Mookie Blaylock in 1990.
The group has brought other musicians in for touring and recording, such as keyboardist Boom Gaspar and multi-instrumentalist Josh Klinghoffer, but only nine have officially served as members of the band.
Before getting into all of Pearl Jam’s members, let’s look back on how the band formed in the first place.
The Bands That Led to Pearl Jam
Pearl Jam’s beginnings actually go all the way back to the band Green River, which formed in Seattle in 1984. Ament and Gossard were members of Green River, and when the band broke up, the musicians splintered off into two other bands that were monumental to the scene at the time — Mudhoney and Mother Love Bone.
Ament and Gossard went on to join the latter of the aforementioned two bands. When their vocalist Andrew Wood died in 1990, the singer’s roommate, Chris Cornell of Soundgarden, approached Ament and Gossard about doing a project as a tribute to their late friend.
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Gossard reached out to his childhood friend, Mike McCready, and Cornell brought Soundgarden drummer Matt Cameron along. This group came to be known as Temple of the Dog. At the same time, Ament, Gossard and McCready were working on starting another post-Mother Love Bone band, and they received a vocal demo from Vedder, who was living in San Diego at the time.
Vedder came up to jam with the fledgling band, and then wound up singing on the Temple of the Dog song “Hunger Strike” with Cornell. Four months later Temple of the Dog came out, Pearl Jam released their debut record Ten.
The rest is history.
Scroll through the images below to learn about all the musicians who’ve officially played in Pearl Jam.
Every Musician Who’s Been in Pearl Jam
Below is a list of all the musicians that have been official members of Pearl Jam since they formed in 1990.
Gallery Credit: Lauryn Schaffner
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