MY 2020 STONE GOSSARD
The Pearl Jam guitarist was due to spend 2020 on tour, but ended up at home. Now with a new band in the works, he looks back on a year of music, politics and heavy-duty parenting.
And it was all going so well, sighs Stone Gossard. Back in March, Pearl Jam were all set to detonate Gigaton: a Trump-baiting eleventh studio album that would have shaken the stadiums on that month’s North American tour. But then the real bombshell landed, sending the 54-year-old guitarist into a world of enforced domesticity and screwball comedies. Now gearing up for the release of his debut record with Painted Shield, Gossard fills us in.
How did you find the response to Gigaton? Well, the band always gets the good news. I think we got decent reviews, and fans were generally excited. I didn’t write the lyrics, so I don’t know what Ed [Vedder] would say about the album’s message. But I think in Pearl Jam, the message is always that it’s a band. Y’know, you share with your brothers, and it’s not always an easy ride, but you gotta keep coming back to the table. I think people connect to the idea that it’s the same group of guys from thirty years ago, still tinkering and figuring it out.
Quick Escape and Seven O’Clock took pretty vicious potshots at Trump… I think Ed was pretty measured with his criticism of Trump, and if anything, he was probably leaning towards not inflaming the situation.
The election result must have been good news? Well, is there good news about the election? It just keeps going on and on. It’s like, Trump has got the soccer ball, and he’s over on the sideline, but he’s refusing to give the ball back and everybody is afraid to tell him the game’s over. At what point is he just a giant crybaby? And he has millions of people that connect with him. How do you find a middle-ground with something so polarised? I’m happy in general that Biden won. I mean, we didn’t do nearly as well in the Congressional seats and Senate seats, so it’s gonna be difficult for Biden to do much of anything, other than just hang on.
How did it feel to cancel the Gigaton tour? It was hard. We were chomping at the bit, ready to go. I think we had one rehearsal left. But we’re a rich rock band with insurance policies. We’re in a better situation than 99.9% of folks. Anyone who works in the restaurant business or anything to do with public spaces – it’s brutal out there. For us, it’s not the same as if I was 22, and had a band just about to release their first record. I mean, that would be horrible. There could be nothing worse than that. Just trying to restart your momentum…
Is your gut feeling that you’ll make it to Hyde Park next summer? I hope so. Right now, the news is not great. Y’know, Europe was supposed to be handling this like adults, and it’s still an issue. I’m hoping for good news in the next few months, where cases are really significantly going down, and there’s enough vaccine filtering out. I just don’t know if the world is ever going to be the same. But we’re on the books for Hyde Park. We wanna go.
Have you learnt any new skills during lockdown? You know what I’m really good at right now? Picking up stuff after my kids. Doing the dishes. It’s been so busy, between finishing the album with my new band, Painted Shield, and working on Loosegroove, this label I’m running with my friend Regan Hagar. And just keeping the kids fed and snacked. Y’know, my wife is managing their Zoom calls, but it definitely takes a village. I did get a chance to watch the new Will Ferrell movie, Eurovision Song Contest, which just charmed me so much. I highly recommend it. It’s a lark.
Which musician’s death hit you hardest this year? I knew Eddie Van Halen had been battling cancer for a long time, so I was shocked, but I wasn’t totally shocked that he had passed away. I don’t think there was a better live music experience, just in terms of hitting all the marks of bringing people together, totally joyous, groovy, light-hearted, whimsical. Van Halen were the greatest live rock band of all time, I’d venture to say.
What’s the first thing you’ll do once the pandemic is over? My wife and I would love to get away from our kids for about a week. And I love my kids. They’re the greatest. They’re so hilarious. But we’ve not had more than an hour to just reconnect and be adults. We’re doing adult management, as opposed to being in love.
What needs to happen for rock’n’roll to be saved? Luckily, rock’n’roll is all about your own entrepreneurial concepts. It’s wide open. There are as many opportunities as barriers. So the bands that are optimistic in terms of seeing opportunities that weren’t there before – they’ll be the ones that pave the way for whatever’s next.
Painted Shield’s self-titled debut is out November 27 on Loosegroove. Read more about them in the next issue of Classic Rock.
“My wife and I would love to get away from our kids for a week!”