Mike McCready has recalled one of the lowest points in his life when he had abandoned playing guitar and was in the throes of sickness, and how a spiritual journey, soundtracked by a Stevie Ray Vaughan concert reignited his love for the electric guitar.
In conversation with Rick Beato, the guitarist says the life-pivoting moment predated his pre-Pearl Jam band, Temple of the Dog. That outfit, which provided McCready with his first studio experiences, saw him link up with Chris Cornell and drummer Matt Cameron to pay tribute to Cornell’s late Mother Love Bone bandmate and roommate, Andrew Wood. They’d produce just one album, and one that is held in very high regard today. It is certified Platinum.
Fruitfully for McCready, Mother Love Bone’s demise saw two of its members, guitarist Stone Gossard and bass player Jeff Ament forge ahead and form a new band: Pearl Jam. McCready’s work in Temple of the Dog ultimately saw him join the fold, a record on which Eddie Vedder also featured.
It's feasible, then, that neither of those two bands would have carved their names into rock and roll folklore if it were not for a blues guitar great, and some mind-expanding drugs bringing McCready out of his darkest days.
“I was very much into metal, but I was starting to get into the blues” he says. “So I dropped acid and I went and saw Stevie Ray Vaughan at the Gorge [in Grant County, Washington].
“This is around '88, '89,” he continues. “I'd moved back from Los Angeles, kind of trying to make it with [high school band] Shadow down there, and we just didn't do it. I got Crohn's, and I'm sick. All this stuff was going on. I stopped playing music.
“I went and saw Stevie, tripped, sat up all night, and went, 'I gotta play guitar again.' So I started playing guitar again the next day.”
Reflecting on the gig with Guitar World, he recalls the all-important moment in a far more poetic fashion.
“As soon as he started ‘Couldn't Stand the Weather’, these huge clouds rolled in overhead, and rain began pouring down,” he recalls. “When the song ended, the rain stopped. It was like a religious experience, and it changed me. It lifted me out of the negative mindset I was in, and it got me playing again. I thank him forever for that.”
He also realized, perhaps with the aid of the drugs, that Seattle was “exploding” — that was the place to be. He was with his second band, Love Chile, when he crossed paths with — and more importantly impressed — Gossard.
Fittingly, the story goes that McCready’s take on “Couldn't Stand the Weather” sealed the deal. The pair struck up a friendship that laid the foundations for Pearl Jam.
I went and saw Stevie, tripped, sat up all night, and went, 'I gotta play guitar again.'
Mike McCready
He tells Beato that things “fell into place” when Wood died of a heroin overdose in March 1990. But, as another person’s tragedy presented him with an opportunity to chase his dream, he stayed sensitive to how the gig materialized.
“I was very careful. I felt like I got into a situation because this guy died,” he says. “I knew I was good and all those things, but I felt like this was this catalyst that, 'Oh, wow, this is my opportunity, but I want to be really careful with this Temple thing because I don't want to step on anything.'”
Pearl Jam are currently back out on the road and brought another of their early guitar heroes, Peter Frampton on stage in Nashville for a special rendition of "Black".
Meanwhile, fellow Seattle alumni Soundgarden are set to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, a recognition that guitarist Kim Thayil believes is important to the late Cornell's legacy.
