Jeff Ament Unpacks The Artists that Influenced Pearl Jam

- Do you play basketball in college? - I played at University of Montana for about a month and a half until the coach, Mike Montgomery, told me that if I worked really hard, maybe by the time I was a senior, I'd get some minutes. And I remember thinking like, I don't think I'm gonna, I don't think this is my jam. - Were you playing music at the same time? - I was, I was in a punk rock band called Deranged Diction. - And you were a skater? - I was a skater, yeah. - Introduce yourself. - I am Jeff Amott, I play with the rock band Pearl Jam. - Okay, I'm gonna play you some songs. We'll talk a little bit more about skating later. All you gotta do is tell me who the artist is. ♪ D-Reader ♪ - Bob Marley. How great is that groove? - That's why I played it for you. - Yeah, yeah. Aston Barrett, family man, bass player. - Yes. - Unbelievable. - Tell me about that kind of music. - You know what's amazing is when we made our second record, Dave Abbruzzese, our drummer at the time, we were making tapes for each other 'cause we wanted to go into that record like sort of connected. And I just got deep into reggae at that time. Like I wanted some element of our music to just lay so far back and then just like, kind of pulled it off with like Animal has a little bit of that vibe. There's a couple songs on Versus that kind of have that bit. And then I got sort of burned out on reggae 'cause you start hearing it everywhere. You start hearing Bob Marley everywhere. It's like when I was in college and I was like into all that post-punk stuff and I drove by a frat and there were frat dudes singing Sunday Bloody Sunday and it ruined U2 for me. I couldn't listen to U2 for like 10 years. - Got too big. - Got too big. - You had to keep it indie. All right, what's next? Zeppelin. Again, that groove that Jimmy Page had. Man, Jack White does it very well too. - I was thinking about what's it called? Seven Nation Army. - Yeah. - The other day. That riff. ♪ I'm gonna fight 'em all ♪ ♪ Our Seven Nation Army couldn't hold me back ♪ - Sounds like a bass. - Yeah. - But he's playing that on guitar. - He's playing on a guitar. I think he's playing through an octave pedal. - Yeah. - And that song is everywhere now, man. You can't go to a sport event. - Soccer. - You can't go to any, I heard it last night. You cannot hear a sport, the keyboard player played it. The live B3 player at the Garden. Did a pretty good job. - Do you think when he wrote that, he was just in his bedroom or something, he's like, and he's like, "This is gonna be big." - I don't think so, man. The great thing about Jack is like, he's into that ostinato thing. Like, you know, finding a line and just repeating it. Maybe having a little hitch in it, so it swings in a cool way. I mean, he's a master of that, so. I'm glad that that's a big song, you know? Better than "The Final Countdown" or something like that. - "The Final Countdown" is a classic. Two for two. - Two, one. - Magnuson 7. This bass line. I think this bass line, I think that was Norman Wat-Roy playing bass. Guy that played with Ian Durer in "The Blockheads." But I was in a band with this guy, Joseph Arthur. We made a couple records as R&DM. And we did a version of, it was a mash of Magnuson 7 and "I Ain't Got No" by Nina Simone. - Yeah. ♪ I ain't got no home ♪ ♪ I ain't got no shoes ♪ ♪ I ain't got no money ♪ - And it was a perfect mash up. Like, those lyrics sort of over that groove. But "San Denise" is one of the all-time records, man. - Is bass the most important instrument in a band? It's definitely the most underrated. Not underrated, but doesn't get as much credit. - I think drummer's the most underrated. I think there's all the drummer jokes. Like, if you've ever tried to play drums even remotely good, it's like one of the hardest things. Yeah, I think bass is like kind of glue, you know? And then whatever note the bass is playing is the chord, you know? So guitar player can be playing something and if you decide that you're gonna move it, that changes the song, so. I was always drawn to it. I don't know if I had a shitty stereo when I was a kid or what, but like I had a bunch of Jackson 5 singles, a lot of Motown 'cause they were three for a dollar at Woolworths or whatever. And then even like when "Kiss" came out, like Gene was kind of the, dang, Gene was the guy 'cause you could hear the bass, so. - "Kiss" is underrated. - I think so, man. I have a love-hate thing 'cause Gene is such an asshole. Like, he's just the worst. He's just saying he just can't keep his mouth shut. And I love the guy, so it's just that, it's that thing. You know that book "Monsters" that Claire Deeter wrote? Do you know about that? It's the age-old thing of like, can you separate the art from the behavior of the artist? - Yeah. - Gene's one of those guys where it's like, you know, if I see footage from like 1975, I'm like, oh my God, that's the greatest. 'Cause that hit me when I was 12 and it was just like otherworldly. So I love the art. Idols, the greatest band of the last 10 years I mean, fuck, I saw them like six, seven years ago in Seattle and Fontaine's was opening up for them. - Two awesome bands. - I hadn't seen like real visceral music like that in like a long time. Like not since like "Black Flag" or something like it. And Joe's, his lyrics and his front man ability, like how he speaks to the crowd, like it's sort of like tough love, like the best kind of tough love. Like it's 'cause it's so positive, but it's like, be good, be nice. I just fucking love, I just love that. Like something about that just speaks to whoever I am or whatever. - He'll be standing on the front of the stage, like. - Oh my God. - Commanding the crowd. - They did a couple of shows with us, maybe three years ago. And he does that thing with his foot where he's just snapping his foot so hard. And he had this bandaid around. I go, dude, what's going on? And he took the bandaid off and he had like just some crazy MRSA thing going on. I was like, is that from like snapping the stage? Did the MRSA come through the stage? And like, where the sweat of the audience or whatever. But yeah, that's, they're like my favorite, man. I mean, it's sort of like the only punk rock since the mid '80s that I love. That whole movement, that whole British Irish movement right now, Murder Capital, Shame, Viagra Boys. That new record is unbelievable. - How do you guys decide, like find opening bands? - I mean, you know, I feel like the best way to do it is if you can get some, if the band that you love, if you can get somebody in the band's number and text them or email them or whatever and have it direct and not have it be like agent to agent. 'Cause there's the ask and then there's, you hear that, oh yeah, they're making calls to see how you treat bands and if you're good guys and kind of that stuff. So I remember with Idols, it was sort of like, no dude, like you get full PA, full lights. Like we don't play those old games of like only giving the opening band part of the deal. Tell us what you make. We'll give you a little bit more than what you make. Make it to make it worth your while. - You guys have an incredible reputation for that kind of stuff. Just doing this job, meeting all different types of musicians, you guys have an incredible reputation for kindness and for sort of sharing the love. And maybe, do you think it comes from that punk rock? - For sure. - That hardcore like community thing? Like even though we're gonna become some of the biggest rock stars in the world, we still have these roots of sleeping on each other's couches. - Right. You know, some of it is like back in those days, getting opening gigs for bands and the bands that treated us well, like I remember, opened up a show for Husker Du and we didn't get the promoter decided not to pay us. And Grant reached into his pocket and gave me like 40 bucks out of his pocket. You know, like that kind of behavior, that sort of sticks in your head. And then you, the other side of it, we opened up for Public Image, one of my favorite bands, but treated us like shit. Their crew treated us like shit. And so, and we have a great crew. So our crew's like, they know if we love the band, that they sort of go the extra yard to make it good for the opener. So. - What's next? ♪ Would you be the one they talk about ♪ - Husker Du. Fantastic. Good job. - Right on cue. - The blend of just absolute noise. Like Bob's guitar is like nails on a chalkboard. And then they have so much melody. - Yeah. - Like underneath it. And they were fucking amazing live, man. Like, I mean, a singing drummer too, like, you know, I was sort of a Grant guy back then. My hardcore band, Duran's Addiction, opened up for them on Metal Circus and they had that song, Diane, and I hadn't heard it yet. ♪ Diane, Diane, Diane ♪ - And they played that song live and it was, you know, it's just sort of talky story about a woman that gets raped. And it's, I'd never heard that sort of storytelling in hardcore at the time. And I remember I was like crying. I was watching this, watching them sing this song and I could hear the words. And I was, it was the first time I had a hardcore show that I was driven to tears. Papa Guinness. I mean, that's the greatest sounding bass. Talk about family man space, jaw wobble. - I listened to that record nonstop for like a year. - Yeah. - When I, when I bought that record and it was 1980 or whatever, I was in high school. It's a weird record. Like the vocals are, it's almost a different kind of vocals that Johnny's ever done too. Like it's not traditional singing, but I mean, that record holds, it's just great songs. Great, really great lyrics. - You like the Sex Pistols? - I love the Sex Pistols. - Yeah. - I mean, to a small town kid in Montana in 1978, that coming out of your speakers, like, "Anarchy in the UK" or "Bodies," like. ♪ Mommy, Mommy, Mommy ♪ ♪ I'm an abortion ♪ ♪ I'm an abortion ♪ Like, are you kidding me? Like. - What was the music scene like? You grew up in a small town. - Yeah. - What was the music discovery thing like for you as a kid? - It's all about magazines. - Yeah. - Magazines and then there was two shows on late night TV. One called "Midnight Special" and one called "Don Kirshner's." I saw "Kiss" in like 1975, saw Bob Marley. I saw "The Cars." I saw "Cheap Trick." Saw "Aerosmith." And to see that stuff like live after listening to records for a long time, it made it more real. Like, I think when I was listening to records, I actually thought it was all magic. - Yeah. - 'Cause my friend and I were trying to take guitar lessons and the guitar teacher was teaching us like Mary Had a Little Lamb scales and stuff. And you're going blink, blink, blink, blink, blink, blink, blink, you know? And so I just thought whatever they're doing to go , you know? Like, that was something in their hands or, you know, some sort of magic. or you had to have the gift. so to see it to see that stuff live on TV it felt more it felt more real and more approachable and especially when the punk bands kind of started to come out to like sing the Clash on Fridays or you know some Joe Jackson on American Bandstand public image on American Bandstand you should you should check that out I haven't seen that it's it's unbelievable like Johnny's taking a piss out of the whole thing and it's that record a second edition it's really good yes good one I was just listening to Fragile I mean I think the sound is amazing on those records but kind of really odd yeah and I heard the other day I heard like a couple I heard like Roundabout and some of those songs where the bass is like I fucked around a ton trying to get that sound out of a Rickenbacker in a Marshall amp which I heard is what he was playing and then I heard the other day that one of the engineers said that he doubled the line on a nylon acoustic guitar so I'm fascinated by that stuff but that's John Anderson's like like if you just heard the voice by itself you'd be like I'm never listening to this but in the context of the band it's it was so perfect like it's kind of like Getty with Rush you know same like that kind of a voice in the context of like really heavy music and those guys are all virtuoso I mean Rick Wakeman holy shit that guy was an assassin all the Bowie stuff he did it was like really amazing to sort of push it as far as they can yeah all the time all those interstitial pieces let's make it weirder let's make it weirder the Bach pieces that he's playing and stuff like whenever I play that stuff my wife's like what is this like no can you put on the Faye Webster record instead you know like I got a study I got a I'm trying to I'm trying to figure out what kind of amp right what are they running this through I'm trying to figure out what kind of amp right what are they running this through I'm trying to figure out what kind of amp right what are they running this through right right right right I heard they played a put an acoustic guitar can you hear acoustic guitar this is rolling your eyes like Jesus that's the decontrol I used to every once in a while get a copy of Boston Rock for some reason in the back of Boston Rock it said this is like 1984 it said that's just decontrol looking for a new bass player blah blah blah and I guess like Al and Jamie had a fight for a week and so I'll put an ad in the Boston Rock that he's gonna get a new bass player but I answered it I call I called the house and Al's mom answered and said Al's at work call back after 6:00 or whatever and I was like thinking about trying to get to Boston to go try out for SSD because they're my favorite band at the time again talk about visceral just balls to the wall the most visceral music very pretty simple music and there was something about that whole straight-edge me movement that sort of made sense to me at the time like not not the not drinking part but just being like if you save your money to go to a rock show like focus on that on the art don't don't go obliterated the next day go like what happened which I did that a couple times what's your favorite concert well I don't remember I saw Hendrix that you know but I can't remember it like that would be a bummer it's interesting to think about how many bands formed or like members came into bands through ads or like members came into bands through ads like that would be a bummer it's interesting to think about how many bands formed or like members came into bands through ads like in the paper yeah Kiss yeah Ace Frehley I think was from a magazine like Village Voice like we need a guitar player I think that story was like he hauled like a Marshall amp of like you know a three-story walk-up or something you know like I think they were like yeah props the guy carried his own stuff up three floors yeah I mean I mean when I was in Seattle that's that was the whole game was like every month looking to see if there's a drummer that was better than your drummer who wasn't that wasn't that good Jr yes yeah Jay's good at those kind of arrangements he'll mix it up on you yeah I love Lou Barlow too like every once in a while he comes through somewhere and he'll do like a solo show and we saw him in San Diego a few years ago and he did like a three hour like every Lou Barlow Sebado every Folk Implosion song acoustic like really good how often do you go to concerts I should go more you know something I think growing up my dad always had me up early camping and then when I moved to Seattle I had a 5 a.m job I had worked at a restaurant for eight years or whatever so I got into this mode of like going to bed early and waking up early and I still I've never sort of shaken that thing so sometimes it gets to be like eight o'clock and you're like oh man they don't go on until 11 30. me too but when I go I'm always like I need to do this more you know like every single time that I go I I never regret it ever last song oh rain rain we've played this song so I should know that you played it we have songs that if the weather goes a certain way like if a rainstorm comes in we'll we'll play a couple get into it a couple verses of rain but yeah that I mean very similar Baseline to tax man yeah and very similar Baseline to start by the jam also kind of ripped on that on that Baseline you guys just never play the same thing right every show we box ourselves into a corner with that because yeah you're stuck now I mean Ed's like gotten like scientific about it he'll get like if we play Pittsburgh he'll look at every set list we've played in Pittsburgh find out what songs we've never played in Pittsburgh try to get some of those in look at the last two shows in Pittsburgh go like we can't play those openers it's great for us because it's like hour before the show you get the set list and you're you might make a couple changes or you might suggest a couple things or whatever and then you're like kind of scrambling because you're like we haven't played these four songs in two years and what's the bridge how's the bridge go again you know and so it's sometimes it's great to go into a show sort of like on the on Edge a little bit you know like not knowing practice a little bit yeah and just like not knowing if you're gonna pull it off yeah live music should have some element of kind of not knowing what's gonna happen you know sort of going with the whatever the gods give you that night you're in New York because you have a movie that premiered in tribe yeah yeah there's a couple there's a couple of uh they started off as kind of skate films I got made my my friend Dan uh Reese uh Brazilian guy he's been making this film called Montana grind for like the last 12 years and then uh Keelan Williams made a movie called paving the way that got in Tribeca I I made a soundtrack to the Montana grind uh film kind of as a dare like Dan sort of said hey can you write a skate rock song and I was like how's a 55 year old guy ride a skateboard so there's a puzzle and I think I did a good job it's not I don't take myself too seriously and the movie it's about these skate parks yeah you've helped put together like why why I grew up in a really small isolated community I grew up 10 miles from uh Chippewa Creek Creek Reservation so I firsthand sort of saw not just the reservations but in some of the small towns you see the poverty you see you know kids sort of getting into bad behavior just because they're bored just because they're you know they're a million miles from stuff a few years ago we built a park on the Blackfeet Reservation and it was just a it was just a home run and I ended up becoming really good friends with about 10 of these kids and a bunch of the kids are going to college or in military or one of the kids just finished job core which is a miracle because because there's inherent uh problems in those communities so I I just kept the ball rolling at that time and since then we've we built like between two and four parks a year wait one more song last one this charge talk about visceral I missed they played Seattle like about six months before I moved there and that's one of the that and the specials police show I I hear about those two shows over and over being like the greatest shows and I'm so bummed out that I never got to see the discharge why'd you move to Seattle uh I had one friend I had a friend that I had met my first year of college in Missoula who was in a killer Randy pep rock who was in a killer punk rock band called who killed Society and he moved to Seattle and every two weeks he'd send me either a there was a music paper called the rocket he did send me one of those or he would make a postcard and that would have like you know whatever the Clash is coming to town or whatever and one time he sent me a postcard and it had it said Metropolis coming soon and it had like really red Channel 3 uh gun Club blah blah blah these are all shows that were going to happen like the first two months of the club was open I was like I gotta be there and in Montana at the time it was like mid Reagan years like all the sawmills are closed down there's no jobs I was like there's no way I was going to pay for college the next year so I just sold my camera and a couple things and went to Seattle and lived in my buddy's floor until I got a job I was like I don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know job and and I was just and he was like so great man he was like you just got to do it man you just got to get enough money to get a bus pass and pay your rent that's all you need and I just were like okay I would hang out at shows and if I couldn't get in I'd I'd find the owner I'd find Hugo or whoever the owner was I'd be like hey man can I sweep up afterwards like I gotta see the bad brains tonight you gotta let me in you know and that it was such a cool communal scene there at the time he was up for it and then and then I was in then I was in then then he was like hey you want to play and then I and that's how I met Mark that's how I met Stone as I met Steve Turner Alex like all the guys that had you know formed Green River and you know Stone I've been in the band with ever since so I mean so grateful for Randy saying like "Just get a bus pass, pay your rent." - You guys had no idea. It was just like, we loved the music. - Just wanted to be around it, man. I mean, I grew up in a little town in Montana where I saw like maybe five concerts my whole high school. I saw Van Halen, I saw Billy Squire, I saw Pat Benatar, you know. It was like slim pickings, man. So I had to get out, but best thing I ever did. Thank you. - Thank you. - That's fun. That's fun, just talking music, it's the best. ♪ Why go home, why go home ♪ ♪ Why ♪