Pearl Jam was officially formed in 1990, but the roots of the band go much, much further back. Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament first recorded together in June 1984 as members of Green River. But if we look at Stone and Mike McCready, they’ve been friends since grade five, which would be the mid-70s.
Their big thing was to trade pictures of various rock bands. Mike was the first to pick up a guitar at age 11 and played in a band called Warrior in high school, sticking with things until the group (eventually renamed Shadows) broke up after moving to LA and failing to score a record deal.
Mike abandoned playing guitar entirely and got a job working nights in a video rental store. It wasn’t until a friend took him to a Stevie Ray Vaughn concert that he was motivated to start playing the guitar again.
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