Stone Gossard
Stone Gossard
Stone Carpenter Gossardis an American musician who serves as the rhythm and additional lead guitarist for the American rock band Pearl Jam. Along with Jeff Ament, Mike McCready, and Eddie Vedder, he is one of the founding members of Pearl Jam. Gossard is also known for his work prior to Pearl Jam with the 1980s Seattle, Washington-based grunge bands Green River and Mother Love Bone, and he has made contributions to the music industry as a producer and owner of...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionMusician
Date of Birth20 July 1966
CountryUnited States of America
I picked up a guitar, and I knew what I wanted to do.
It's a perfectly human instinct to want to be near water.
Eddie is a natural leader. Jeff and I have been very much in control of previous bands we've worked in. But the way Eddie grew into being the leader of this band was the most gradual, slow and respectful process that I've ever been involved in.
I'm probably at my least religious I've ever been in a while. When you're moved by music, that's always good. But I haven't been talking to God too much lately.
I love making music. I love being involved in arranging music. It's very natural to know what I want to hear next and come up with ideas that are variations of what might be good.
But Eddie does not make all the decisions. Eddie can listen to reason; Eddie can be swayed or talked in or out of certain things. Eddie allows other people to lead in this band and to have certain roles that are very fundamental to the decision-making process.
Parenthood and having kids puts you in touch with a whole other sort of sensitivity which is nothing but good. You feel more than you ever felt. You feel that vulnerability, but at the same time you wouldn't trade it for anything.
My daughter loves to do art stuff. As a father, I like to play with her. We break out the big pads of paper and the glitter and all the stuff. She likes to do what she likes to do. I want to do something, too. So I've just started using her same materials - a lot of crayons, a lot of sparkle, charcoal, pencils, markers and glue.
There's no getting around the fact that Eddie is the man. As far as emotional and spiritual energy goes, he IS the leader of this band.
You can't help but have your children and your family be part of what you dream about when you dream up a song.
There's been a lot of role reversal going on in the band. The roles people have been playing for a long time will always be there, but everybody's willing to try on different outfits.
We've actually rehearsed more for this tour than we've ever rehearsed in our lives. Matt is singing a lot of the vocal harmonies, and he's just killing it. The benefit of playing in a KISS cover band when you're 12 is that you learn to sing!
We're going to make better and better records as we get older, especially considering this one kind of rocks harder. Why should we be rocking harder now? Isn't this when we're supposed to ease into the whole Pink Floyd groove?
I like to write music. And I think exploring with lyrics and figuring out how to make complete songs is fun. I think I have a take on it. I don't know if it's great, but it's an interesting take. It's original.