Everybody Loves Our Town_ An Oral History of Grunge - Mark Yarm [234]
DAVE ABBRUZZESE I called Kelly just to check in, and he said he was on the way to the airport with Eddie. They were goin’ to New Orleans ’cause Eddie had that court case where he had gotten in a scuffle outside of a bar. I told Kelly, “Hope everything goes well. Tell Ed hello.” And he said, “Everything’s great. Good-bye. Wait, I think Stone wants to talk to you.” So I called Stone up, and he asked if I wanted to meet for breakfast the next day.
When I sat down for breakfast, Stone just looked at me for 30 seconds and then said, “Dave Abbruzzese.” Then he had the balls to say it the way he did: “We’re looking for another drummer.” My reaction was complete and utter disbelief. I was devastated. But I thought that Stone was such a good person. Stand-up, strong. If he wasn’t there, it probably would’ve been a lawyer calling me.
I got home and Mike called and Jeff called. I think it was difficult for everybody in the band, except for the one person I never spoke with after that, which was Eddie. The only time I ever had two words with Eddie since I got fired was two or three years later. I was sitting with Alain Johannes from Eleven on the curb after a Chris Cornell show in Seattle, and Eddie came up to us. He said, “Dave Abbruzzese,” and kinda put his arms out in greeting, because he couldn’t hide from me. And I stood up and realized how much shorter he was than I remembered. I think it was a one-armed hug. He started rambling and tried to join in our conversation, and he ended up toddling off. There was a little part of me that would’ve loved to clobber him and another part of me that felt like I already had, just by the fact that I could still sleep at night and I was still proud of everything that we accomplished.
A lot of people have asked me about the stick-man tattoo: “Do you regret it?” When I got it, it was a profound time and I felt free. No matter what would have happened with that band, that tattoo still signifies the same thing to me. I have no regrets at all.
JACK IRONS Eddie wanted me to be in the band earlier, and so did the other guys. I would get a phone call every now and then from Eddie: “We’re looking for somebody. Are you interested?” And I would ask him, “How long you gonna be on the road?” And he goes, “Well, we’re kind of booked for the next year and a half, off and on.” I was committed to Eleven, and my wife and I had just had our baby. The idea of being on the road for that long was hard to swallow, and I still had some traumatic stress from the Chili Pepper days and I was trying to keep my life balanced.
And then in June ’94, my wife and I left L.A. We bought a little cabin in Northern California. I didn’t know what my future would be with Eleven at the time. And then in August, someone hipped me to the fact that Pearl Jam were looking for another drummer. So I thought about it, and I realized that it was now or never for me, to at least put myself out there. As I got older and had a family, I knew I had to produce and make money for the future. And it wasn’t just about that. This was as Vitalogy was coming out and I knew that they didn’t want to do it like they did it on Ten and on Vs. Eddie said the band wasn’t going to tour at the same insane pace. And them being successful allows a certain amount of comfort and ease on the road.
I wasn’t a shoo-in at that point anymore because everybody had a couple guys they had wanted to try out. I went up to Seattle, and there was an audition process, so to speak, but it did very much help that I was Eddie’s guy. We played Neil Young’s Bridge School Benefit, and I think at that point I was committed to do the tour in Australia in the beginning of ’95. If I went to Australia and I did these gigs and it went well, then we’ll just keep going. Eventually, I was in the band.
COLLEEN COMBS If there was ever something that might’ve caused that band to break up, it might’ve been the pressure of putting together and pulling off that 1995 U.S. tour. Ticketmaster had contracts with all the major venues, so a band the size of Pearl