Everybody Loves Our Town_ An Oral History of Grunge - Mark Yarm [236]
MIKE MCCREADY We had a lot of meetings [in Pearl Jam] where they would say, “Hey Mike, you’re getting way too fucked up.” But we’re all really good friends and we love each other and I think they actually thought I was going to die, but they never took steps to kick me out of the band, which I can’t believe because I fucked up so many times.
ERIC JOHNSON I used to worry about Mike on tour because he’d not be back by 4 a.m. sometimes. I’m not a big sleeper, so I’d be up worrying. A lot of times I’d know Mike was back because I’d see a hotel ashtray kicked over outside an elevator. “Fuck, thank God he’s home.”
I remember having Abbruzzese run into my room in Ireland, telling me, “You should probably go downstairs in front of the Burger King.” “Why?” “Because Mike’s out there naked.” Mike was always so cute when I would show up, like, “Uh-oh, Dad’s here!” But he’s totally cleaned his life up; he does really wonderful things for people now.
JOHNNY BACOLAS The point of me moving in with Layne was to be a support for him, to help him to—you know, I don’t know what he exactly wanted. He just wanted me around him, and I suppose I probably wanted the same. When I moved in, he laid out the law. He said, “If there’s any interventions, I’ll never speak to you again.” Being 25, 26 years old and not knowing better, I listened. It was pretty dark. It’s difficult living with someone that you absolutely love, and you’re essentially watching them kill themselves.
But there were also a lot of good times living with Layne. Like when his family or my family would come over and all of us would be hanging out. He and I had a lot of great times just watching movies or jamming on guitars. We’d go grocery shopping together at 4 or 5 o’clock in the morning so people didn’t bug him. Layne took me to Eddie Vedder’s house in 1995 when Eddie broadcasted a radio show called Self-Pollution Radio from his basement. I met Eddie that night, and Layne introduced me to Chris Cornell. And I watched Layne perform with Mad Season.
MIKE MCCREADY A lot of hallucinogenic mushrooms grow in the area around Surrey, England, where we mixed the first Pearl Jam album, and the people there call the time when they come up the “Mad Season” because people are wandering around mad, picking mushrooms, half out of their minds. That term has always stuck in my mind, and I relate that to my past years, the seasons of drinking and drug abuse.
BARRETT MARTIN Mike McCready, who I’d known off and on and had jammed with at house parties, said he wanted to form a band with this bass player, John Baker Saunders, who he’d met at the Hazelden rehab clinic. Mike asked me to come jam with him and Baker, and I said sure, since the Trees weren’t doing anything. I immediately liked Baker because he had this blues background—he was from Chicago—and the three of us had this good chemistry. It was just real blues-based rock; it didn’t sound grunge and it didn’t sound like any of our bands. Mike said that he wanted to find a singer, and he mentioned Layne.
JOHNNY BACOLAS Layne never answered the phone, and we’d never answer the door if someone just knocked. You’d have to let us know you’re coming. Mike called and spoke to me, and he’s like, “Dude, wanted to come and hang out and say hi to you guys. I just got out of rehab, and I had this idea for this band.” I’m the one who let him in the house, and he played Layne these songs. Before they were Mad Season, they were going to call the band the Gacy Bunch. Like John Wayne Gacy, the killer. (Laughs.) I remember thinking, That’s a pretty cool name, but damn, that’s a pretty negative connotation!
Mark Lanegan sang on a couple of songs on the album. He was a good friend of Layne’s. I saw Mark Lanegan at the house more