Mike McCready

Michael David McCready (born April 5, 1966) is an American musician known for being a founding member and lead guitarist of Pearl Jam.

McCready was also a member of the side project bands Flight to Mars, Temple of the Dog, Mad Season, and The Rockfords.

In 1986, Shadow relocated to Los Angeles and attempted to cut a record deal.

However, according to McCready:

"We played to a couple bartenders down there, but even though it was a bad scene, it was a good experience. Basically, we weren't that good of a band, and we didn't realize it until we got down there. I guess we lost our focus, got really bummed out and came back to Seattle."

In 1988, Shadow returned to Seattle and split up soon afterwards.

McCready lost interest in playing guitar for some time, stating that he was "so depressed about life".

He cut his hair, enrolled in a local community college, and spent his nights working at a video store.

He credits a friend named Russ Riedner for getting him "out of my college mode and back into playing guitar".

McCready was inspired to pick up his guitar again after attending a Stevie Ray Vaughan concert at The Gorge Amphitheatre in George, Washington.

McCready said:

"As soon as he started 'Couldn't Stand the Weather', these huge clouds rolled in overhead, and rain began pouring down. When the song ended, the rain stopped! It was like a religious experience, and it changed me. It lifted me out of the negative mindset I was in, and it got me playing again. I thank him forever for that."

McCready gradually went back to playing guitar and finally joined another band called Love Chile.

A childhood friend, Stone Gossard, went to one of the band's shows and appreciated McCready's work after hearing him perform Stevie Ray Vaughan's "Couldn't Stand the Weather".

Gossard had known McCready before high school when the two would trade rock band pictures with each other.

After the demise of Gossard's band Mother Love Bone, he asked McCready if he wanted to play music together with him.

After practicing with Gossard for a few months, McCready encouraged Gossard to reconnect with his fellow Mother Love Bone alum, Jeff Ament.

The trio were attempting to form their own band when they were invited to be part of the Temple of the Dog project founded by Soundgarden's Chris Cornell as a musical tribute to Mother Love Bone's frontman Andrew Wood, who died of a heroin overdose at age 24.

Cornell had been Wood's roommate.

The band's line-up was completed by the addition of Soundgarden drummer Matt Cameron.

The band started rehearsing songs that Cornell had written on tour prior to Wood's death, as well as re-working some existing material from demos written by Gossard and Ament.

This was McCready's first recording studio experience, and he took a central role in the project.

McCready performed an epic four-minute-plus solo for "Reach Down".

According to Cornell, McCready's headphone monitors flew off halfway through the recording of the solo, and he played the rest of the solo without being able to hear the backing track.

McCready considers this track to be one of his proudest moments.

The Temple of the Dog project eventually featured vocalist Eddie Vedder.

(Vedder had come to Seattle to audition to be the singer for Ament and Gossard's next band, which later became Pearl Jam.) Vedder sang a duet with Cornell on the song "Hunger Strike" and provided background vocals on several other songs.

Pearl Jam was formed in 1990 by Ament, Gossard, and McCready, who then recruited Vedder and drummer Dave Krusen.

The band decided that it had enough material for an entire album, and in April 1991 Temple of the Dog was released through A&M Records.

The band originally took the name Mookie Blaylock, but was forced to change it when the band signed to Epic Records in 1991.

After the recording sessions for Ten were completed, Krusen left Pearl Jam in May 1991.

Krusen was replaced by Matt Chamberlain, who had previously played with Edie Brickell & New Bohemians.

After playing only a handful of shows, one of which was filmed for the "Alive" video, Chamberlain left to join the Saturday Night Live band.

He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a part of Pearl Jam in 2017 alongside the three other founding members (Jeff Ament, Stone Gossard and Eddie Vedder), and former member Dave Krusen.

Mike McCready was born in Pensacola, Florida, but his family moved to Seattle shortly after his birth.

When he was a child, his parents played Jimi Hendrix and Santana; while his friends listened to Kiss and Aerosmith, McCready would frequently play bongo drums.

At the age of eleven, McCready purchased his first guitar and began taking lessons.

In eighth grade, McCready formed his first band, Warrior, whose name soon changed to Shadow.

Originally a cover band playing during free periods at Roosevelt High School, the band eventually began writing original material and recording demo tapes.

After high school, McCready worked at a pizza restaurant where he befriended musician Pete Droge.