Mike McCready had a great chat with Jay and Dunc earlier this week, ahead of Pearl Jam’s New Zealand and Australia leg of their Dark Matter World Tour.
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After McCready had a yarn with Westie Lee, he stuck around The Rock HQ to have another chat with Jay and Dunc (and to sign Brad the Boss’ Pearl Jam records) - what a bloke.
The Rock Drive boys asked McCready about a bunch of stuff - ‘cause it’s not often you have a guy like him in the studio.
In their chat, they covered everything from McCready’s favourite guitarists to the evolution of success - from Pearl Jam’s early days in the limelight to what it means for him now. They also got McCready’s thoughts on returning to New Zealand - where he revealed he’d like to bring his family to explore the Lord of the Rings sites - and, of course, so much more.
Wrapping things up, Dunc had to ask him about a viral clip from 2022, where McCready famously smashed his Fender guitar.
“Was that a bad day at the office for you and were you venting frustration, or was that simply you at your age, still loving to smash the guitar?” Dunc asked him.
McCready explained that the moment was fueled by pure excitement at the end of a challenging tour after frontman Eddie Vedder had fallen sick.
“What happened was, we were on a European tour… it was two tours ago. And we had to cancel some shows because Ed got sick and I was like, ‘oh, my God, we're not going to be able to finish this tour. We're going to have to end on, you know, not a good note’.”
He continued, “And then Ed got better. And I was like, so excited to play.
“Our last show was in Amsterdam… So out of excitement I decided to destroy the guitar and my pedalboard. And yeah, I have a long career of doing that. My early days. I mean, I've taken out 70 [guitars].”
Check out the full chat, and feel free to skip to any of the timestamps below.
Mike McCready’s Full Chat with Jay & Dunc Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
0:27 Listening to music
1:07 Favourite guitarist
2:57 Meeting Westie Lee
6:15 Success then vs now
12:40 New Zealand
14:38 Vinyl
15:03 Touring
17:41 Eddie Van Halen
18:38 Performing Live
20:47 Smashing Guitars
