Stone Gossard

I really enjoy not getting in a car and running errands on bikes.

I’ve seen neighborhoods that I would have never driven though because I’m riding my bike, because I’m looking for side roads, looking for maybe more hills or less hills depending if I’m exercising or not. You see a lot more, and you get the flow of a city a lot more.

We may take breaks and do other things, but we feel we’ll ultimately have Pearl Jam as a family.

Dave played an important part in our growing, but change occurs.

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.

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.

And I look forward to the time when I can become more indulgent with my songwriting. But this band is a family, and it’s a process that we have to grow with together.

It’s a perfectly human instinct to want to be near water.

Call it holistic or holographic thinking, it’s been quite effective imagining the world’s problems are all right in front of you on a smaller scale with your band. You deal with those relationships, and that’s where real major change begins.

It’s a very complex scenario, and certainly Dave was, and is, not the only person in Pearl Jam with personality flaws. Everybody in this band exhibits some form of neurotic behavior. And we couldn’t find a balance, a mutual respect for each other.

That’s not to say Eddie’s never done anything malicious. But he never grabbed power for power’s sake. His position was gained only because he has that energy, and that’s naturally where he ended up.

A lot of fun stuff happens when you go out on a bike compared to when you’re in a car. You’re more in the environment. It’s enjoyable. Even when It’s raining It’s still fun.

It would be great to take one city street and turn it into a pedestrian corridor and see what kind of effect it has on the businesses in that area – It’s the future I think.

You know, at 35 or at 38 or 40 you really start to see what your body could look like if you just don’t do anything all winter long. So that’s another motivating factor, our vanity.

I think if you exercise, your state of mind – my state of mind – is usually more at ease, ready for more mental challenges. Once I get the physical stuff out of the way it always seems like I have more calmness and better self-esteem.

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.

And I remember as a second or third grader having some autonomy to go to the store if I felt like it, walk home, take my time, kick the can. We were on our own schedule after school, so that was cool.

I liked the banana-seat bikes with the high handlebars – maybe a card in the wheel could have been part of it.

Well, you go to Holland and everybody’s on a bike – nobody would think to have a car.

It’s really comforting for me and Jeff, at least, that after 12 years we finally feel we’ve reached a place where we can be more honest, real and loving with each other. And we’re finally in a band that we know is good, and deserves the credit it’s getting.

I walked to Seward School first through fourth grade. It’s just amazing to me now that we’d walk down 10th Avenue on Capitol Hill.

I like rhythmic things that butt up against each other in a cool kind of way.

If it had remained always my band, my natural tendency would have been to get more complex and arrange things more and more. That wouldn’t necessarily be good for Eddie, or anyone else in the band.