Formed in the aftermath of Mother Love Bone, Pearl Jam would go through five drummers in
just an eight year span.
While I’ve previously talked about Dave Abbruzzese in my videos and included a link
to that story down below, some of you have requested me to do a story on whatever happened
to the Pearl Jam’s first drummer Dave Krusen who played on the group’s landmark debut
record Ten.
Let’s explore the full story in today’s video and if you guys have requests for me
use the link in the description box below and put as many requests as you guys like.
Pearl Jam members Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament would be members of influential Seattle bands
Green River and Mother Love Bone prior to forming Pearl Jam.
It was following the death of Mother Love Bone frontman Andrew Wood the pair soon turned
their attention to a new project and enlisted guitarist Mike McCready.
Prior to finding a frontman they started jamming with drummer Dave Krusen.
Krusen would recall to Rolling Stone how he joined the early incarnation of Pearl Jam
stating
A friend of mine, was in a band called Son of Man.
They played a lot of shows with Mother Love Bone and Soundgarden.
He actually told me that Jeff Ament said they were looking for drummers to jam with and
they mentioned me.
Jeff said, “Tell him to call me.
I’m in the phone book.”
So I looked them up in the phone book and called Jeff and he said, “Do you want come
down and jam and bring drums?”
I was like, “Definitely.”
I was a huge Mother Love Bone fan.
…I went down there and we played for about a couple of hours.
I thought it sounded great.
In the same interview Krusen admitted he wasn’t sure what was going on with the singer situation
and two days after that initial jam Eddie Vedder showed up to audition recalling to
Rolling Stone They asked me if I wanted to come back the next day and I was like, “Of
course.”
Then Ed came up a couple of days after that.
I had never heard of him, never met him, knew nothing about him.
I met him at the rehearsal space and he just started singing off the bat.
By this point in Pearl Jam’s early career they were using the monicker Mookie Blaylock
named after then current NBA Player and the band already had demos of the songs ‘Black’
and ‘Alive.’
Soundgarden and Temple of the Dog drummer Matt Cameron had played on the demos but was
already committed to Soundgarden and Jack Irons who helped the band find Eddie Vedder
was initially offered teh drumming spot but declined at the time.
Krusen recalled to Rolling Stone working on the drum parts for the songs from Ten:
I tried to approach them like he did (referring to Matt Cameron), but obviously I can’t
play as good as him, so I tried to turn them into my own thing.
But yeah, those songs just came together really easily.
Stone would start in on a riff, whether it was song he had going or one where he just
started on a riff, even if it just an idea, and ten minutes later we’d pretty much worked
it into something we could work with.In late 1990 the band played their first set of shows
and soon became the opening act for Alice in Chains during a west coast tour when they
were promoting their debut record Facelift.
Soon enough they got signed to Epic Records and renamed themselves Pearl Jam.
Krusen would play drums on the band’s debut album Ten and it was following the recording
of the record he played a few more shows with the band before e was ultimately fired.
He would admit in the book everybody loves our town that his final gig with the group
would be the wrap party for the Cameron Crowe film singles.
Krusen’s drinking had became so out of control with him admitting “i just wanted to party
& get fucked up.
When we did the photo shoot for the album, i got some beer & halfway through the shoot,
i started to fall asleep.”
He would recall not remembering the shoot after seeing photos of it and the band had
to put sunglasses on Krusen and prop him up against the wall.
In addition to struggling with alcohol Krusen would admit in the same book that he had gotten
his girlfriend (or as he referred to and i quote “my kind of girlfriend” and he had
gotten her pregnant and tried to do the right thing and stick around and help raise the
kid.
Admitting “I was miserable.
My son was born a day after we went in to record Ten, which only made things more intense
in my life.
By the time the album was recorded the band and label chose to mix it in England and it
was at that time Krusen realized he had to go to rehab, but it wasn’t an easy fix for
him admitting in the same book he went to rehab numerous times and didn’t get sober
until 1994, three years after Ten came out.
Bassist Jeff Ament would tell the Powell Movement about the band firing Krusen saying We warned
him and warned him and warned him, and then we were like: 'Dude, you've got to go get
help.
We have tours coming up, and we can't babysit you.
You can't be falling down getting on your drum kit every night.'
"We were serious at that point, we all of a sudden got another shot.
We had this killer singer, and we were writing songs.
We were writing so many songs at that point so quickly.
We sort of felt like, we can't mess around right now, we need to get the right people
involved.
"But yeah, Dave said, 'You kicking me out of the band saved my life, because it really
helped me deal with what I was dealing with.'
By May of 1991 Krusen was out of the band.
But in numerous interview since leaving the band he admitted he had no resentment against
being let go because he was so out of control and understood the band’s decision.
It was following his stint in rehab that by late summer 1991 Krusen hooked up with his
friend Tal Goettling who originally recommended to him to try out for Pearl Jam.
They would play in an outfit named Purple Decade and recording several demos before
the friends quit the band by the fall of 1991.
The following year Krusen would end up joining the group Son of Man, which Goettling reformed
but Krusen would only be with the group until 1993.
It was by the mid 90’s Krusen soon joined Eddie Vedder’s then wife’s band Hovercraft
as their drummer funny enough replacing Vedder who played drums in the band.
He would be with the group for several years recording one album with the band, but ended
up leaving by 1997 as he admitted to Rolling Stone he couldn’t make ends meet playing
in the band.
By 1997 he would join Candlebox replacing original drummer Scott Mercado and played
on the album Happy Pills which came out the following year.
He would venture into other musical projects since then.
It was following Krusen’s departure Pearl Jam seemed to get bigger and bigger with the
subsequent release of Versus and Vitalogy in 1993 and 1994.
Rolling Stone would ask the drummer whether it was difficult ot watch his former band
continue to have success without him to which he replied.
I think it was harder for people around me than it was me.
I had to either accept or let it run me over.
I had to accept it and move on with my life.
I realized, also, that’s music and that’s what I wanted to do.
The upside of it was it got me to take notice of my life and get my shit together.
The cool thing was they are really good people.
It’s not just a musical influence.
They’ve influenced me in how they’ve conducted themselves.
In 2017 Pearl Jam would be inducted into the Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame.
Upon the announcement being made the first question a lot of fans asked was who would
be inducted?
The band in a short eight year span had 5 different drummers.
The Hall of Fame ultimately decided to induct only Krusen and the group’’s longest servigin
drummer Matt Cameron, It was a controversial decision given that fan favourite Dave Abbruzzese
who played on the group’s second and third records didn’t get inducted.
Upon the announcement being made Rolling Stone reached out to the drummer who shed some light
on his relationship with his former bandmates saying I’ve run into Mike [McCready] a couple
of times.
I went to their show in Memphis about two years ago.
But rarely.
I probably haven’t talked to Eddie [Vedder] in 20 years.
I haven’t seen Jeff [Ament] in years.
I’ve seen Stone [Gossard] a couple of times.
Then just last year, Pearl Jam reunited with Krusen and performed numerous tracks from
the rock band’s 1991 debut album, Ten, during the group’s May concert on in Fresno, Calif.
After drummer Matt Cameron was out sick.
Krusen was one of three drummers who played with the band that night.
Eddie Vedder would say during the show “I’ve just been delivered back into this
basement in 1990, 1991,” s.
“It’s a trip, man.”