While he is quiet and does not tend to be exposed to the spotlight, he is one of the significant guitarists who started the development of the grunge scene in Seattle.
(Photo: Henry Ruggeri)
We want to share some interesting facts about the guy:
= He was born in Seattle on July 20, 1966, as Stone Carpenter Gossard.
= The first band Gossard joined was "March of Crimes", which also included Ben Shepherd who would later join "Soundgarden".
= He later joined the band "Ducky Boys" in which he met Steve Turner, who would later be a member of the band "Mudhoney". Turner was the one who introduced Gossard to punk rock music, which inspired Gossard later on.
= In 1984, the two formed the band "Green River", where Gossard first met bassist Jeff Ament.
= Gossard, Ament, Steve, and Mark Arm as "Green River" released their first EP "Come on Down" in 1985, already then the collaboration between Ament and Gossard began to shine, with the duo composing most of the mini-album songs.
= In 1987, the band released a second mini-album called "Dry as a Bone", which was the first release of the mythical "Sub-Pop" label, so identified with grunge.
= As part of the publications and promotion of the mini-album, the label first mentioned the concept of grunge in the following words: "Ultra-loose grunge that destroyed the morals of a generation".
= In 1988, "Green River" released their only full-length album - "Rehab Doll". During this time the relationship within the band was intense, with Ament and Gossard on one side and Mark and Steve on the other.
= These controversies led to the dissolution of "Green River", but its place in the history of music remains as one of the first and most influential bands in the grunge genre.
(Photo: Pearl Jam On Twitter)
= In 1988, Ament and his friend from "Green River", Gossard, formed the band "Mother Love Bone". They will add a talented and charismatic character named Andrew Wood who came from the band "Malfunkshun".
= On March 23, 1989, Ament, Gossard and the band released an EP with six songs called "Shine", making "Mother Love Bone" as the first band in Seattle to release an album with a major record label.
= At the end of 1989, Gossard, Ament, and the band members returned to the studio in California to record their debut album "Apple". The album included 13 songs and was scheduled to be released in March 1990, but just days before the planned release date, Wood died of an overdose.
(Photo: James Bland)
= Wood's death of course dismantled the band but also threatened to affect the friendships between Ament and Gossard, with Ament even playing briefly with the band "War Babies", before returning with Gossard.
= The two added Gossard's childhood friend Mike McCready and the three tried to form a band.
= While searching for members for the new band, the three received an invitation to join a project in memory of Andrew Wood led by "Soundgarden" leader Chris Cornell - called "Temple of the Dog".
= In 1990, Ament, Gossard, and McCready, along with singer Eddie Vedder, formed "Pearl Jam".
(Photo: Wallpapercrafter.com)
= In August 1991, the band releases their debut album "Ten". Although initially, the album was not very successful, towards the end of 1992 it got a significant breakthrough. It comes in second place on the Billboard 200, receives two Grammy nominations, and sweeps a bunch of awards on MTV. The album soon became one of the greatest albums to come out of the grunge scene and one of the greatest of the 1990s, and in general.
= Gossard becomes an essential and important part of the band as already on the first album he contributes to writing 8 of the album's 11 songs including: "Alive", "Even Flow", "Black" and "Once".
= In 1993 the band's second album "Vs" is released. The album soared on the waves of success straight to number one on the Billboard 200 and stayed there for 5 weeks breaking weekly sales records.
= The band released 10 more albums: "Vitalogy" (1994), "No Code" (1996), "Yield" (1998), "Binaural" (2000), "Riot Act" (2002), "Pearl Jam" (2006), "Backspacer" (2009), "Lightning Bolt" (2013), "Gigaton" (2020) and "Dark Matter" on 2024, which really got us back to the beginning, when we fell in love with the band all over again!
= Gossard will continue to co-write the band's masterful songs such as "Animal", "Daughter", "Spin the Black Circle", "Of The Girl", "Life Wasted", "Of The Girl", "Bushleaguer" and more.
= Although Gossard is generally considered the band's rhythm guitarist, the dynamics between him and McCreedy began to change with Eddie becoming a third guitarist, with Gossard occasionally taking more on the lead.
= Gossard also occasionally plays bass, piano, mellotron, and sings background vocals.
= Most of Gossard's writing for the band is in compositions, but he also wrote lyrics for some of the songs such as: "All Those Yesterdays", "Thin Air", "Of the Girl and more.
= Gossard also serves as lead singer in two of the band's songs - "Mankind" and "Don't Gimme No Lip".
= In addition to his work with "Pearl Jam", Gossard is a member of the band "Brad" which was formed in 1992 and has released five albums to date.
(Photo: Billboard)
= That same year Gossard appeared in the mythical movie "Singles" about the grunge scene in Seattle.
= In 1994, he co-founded the label "Loosegroove Records" with Regan Hagar, a member of the band "Brad". This label signed "Queens of the Stone Age" through which the band released their debut album.
= Gossard is also a producer and owner of the recording studio "Studio Litho" in Seattle. In this studio many bands have recorded, such as: "Soundgarden", "Screaming Trees", "Deftones", "Dave Matthews Band" and of course also "Pearl Jam" and "Brad".
= In 2001, Gossard became the first member of "Pearl Jam" to release a solo album, with "Bayleaf" where he played most instruments and even drums.
= In 2013, Gossard released his second solo album "Moonlander".
= He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame along with his friends at "Pearl Jam" in 2017.
= During the Covid-19 crisis he continued to work with musician Mason Jennings on a project called "Painted Shield" which they started together in 2014. The first album bearing the band's name was released in 2020 and the second album called "Painted Shield 2" was released in 2022.
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