Along with guitarist
Stone Gossard, bassist
Jeff Ament was a member of three of Seattle's most celebrated and admired bands of recent times --
Green River,
Mother Love Bone, and
Pearl Jam. Born on March 10, 1963, in Big Sandy, MT,
Ament took up bass as a teenager, playing along to
Clash and
Police records, as well as learning a thing or two from classic rockers (
Rush,
Aerosmith, etc.). After relocating to Seattle hoping to fulfill his dreams of rock stardom,
Ament hooked up with influential garage rockers
Green River (which included singer
Mark Arm, guitarist
Steve Turner, drummer Alex Vincent, and
Gossard). Three EPs followed -- 1985's Come on Down, 1986's Dry as a Bone, and 1988's Rehab Doll, which saw the quintet provide the blueprint for other subsequent Seattle bands that would follow in their wake -- garage rock à la
the Stooges clashing with
Sabbath riff rock. Even with greater success on the horizon,
Green River called it a day the same year as their final release -- Arm and Turner would form
Mudhoney, while
Ament and
Gossard began jamming with local flamboyant glam rocker Andrew Wood.
The resulting band,
Mother Love Bone (which also included drummer
Greg Gilmore and second guitarist
Bruce Fairweather), combined
Green River's raw punk with
Wood's bombastic arena rock, resulting in a can't-miss combo that seemed destined for the top of the charts. Shortly after the quintet signed on with Polygram in 1989, MLB issued their first recording, the six-track EP
Shine, with a full-length debut written and recorded by the time the holiday season rolled around, titled
Apple. But tragedy struck a cruel blow to the band, when
Wood died from a heroin overdose in March of 1990.
Apple would eventually be issued later in the year, but the band couldn't continue without their charismatic singer, and
Mother Love Bone folded. Yet again, it was back to the drawing board for
Ament and
Gossard, who decided to put together a new band almost immediately afterward.
Recruiting San Diego native
Eddie Vedder on vocals and lead guitarist
Mike McCready (several different drummers would man the kit),
Ament and
Gossard's latest creation was more musically and visually straight-ahead than their previous band, and was dubbed
Pearl Jam. But before
Pearl Jam entered the studio,
Ament,
Gossard, and
McCready recorded a tribute album for
Wood with
Soundgarden singer
Chris Cornell and drummer
Matt Cameron, entitled
Temple of the Dog. The side project's self-titled debut was issued in 1991, just a short while before
Pearl Jam's debut record was issued. By the summer of 1992,
Pearl Jam had achieved enormous commercial success, eventually becoming one of the biggest rock bands of the '90s on the strength of such releases as 1993's Vs., 1994's
Vitalogy, 1996's
No Code, and 1998's Yield, plus their first release of the new millennium, 2000's Binaural. In addition to
Pearl Jam,
Ament found time for the side project
Three Fish, issuing 1996's self-titled debut and 1999's The Quiet Table, as well as creating a graphic design company with his brother. ~ Greg Prato