Pearl Jam Preserving New Drummer Mystery

Pearl Jam Preserving New Drummer Mystery

Pearl Jam Preserving New Drummer Mystery

Pearl Jam in Vancouver in May 2024 (photo: Geoff Whitman).

Pearl Jam has indeed chosen its new drummer, but the band is not making any grand reveals ahead of what will be its first show with Matt Cameron’s replacement on Sept. 27 at Eddie Vedder’s Ohana festival in Dana Point, Ca. Former Soundgarden member Cameron exited Pearl Jam amicably in July 2025 after a 27-year-run.

“I love the mystery of it all. It’s so exciting,” guitarist Stone Gossard said of Pearl Jam’s next iteration in a new interview today (May 21) on SiriusXM’s Pearl Jam Radio. “There’s not enough mystery in the world. I think the band is very excited that we’re actually getting to play. It’s been a while and the fact that we get to do it at Ohana makes it even doubly exciting. And the fact that nobody knows who’s going to play drums with us even makes it triply exciting. So, it’s our mystery wrapped in an enigma and we’re relishing in it right now.”

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The 10th anniversary Ohana lineup at Doheny State Beach will also feature headlining sets from Vedder and unnamed friends on Sept. 25 and Tyler Childers the following night. The undercard boasts Mexican rock legends Maná, Billy Idol, Bad Religion, Courtney Barnett, Bob Mould’s reunited Sugar, Alabama Shakes, Jon Batiste, Men I Trust, Fontaines D.C., Pixies, Rilo Kiley, the Format and Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament’s side band P.E.S.T. Click here for tickets.

“Matt Cameron has always come at things with an openness to all the people in the room and with grace and love for this process,” Gossard said when asked about Cameron’s contributions to Pearl Jam, which began as far back as 1990 when he drummed on some of Gossard’s earliest band demos. “His playing speaks for itself. Matt’s always going to be our brother.”

“He was ready for a shift and ready for a change,” he continued. “God bless him, and we love Matt always. But I think it’s also going to be good for us to in a sense of letting that unknown enter into the equation again [and] giving us a chance to to regroup and try to still be good. That’s a cool challenge. Where do you go after Matt Cameron? It’s a big question, and he always served the music [in an] outstanding [way]. He always played with power and with energy, and it’ll be a tough task to figure that out. But I’m confident that we’re going to be able to do it.”

Asked what he’s been doing to stay sharp during Pearl Jam’s year-long break from the stage, Gossard reported, “I’ve actually been playing more guitar than I have in a long time, which is great. It’s part of my daily routine [to] pick it up, mess around [and] play along with some stuff just to keep my fingers nimble. But [I’m] also spending a lot of time in the studio making demos, trying different things [and] dreaming about what Ed might like and where could we go that would be fun? I think everyone in the band has done the same thing. So, everyone’s itching to play.”

One drummer who apparently won’t be joining the band is Dave Krusen, the first person to serve behind the kit for Pearl Jam from 1990-1991. Krusen, who also played on the band’s landmark 1991 debut album Ten, was inducted with Pearl Jam into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2017 and performed with his former colleagues at the New York induction ceremony for the first time in 26 years. Replying to a fan’s Instagram question earlier this week about if he was “coming back,” he replied, “no, they have a new drummer already.”

To see our running list of the top 100 greatest rock stars of all time, click here.

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