Stone Gossard
Pearl Jam
Temple of the Dog
Mother Love Bone
Stone Carpenter Gossard (born July 20, 1966, Seattle, Washington) is the rhythm guitarist and founding member for American rock band Pearl Jam.
Stone is well known for his work in grunge rock bands based in Seattle
through the 1980's prior to Pearl Jam, and he has made significant contributions
to the music industry since then aside from Pearl Jam.
Stone formed his first band in the early 1980's named March of Crimes, which
introduced him to the emerging music scene in Seattle. Stone formed a close
friendship with fellow guitarist Steve Turner who attended the same school as
him. Stone was a founding member of the influential grunge bands Green River and
Mother Love Bone. After singer Andrew Wood's death and the demise of Mother Love
Bone, his new songs and demos developed into significant contributions to the
Temple of the Dog project, and the formation of Pearl Jam in 1990. Eight of the
eleven tracks on Pearl Jam's seminal debut Ten were musically penned by Gossard,
including Alive, Even Flow and Black. He has since made less of a solo
contribution to the bands work, but has become part of the collaborative
efforts, however he was behind the more recent hits Do the Evolution and Life
Wasted.
Stone is known for his hard rhythm style of playing, and his superb sense of
beat and groove. He said of himself: "I like rhythmic things that butt up
against each other in a cool kind of way". He is a very talented and varied
guitarist, and can be seen playing lead guitar on a lot of Pearl Jam's more
recent songs. Eddie Vedder was quoted as saying that Stone is extremely
difficult to collaborate with as he outright refuses to work on anything
remotely like anything he's done before. As well as guitar contributions, Stone
has also played mellotron, bass guitar, lead vocals and made numerous backing
vocal cuts.
Aside from Pearl Jam, he is a founding member of Seattle side project band Brad,
who formed in 1993, and have since released 3 albums. Stone formed the record
label Loosegroove Records in 1995, but the company was folded in 2000. He
released his first solo album, titled Bayleaf in 2001. He is the owner of the
prestigious Studio Litho in Seattle.
He appeared in the 1992 movie Singles as himself, making up lead actor Matt
Dillon's backing band. During Pearl Jam's dispute with Ticketmaster in 1994 over
prices and surcharges, Gossard, along with fellow Pearl Jam member Jeff Ament,
appeared before a congressional sub-committee to testify on the issue. He has
also produced records by such artists as Satchel, Green Apple Quick Step, Weapon
of Choice and Critters Buggin. He is a talented artist and painter, and his
artwork is on many Pearl Jam releases, as well as his solo album, Bayleaf.
"Stone Gossard." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 3 Jul 2006, 20:49 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 4 Jul 2006
