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When Pearl Jam announced they would be headlining the 10th Ohana Festival earlier this month, many fans had the same question: “Who’s on drums?” The band haven’t played a single gig since Matt Cameron’s departure last year – and so far not a word has been said about who should replace him.
However, in a new interview on SiriusXM’s Pearl Jam Radio, guitarist Stone Gossard strongly hinted that the decision has already been made. It will become official when the band takes the stage at the Ohana Festival on September 27th. “There aren’t enough mysteries in the world,” Gossard said. “I think the band is really excited that we’re finally playing again. It’s been a while, and the fact that we get to do it at Ohana makes it doubly exciting. And the fact that no one knows who’s going to be playing drums with us makes it triple exciting. So it’s our enigma, wrapped in a mystery – and we’re enjoying it to the fullest right now.”
In a ROLLING STONE interview in February, Eddie Vedder dodged a direct answer. “If I were to say anything,” he said, “I think we’d want to talk about it as a band first – what we want to say, who’s going to get it out there, whatever… We’re in the studio, we’re rehearsing, we’re excited. It’s nice to think about change. As much as we wanted to do it the way we always did – and we’ll continue to be able to – I think we’re all just looking forward to the future.”
Conflicting signals
His words at the time suggested that they had long since agreed on a drummer internally, but didn’t want to make this public yet. In April, however, Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready struck a completely different note. “I think I’m kind of done with the break,” he told American Songwriter. “I’m ready to get going again whenever, or work on a new album. We just need to find a new drummer, you know? We don’t have one.”
Fans have spent the past few months frantically speculating who the band will sign. Nostalgic-minded fans pinned their hopes on original drummer Dave Krusen, whom the band brought back for a single show in 2022 when Cameron fell ill with Covid. However, in a now-deleted Instagram comment, Krusen clearly rejected these dreams. “No,” he wrote, “they already have a new drummer.”
The mystery remains
Whether Pearl Jam will solve this “enigma shrouded in mystery” before the moment they take the stage at the Ohana Festival on September 27th – no one knows at the moment.
