Stone Gossard Quotes

#1. Call it holistic or holographic thinking, it's been quite effective imagining the world's problems are all right in front of you on a smaller scale with your band. You deal with those relationships, and that's where real major change begins.

Stone Gossard

#2. It may take me a long time before I feel 'ready' to tour as a lead singer. I may never be ready ... we'll just have to see.

Stone Gossard

#3. You know, at 35 or at 38 or 40 you really start to see what your body could look like if you just don't do anything all winter long. So that's another motivating factor, our vanity.

Stone Gossard

#4. The past is filled with people who aren't traditionally thought of as fantastic singers singing these songs that capture people; songs like 'Louie Louie.' I just aim toward that, and I think I've gotten better at it.

Stone Gossard

#5. I think people will always love a heavy Sabbath riff because it's fundamental to rock.

Stone Gossard

#6. I've seen neighborhoods that I would have never driven though because I'm riding my bike, because I'm looking for side roads, looking for maybe more hills or less hills depending if I'm exercising or not. You see a lot more, and you get the flow of a city a lot more.

Stone Gossard

#7. I think it's evident that expensive neighborhoods in Seattle are surrounded by natural beauty. That elevates city life. So if we can make cities more attractive in the long run, we can be smarter about issues like development, zoning and economics.

Stone Gossard

#8. Well, you go to Holland and everybody's on a bike - nobody would think to have a car.

Stone Gossard

#9. It's a perfectly human instinct to want to be near water.

Stone Gossard

#10. My methodology is not knowing what I'm doing and making that work for me.

Stone Gossard

#11. There's been a lot of role reversal going on in the band. The roles people have been playing for a long time will always be there, but everybody's willing to try on different outfits.

Stone Gossard

#12. I've always related music to those moments when someone turns you loose on something and they haven't told you how to do it.

Stone Gossard

#13. I like to play music. I like projects. I like excuses to hang out with my friends and play music.

Stone Gossard

#14. I liked the banana-seat bikes with the high handlebars - maybe a card in the wheel could have been part of it.

Stone Gossard

#15. Eddie is a natural leader. Jeff and I have been very much in control of previous bands we've worked in. But the way Eddie grew into being the leader of this band was the most gradual, slow and respectful process that I've ever been involved in.

Stone Gossard

#16. You can't help but have your children and your family be part of what you dream about when you dream up a song.

Stone Gossard

#17. It would be great to take one city street and turn it into a pedestrian corridor and see what kind of effect it has on the businesses in that area - It's the future I think.

Stone Gossard

#18. I love making music. I love being involved in arranging music. It's very natural to know what I want to hear next and come up with ideas that are variations of what might be good.

Stone Gossard

#19. I like myself. I think I'm cool. But I think when you're in a band you take on a role within the band, and I think people over the course of years can identify those roles as almost being bigger than just the individual. I don't know. It's kind of hard to talk about.

Stone Gossard

#20. That's not to say Eddie's never done anything malicious. But he never grabbed power for power's sake. His position was gained only because he has that energy, and that's naturally where he ended up.

Stone Gossard

#21. It's really comforting for me and Jeff, at least, that after 12 years we finally feel we've reached a place where we can be more honest, real and loving with each other. And we're finally in a band that we know is good, and deserves the credit it's getting.

Stone Gossard

#22. Parenthood and having kids puts you in touch with a whole other sort of sensitivity which is nothing but good. You feel more than you ever felt. You feel that vulnerability, but at the same time you wouldn't trade it for anything.

Stone Gossard

#23. I think I have my own sort of distinctive swing, for sure. I think that's something that comes really natural to me, to push against the beat and kind of explore a triplet feel behind everything just to see what that feels like.

Stone Gossard

#24. If it had remained always my band, my natural tendency would have been to get more complex and arrange things more and more. That wouldn't necessarily be good for Eddie, or anyone else in the band.

Stone Gossard

#25. I just know that I love to write songs, and I have for a long time.

Stone Gossard

#26. There is a tendency for writers to be most exciting by whatever they just wrote. Sometimes that excitement is warranted. Sometimes on further listen it's not as good as something they did a couple of years ago, but it's just not in their sights at that particular time.

Stone Gossard

#27. A significant event for me was learning Hank Williams, reconnecting with his music's simplicity, which inspired me to inhabit the same territory. It's different, because I grew up on Led Zeppelin, The Stooges and punk, so in that sense I'm mutating country and folk more than a few degrees.

Stone Gossard

#28. I think ultimately, bringing more nature back into the city is a way to deal with urban sprawl and things like that. If the cities feel a little more natural, people like to live there more rather than moving out and dividing up another piece of land that shouldn't be touched.

Stone Gossard

#29. Right, those relationships with your parents and family are the hardest to figure out, and the same patterns get carried into a band situation.

Stone Gossard

#30. I think that's one of the biggest problems in rock is people thinking too much, putting too much emphasis on getting things perfect or completely sorted out. Sometimes that sound of not having everything sorted out is kind of cool.

Stone Gossard

#31. I really enjoy not getting in a car and running errands on bikes.

Stone Gossard

#32. If you have a lot of nature in your city, it becomes a more enjoyable place. That's my own feeling about it.

Stone Gossard

#33. I like to write music. And I think exploring with lyrics and figuring out how to make complete songs is fun. I think I have a take on it. I don't know if it's great, but it's an interesting take. It's original.

Stone Gossard

#34. I'm in a rock band - I don't have a day job! I am spoiled ... a lot.

Stone Gossard

#35. I think when you put a new record out, everyone has a song or two that they feel people will be moved by so much that radio will be forced to play it.

Stone Gossard

#36. Politics is tricky; it cuts both ways. Every time you make a choice, it has unintended consequences.

Stone Gossard

#37. I picked up a guitar, and I knew what I wanted to do.

Stone Gossard

#38. When you're moved by music, that's always good.

Stone Gossard

#39. But Eddie does not make all the decisions. Eddie can listen to reason; Eddie can be swayed or talked in or out of certain things. Eddie allows other people to lead in this band and to have certain roles that are very fundamental to the decision-making process.

Stone Gossard

#40. You can say what you think music is, but the only way it really is, is how people experience it.

Stone Gossard

#41. And I remember as a second or third grader having some autonomy to go to the store if I felt like it, walk home, take my time, kick the can. We were on our own schedule after school, so that was cool.

Stone Gossard

#42. On some planet, I probably could have been a lawyer. On some planet, I could have been somebody in advertising.

Stone Gossard

#43. And I look forward to the time when I can become more indulgent with my songwriting. But this band is a family, and it's a process that we have to grow with together.

Stone Gossard

#44. As a songwriter, it's kind of hard to listen to your own stuff with clarity.

Stone Gossard

#45. I'm probably at my least religious I've ever been in a while. When you're moved by music, that's always good. But I haven't been talking to God too much lately.

Stone Gossard

#46. For the most part, I really love being in a collaborative thing. And in a collaborative thing if you have a singer as good as Sean Smith or Eddie Vedder, you kind of think, well, why don't you just go ahead and let them sing? People seem to really like it.

Stone Gossard

#47. We may take breaks and do other things, but we feel we'll ultimately have Pearl Jam as a family.

Stone Gossard

#48. Dave played an important part in our growing, but change occurs.

Stone Gossard

#49. We're super fortunate in Pearl Jam to have such loyal fans ... who really want to come & see us play.

Stone Gossard

#50. I learn stuff from making music every time I go in the studio. I'm continuing to try to find new ways to play in a song or be in a song and have a positive impact on a song.

Stone Gossard

#51. Words can have the same kind of magic as riffs can.

Stone Gossard

#52. I like rhythmic things that butt up against each other in a cool kind of way.

Stone Gossard

#53. I walked to Seward School first through fourth grade. It's just amazing to me now that we'd walk down 10th Avenue on Capitol Hill.

Stone Gossard

#54. Raising awareness, changing the marketplace, effecting spiritual change - whatever it is that you decide is your thing, go for it.

Stone Gossard

#55. Every year is filled with good times and fights and struggles and misunderstandings. All of it adds up to being in a band over a long time.

Stone Gossard

#56. A lot of fun stuff happens when you go out on a bike compared to when you're in a car. You're more in the environment. It's enjoyable. Even when It's raining It's still fun.

Stone Gossard

#57. I think if you exercise, your state of mind - my state of mind - is usually more at ease, ready for more mental challenges. Once I get the physical stuff out of the way it always seems like I have more calmness and better self-esteem.

Stone Gossard

#58. It's a very complex scenario, and certainly Dave was, and is, not the only person in Pearl Jam with personality flaws. Everybody in this band exhibits some form of neurotic behavior. And we couldn't find a balance, a mutual respect for each other.

Stone Gossard