PEARL JAM Bassist Calls Band Documentary 'Really Painful'

According to The Pulse Of Radio, PEARL JAM bassist Jeff Ament spoke with Rolling Stone on Friday (January 21) about the group's plans for celebrating its 20th anniversary, including an upcoming feature-length documentary on the band's history by director Cameron Crowe. Ament said, "I just saw a rough cut. It was so weird seeing footage of stuff I didn't know anybody was taping at the time. The whole movie is Cameron's love letter to us — but it's equal parts complimentary and really painful. It shows our growing pains and some real bad times, including Roskilde (the 2000 Danish festival where nine fans were trampled to death during the band's set). It was just really hard to watch."

Crowe, a longtime friend of the band and director of movies like "Almost Famous" and "Jerry Maguire", had PEARL JAM make a cameo appearance in his 1991 Seattle-set film "Singles".

As for the rest of 2011, PEARL JAM will offer deluxe reissues of their second and third albums, 1993's "Vs." and 1994's "Vitalogy", featuring previously unheard bonus tracks, alternate takes, demos and live performances.

Then there is the first summer music festival ever put together by PEARL JAM itself. The two-day event will take place somewhere in the middle of the country and feature a number of bands, along with PEARL JAM headlining both nights.

Ament explained, "We've played enough festivals that we know what makes them exciting. We want to give people places to go that aren't necessarily musical — second stages and all that kind of stuff. We're asking our friends if they want to play a couple of shows with us."

The bassist admits that in planning the 20th anniversary events, "we never even thought we'd last this long," but added that PEARL JAM is not very interested in nostalgia, saying, "We're ready to work on new songs and get excited about what's ahead."

Drummer Matt Cameron, who is the "newest" member of the band, told The Pulse Of Radio why he seized the chance to join in 1998 after his previous group, SOUNDGARDEN, broke up: "Oh, it was just a great opportunity with guys that I knew and I trusted and I really liked, and, you know, the fact that it was a band that was at the same level as SOUNDGARDEN when we had broken up was great, too," he said. "I didn't have to, like, start over, you know, in a van again, which was awesome. It was kind of a no-brainer, you know. Eddie's [Vedder, singer] such a great guy, Stone [Gossard, guitarist]... they're all just real good people."