In 1984, one song helped to complete Pearl Jam’s lineup. 87,000,000 record sales later, they were proven right

After Mother Love Bone ended following frontman Andy Wood’s death, Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament began building a new band. Gossard remembered guitarist Mike McCready playing along to a Stevie Ray Vaughan record and later invited him to join; that decision helped complete the group that became Pearl Jam.

McCready recalled in a 2023 interview that he was playing Vaughan’s 1984 song “Couldn’t Stand the Weather” in Gossard’s bedroom, having known him since sixth grade. Gossard contacted him about a year later, after Wood’s death, saying McCready could play guitar parts that he could not. The article says Pearl Jam have since sold nearly 90 million records and that Gossard and McCready remain a complementary guitar pairing.