The morning after he first listened to the demo, Vedder went surfing, the music still in his head. Vedder was the lead vocalist for a local band called Bad Radio and worked at a gas station during the day. Irons passed on the invitation but sent the demo to a friend from San Diego named Eddie Vedder. They had given former Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Jack Irons the demo to see if he would be interested in joining the band, and to distribute the demo to anyone he felt might fit the lead vocal position. When they got the tape back from one singer, a young surfer from San Diego, they would have the song that would start their career: a version of Dollar Short that would be retitled Alive. The band then sent the cassette out in search of a singer and drummer. Gossard put five of these instrumental tracks вЂ“ Dollar Short, Agytian Crave, Footsteps, RichardвЂ™s вЂEвЂ™ and вЂEвЂ™ Ballad вЂ“ onto a tape, calling it Stone Gossard Demos вЂ™91. It was totally cool because at that point, it was just kind of picking up the vibe and going with it.вЂ™

вЂThey were just song ideas, jams and that sort of stuff. вЂThere was no pressure, because they werenвЂ™t really songs,вЂ™ Ament has stated. Booking studios sessions with, separately, SoundgardenвЂ™s Matt Cameron and Green RiverвЂ™s Chris Friel providing drums, they recorded what theyвЂ™d written so far. Not long after the three began playing together, they realized that the instrumentals theyвЂ™d created were far from throwaways. I said, вЂWe got to get Jeff, because you guys together are really great.вЂ™ Soon, Ament was on board as well. Jeff was playing with other people at the time. вЂHe said, Do you want to jam?вЂ™ McCready remembers, вЂso we got together and we started playing upstairs in his parentsвЂ™ attic. On a night in June, they saw McCready playing with a local psychedelic outfit called Love Chile, and soon after, Gossard gave the guitarist a call. Gossard had spent the summer after WoodвЂ™s death writing music on his own, while Ament was playing around town with several bands. вЂI didnвЂ™t know what I was going to do with my life,вЂ™ Ament said in 1991, вЂI felt like IвЂ™d spent a lot of time getting to that point, and вЂ¦ the rug got pulled out from underneath us.вЂ™

Tragedy struck when, despite an intervention by his bandmates in late 1989, Wood died from an accidental heroin overdose on March 19, 1990. His onstage presence was flamboyant and larger than life, leaping from the stage, cordless mic in hand, to roam through the crowd while he sang. McCready had previously played in a local metal band, Shadow, while Gossard and Ament had played with the band Green River, who split up in 1987, and then again in Mother Love Bone, whose singer Andy Wood had, at the age of 11, set himself the goal of becoming a rock star.

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