Seattle — “That hat right there was in the ‘Alive’ video,” pointed Pearl Jam bass player Jeff Ament. “I think that hat was in the ‘Evenflow’ video. I bought that hat in Philadelphia on South Street.”
For Ament, Pearl Jam: Home and Away, the Museum of Pop Culture’s exhibit featuring the band, is a chance to encounter decades of head wear.
“Yeah, I was always sort of a hat guy,” he laughed.
The hats are among hundreds of artifacts, including instruments, stage props, handwritten lyrics, and more. All celebrating the story of Pearl Jam, a band Ament has now played in for more than half his life.
“You know it's pretty overwhelming,” Ament said, looking around. “You try to keep moving forward as a band. You try to spend not too much time looking back but this is just the sheer quantity.”
Archivist Kevin Shuss, a self-described pack rat, has been collecting memorabilia on behalf of the band from the very start. He’s also one of their concert videographers, so he spends a lot of time on the road with Pearl Jam. He says it's no surprise guitarist Stone Gossard showed up for this sneak peek.
“They really do enjoy each other's company,” Shuss said. “They like playing music together and they've always had really good communication. They've been able to talk through the things that I think would have probably broken up a lot of other bands.”
Visitors to the exhibit will be greeted by a striking statue of singer Andrew Wood by western Washington sculptor Mark Walker. It was commissioned by Ament to remember his Mother Love Bone bandmate, a beatific star whose untimely death eventually led to Ament and Gossard forming Pearl Jam.
“If anybody that I ever met in my life deserved a bronze statue, it was Andy,” Ament said.
Since the band’s formation, Pearl Jam has always had a strong sense of right and wrong. Their sold out Home Shows raised money for, and focused attention on, Seattle's homeless crisis.
“It's baffling to think this could happen here. It just doesn't make any sense,” Ament said. “There's I don’t know how many millionaires and billionaires in this town and it just feels like there should be a way to share some of that .”
The MoPOP exhibit Pearl Jam: Home and Away runs through April 2023.
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