Jeff Ament

“Our first record didn't come out on vinyl, so I think that might have had something to do with actually being in a position to make sure that it came out in vinyl this time. It sounds way better.”

“Unless you're a vegan freak of nature like Tony Gonzalez, I don't think you can play sports much past your early 30s.”

“I didn't write this song. Someone was talking in a room. I just wrote down everything they said.”

“We just finished making a record. Everybody wants to play shows, so we're going to after that.”

“I love sad. Sadness makes you feel more than anything.”

“Make movies. Don't make videos. Videos are evil.”

“It's hard for us not to be involved with things. When you have so much information and you see so much need, there's too much going on for us not to get involved.”

“Every few years I'll party way too much to remind myself what an idiot I am.”

“When I moved to Seattle, I was hanging out with kids who had done drugs, had sex a million times. I look at them now and realize their childhood was taken away.”

“I have to go someplace where I can soak myself in a creative atmosphere.”

“Where I grew up, I could be a punk rocker and a jock. But in college, it became apparent that those two worlds didn't mix. When I brought my guitar back to school after Thanksgiving break, a friend handed me his bass and said, 'Listen to the Ramones.'”

“With Pearl Jam, everybody is so good at what they do, it's hard to get up the courage to say, 'Can I sing this part,' or, 'I want to play guitar.'”

“Everybody got away from what Pearl Jam are supposed to be.”

“With Pearl Jam, everybody is so good at what they do, it's hard to get up the courage to say, Can I sing this part, or, I want to play guitar. I feel like I have more courage to do that.”

“I'm healthy enough to still skate, so I gotta go because growing up I didn't have - I mean, I grew up in Montana so... there was kind of a little half-pipe in my yard, and that was the extent of the skate terrain in Montana. So I've got to go out and make up for lost time.”

“I played djembe, percussion, keyboards and I sang.”

“I've seen kids turn their lives around. It's usually a kid who's outside of the team-sport world, or maybe has a darker personality or doesn't fit in. Skateboarding ends up being something they latch onto. It sounds hokey, but finding a focus on something - whether it's skateboard or playing your guitar - can be life changing.”

“It was hard to figure out what were the good causes, the bad causes, even the good politics and the bad politics. So we started taking requests and figuring it out.”

“I feel like in a lot of ways I can relate to the fans, just being a fan of music myself.”