Pearl Jam's Matt Cameron has had an enviable career as a drummer, but his earliest brush with fame wasn't the kind most aspiring musicians dream of.
A teenage Cameron was served a cease-and-desist letter by his favorite band, KISS.
"I was in a neighborhood KISS cover band when I was 13 or 14, something like that," Cameron told Howard Stern this week, when Pearl Jam stopped by Stern's Sirius XM studio to promote their latest album, Dark Matter. "We played local high schools, keggers, what not."
Cameron's teen crew idolized the rock band. The three boys had built "these rickety plywood platforms" in his bandmate's garage while their moms made them costumes (likely modeling the elaborate black leather, silver studded outfits the band was known for).
"We made flashpots out of coffee cans and a light socket, with a little flash powder inside of it," Cameron continued while his Pearl Jam bandmates laughed. "It was janky, low-rent, horrible."
The boys made a photo album of their cover band and its setup, and then they got a chance few kids ever do. Cameron's father had a friend who could get them into a soundcheck to see the real KISS. The "Rock and Roll All Nite" rockers were on their Alive! tour, and in February 1976, when the band hit San Diego, Cameron and his two friends got to meet the men they'd been cosplaying as.
"We were sort of like, 'Hey man, We're in a KISS cover band! Here's our stupid little album!'" Cameron deadpanned as he talked about meeting Paul Stanley, aka the band's guitar-smashing Starchild.
The teens, who were in costume at the time, got a picture with Stanley. "Cut to four to six months later, we get a cease-and-desist letter from Aucoin Management," Cameron said.
Aucoin was KISS's management company, and it was known for being highly litigious when it came to the band's image and marketing. It also had a prominent logo that was plastered on the band's albums, so when Cameron and his friends first saw it on the letterhead, they were excited.
"Like 'whoa, we're getting a letter from Aucoin Management! We've made it!'" Cameron said, before they realized it was not the kind of letter they were hoping for.
"I think [it was because] we just called our band KISS," Cameron reflected. "We didn't really think ahead there. So, after that we had KISS 'Imitation' in parenthesis."
Cameron bounced back from that early disappointment though. He joined a pre-fame Soundgarden in 1986, was with the band until it broke up in 1997, and then reunited with the group from 2010 until it officially disbanded in 2019. Soundgarden's founder and lead singer Chris Cornell died in 2017.
After Soundgarden first broke up, Cameron joined another top Seattle grunge band -- Pearl Jam. The Eddie Vedder-fronted group hit it big in 1991 with their debut album Ten; Cameron joined in early 1998 and has been a permanent member ever since. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017 with the band.
Pearl Jam's latest album, Dark Matter, is out now.
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