Questions for the 10C Sirius/XM radio show

JonnyPistachio wrote:

When is the next show? Today?

Sure is!

Guests will be the three caretakers of TwoFeetThick.com and it will be a two hour show. Can't wait to hear what they have to talk about!

**NOTICE** This is just parts I and II of the entire transcript. Part III is available here: http://community.pearljam.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=144001&p=3355679#p3355679.

H^2

Thanks to Norm for recording this week!

Audio for this week is hosted and available for listening and download at http://www.gremmie.net. Also, don't forget about the on-air replays on Sirius 17/XM 39. Check the front page for dates/times.

Host: Tim Bierman (TB)
Host: The Rob (TR)
Guest: Kathy Davis (KD)
Guest: Jessica Letkemann (JL)
Guest: John Reynolds (JR)
Guest: Matt Moore (MM)


*Show introductions*

TR: Tim I believe we've got something special in store for our listeners.

TB: Yeah we do. It's... We're not announcing any kind of event or anything but we do have a mastered copy of Live on Ten Legs and we wanted to share a couple of tracks with the listeners here first. Rob I think you've selected a couple of tracks for us to play.

TR: Yeah! I believe I've gone with Arms Aloft and you wanted to hear the Porch which is a great version that you like too.

TB: I wanna call it "The Porch."

TR: "The Porch."

TB: Yeah. I wanted to tell listeners, I'm pretty much preaching to the choir here because I think everybody's kind of aware of what's going on, but Live on Ten Legs is coming out on January 17th (2011) worldwide, and January 18th (2011) here in the U.S. And you can preorder that cd or vinyl at pearljam.com, but if you want to get a UK only or international only, I guess, deluxe package of the vinyl you can check out LiveOnTenLegs.com and that's a Universal Music site that is pre-selling the deluxe package. Pretty cool little package we put together for them.

TR: Do you have any details about that deluxe package? Is it 180 gram vinyl or something like that?

TB: Well the vinyl here is going to be 180 gram, stouten (sp?) jackets. The international vinyl is gonna be 180 gram. I'm not exactly sure where the jackets are manufactured but it's gonna be a really cool piece along with some extra ephemera kind of things so I think people will be really excited about it. You can go to LiveOnTenLegs (the website) and get all the details: track listing and what is in the package. Everything.

TR: Cool. Alright Well let's let folks know that our guests today are from the website TwoFeetThick. We've got Kathy Davis, Jessica Letkemann, and John Reynolds. And Matt Moore from Gremmie.net is gonna join us too and we'll all get together in a little bit. So lets spring some Live on Ten Legs on folks right now! Let's check out Arms Aloft on PJ Radio.

*debuts Arms Aloft from the upcomming PJ album Live on Ten Legs*

TR: That was Arms Aloft from Live on Ten Legs. A tip of the hat to Joe Strummer. And I wanna tip my hat to Brett Eliason for doing a great mastering job on that.

TB: Uhhh, mixing. Mixing.

TR: Mixing!

TB: Yeah mixing. He mixed those tracks. They were actually mastered here in Seattle at RFI. Rick Fisher, yep.

TR: Thanks for that clarification.

TB: Well yeah.

TR: Can't wait to get that in my JBL's.

*laughter*

TB: Yeah! Wake your neighbors up, right?

TR: You betcha! alright! LEt's get the ball rolling here with our Fan Encompassing Trip this afternoon. Lets say 'Hello' to everybody. First of all in my studio here we've got Kathy Davis.

KD: Hello!

TB: Hello Kathy Davis.

TR: In New York we've got 'JR' John Reynolds.

JR: Hey what's up? I'm here. We're kind of used to this long distance thing. It's how we all talk to each other and how we've talked to other people so, you know...

TR: And your other partner in crime at TwoFeetThick is Jessica Letkemann.

JL: I'm here. You can pretend I'm in New York. I'm not in New York. Not at the moment but you can pretend I'm there.

TR: You are here with us now! So what I really want to talk about with you guys, and also Matt Moore from Gremmie.net is joined in on the action too.

MM: Hello.

TR: But what I want to get to first with the three of you is maybe how you guys met as fans of PJ and how long you knew each other before you decided to turn your passion for the band into something that everyone else can feed off so well.

JL: Yeah, it's kinf of funny because back in the day before everybody was online and twittering and everything like that, the big fan connection was fanzines. Printed fanzines. And Kathy Davis was one half of like the best one out there: Footsteps. And so I always looked up to that because I had a zine in High School and stuff like that and when I became a huge PJ fan I was like 'I'm gonna do one!'.

I used to do a print zine back in the day, back in the '90's and real soon, Kathy sent me this letter in the mail. Just kind of like 'Hey, I've seen your zine it's really good!' She sent me a bunch of money and a bunch of shows and stuff like that. Her back issues and I was like, soooo in awe. I thought it was so cool because obviously I looked up to all the huge works she had done. She seemed like the Queen of PJ to me. So we bonded pretty fast, especially after we met. We met at TFC (the Tibetan Freedom Concert) '99 finally in person and I think like two days after that we ended up on the phone like all night long. Just one of those instant connections just after you meet somebody.

And then JR has a similar thing. I'll let him talk about it, but he did this incredible website in the late '90's that was sort-of sourcing all of the fan audio that was out there. That was a huge obsession of a lot of people because it was tough to get your hands on good quality PJ live of every show before PJ themselves were releasing it. But he was the guy who knew it.

I also was recently going through my mail from my zine days and I have this letter from JR and he's like 'You've probably never heard of me but I'm a really big fan of your zine...' I just thought that was funny too because I thought he was such a huge pillar of the community. So we met finally, I think, in 2000 at the Jones Beach show which is funny. You always meet somebody at a show. And we also instantly bonded. He used to work a couple of blocks away from me. He actually worked in the building where MSG is and I worked a few blocks away so we would meet half way at Starbucks and sort of daydream about websites. And this is like 2001-2002, just every day. I always think about how much money we would've lost if our employers knew how much time we spent on IM talking about what kind of website we would make if we ever had one.

So finally I was just like 'JR do you know Kathy? Kathy do you know JR?' And they didn't. And it was totally flabbergasting me, but once the three of us connected that was it. It was time for a website. I'll let you guys take it from here. But as soon as all three of us knew each other it was clear that we had the perfect sort-of team.

KD: Yeah.

JR: Yeah. I think that's about right. Because we were each doing our own thing. Actually Jess you were still doing Tickle My Nausea. And I was jst really the spokesman for the tapers. These guys did all the taping. I think I taped maybe one or two shows in my life, and I say 'Hey, maybe the way we can get more shows is to get our... to get some stuff up there. So I created DigiJam and then Carl Sylvester (sp?), he had the whole list.

He had the whole Hard To Imagine list with all the taper info and I was able to put that site up as well so... I think the three of us, when we finally met, we were just looking to take the best of what we had... You know I was the technology side, I obviously knew the PJ stuff up and down... Kath and Jess, we were trying to take that zine style and put it onto a web site. Really when websites were becoming their own things anyway. But we kind of wanted it to be a throwback at the same time and kind of get back to... Websites were really good lookin' back then, but we wanted to get back to what was really the heart of it and that was: something good to read.

JL: Yeah. Like information. We were all really obsessed with deep scholarship... I know it's really weird to use the work 'scholarship,' but like deep scholarship on this stuff. Like: Where did it come from? What is the story behind it? Just like, 'What is the details?'

JR: Oh come on it was footnotes! We had footnotes!

JL: I know. We had footnotes. We're crazy.

JR: But we put our our first issue in April of 2003, and I remember we worked so hard to get all the issues done and then when we launched it we started thinking about the next one. We were like 'Alright. What are we gonna do now?' And I think it was probably a good three or four months before we had more stuff.

JL: No, no. It was faster than that. but one funny note about the date that our site launched: It was very specifically on purpose on Mike McCready's birthday of 2003. April 5th, so it was on purpose.

TR: So Kathy, you launched your own fanzine back in like...

KD: '92. Yeah I was just gonna say that it was actually MTV Unplugged that got me in to PJ, to give you that history. I saw it and went 'Holy God!' and I had to connect with their fans and the internet was very, very organic back then and barely starting. In '92 there was really no mailing list. There was AOL and I think there was an AOL message board a lot of people went to... I remember people there and then just trying to find people to connect with.

I was also in to REM, like most PJ fans are. I knew Randy Ocenenko (sp?) who was my fanzine partner for Footsteps. Just because she was an REM fan and because I knew she was involved in doing some of their zines and all that... So somebody said 'She's in to PJ now. You should call her.'

Well I think we talked... She called me when I was actually at the Bridge School, 11/1/1992, my first PJ show, and left a message, or maybe I was going to see U2 the week after and I had some sort of weird Monty Python message on my phone and she was like 'I have to talk to you about PJ.' And I think about a month later we had Footsteps number 1 out in December of '92. And from '92 to '97 there was really not that much print... Well '92 to '95 there wasn't anything until Five Horizons (http://www.fivehorizons.com) started. And then they started their thing so I was running my paper thing til '97.

Then Five Horizons is going full blast and then we all got to know each other organically through that experience and, of course, Tickle My Nausea came on and I thought it blew everything else out of the water. And I was like 'I'm not worthy!'

JL: You were super nice to me! I came along in '95 and the first ones were kind of cut-and-paste... You know it's kind of funny that you mention REM too because I had a friend who ran a different REM zine and she ended up meeting Ed (Vedder) and her whole line was like "Oh hey! I have this zine about this other band you like!' And I just heard the story that he was so impressed by it. I was just like 'Kathy and my friend, these people are so cool! I need to do this myself!' So you guys are a total inspiration.

KD: Yeah. Well now we inspire each other. It seemed inevitable. I stopped doing Footsteps in '97. Randy kind of just got other things going in her life and didn't want to do it any more and I didn't want to do it myself. I didn't think I was doing either of our partnership justice so I kind of just sat back and enjoyed the ride for a few years. Of course I was still in the community going to zillions of shows and meeting people and... Like Jess said, we met in '99 at Tibetan Freedom. I think there was a party at somebody's house and... Maybe it was Lindsay Lake, who also did the Dissident fanzine, another fanzine person. I only know people who do fanzines. Everyone else? Forget it!

*laughter*

JR: That's all you talk to.

TR: Jessica how long were you doing your fanzine?

JL: I started it maybe like September of '95. That was like the... non-ticketmaster tour. So fans wanted to know so much stuff. My day job at that time was at Spin (Magazine) so I felt like I had more information than most folks and I sort of knew how to get the word out. So I was like 'This is the time to start it.'

So I was doing that from '95 and I was just sending it out to maybe a couple hundred people at that time and I did it until the top of 2002 at which point it was like several hundred. I know that's crazy small compared to web things, but consider that I was standing at a copy machine and mailing them out individually.

I did Tickle My Nausea for like seven years. There was like 21 issues. There was even like one issue toward the end where I transcribed the entire 2000 tour. All of the lyric changes and everything. I know that's crazy (I feel your pain -ed). but that was the most popular issue. I ended up sending out 2,000 of those.

KD: That's not crazy Jess, that's what we do.

*laughter*

We specialize in 'crazy'. Especially where PJ are concerned, I think.

JL: Well that was a deep tour. So many things happened. It was an important tour... So I was doing that for a long time. The process of doing a zine, I don't know if Kathy would attest to this... being in the community, it's amazing to talk to other fans. For some recent projects that I've been doing for TwofeetThick I had to dig through the old mail. People would send these letters. Just these incredible letters about what PJ meant to them and stuff like that and I jsut felt a real connection to so many people. I met soooo many amazing people beyond... Obviously I met JR and Kathy through this thing... I've met hundreds and hundreds of cool people. People who put you up in other continents without having met you. It's... amazing to me, that we can be this wonderful and not know each other. You know what I mean?

TR: Well let's open it up to some more people out there...

*gives out number*

**The Rob on PJ having never played New Hampshire**
TR: "There's my new bumper sticker. The South has nothing on New Hampshire!"


**The Rob and Tim on getting invitations to eat seafood in New Hampshire**
TR: "The Rob is definitely down with lobster!"

TB: "So is Tim!"

**John Reynolds and Matt Moore on fans writing letters to their organizations**

JR: You know it's funny. We do get a lot of those stories (stories of how PJ inspired or gave someone hope) ourselves. You (Matt Moore) probably get the same thing with some of the audio you post. People just... If they hear the right song at the right time whether they're driving for eight hours or just listening at a point in their life... They'll just e-mail somebody and a lot of times it's us and... it's just great to hear that.

MM: Yeah I think in a way the web sites like TwoFeetThick or Gremmie.net become lightning rods for... hopefully for the fans. I've gotten the same kinds of things that John is describing. You get stories from people that, they just want to express themselves and say 'You know I had this great experience' and in this guy's case, from New Hampshire he took his daughter to a couple of shows and his daughter is now into PJ and for him it's a very personal experience that he had. We do get those quite a bit. It makes our job worth while, quite frankly.

*gives out number and introductions*

TB: Hey I've got a question for you guys. For the TwoFeetThick-ers, I think people out there would want to know how you've actually made connections with members of the band. If you could just tell us all about how some of those things have come along.

JL: In our whole 'fan-lives' or in our TwoFeetThick 'fan-lives'?

TB: Both! Both for sure! It's the same thing, right?

KD: Back when I was doing Footsteps there wasn't anything else out there and I, obviously, sent it in to the Ten Club and just said 'Hey, you might like this. We're doing it.' They actually did like it and I think at that time there was a woman named Deb running it and she like it and then I think Stone's (Gossard) sister Shelly was running it for a while and she got me in to my first show.

My first official PJ show where they were playing electric was them opening for Neil Young in '93. They played Portland and Vancouver and maybe the Gorge? Yeah. Something like that... I went to some crazy after-party thing that they had in Portalnd after that show. My first proper electric PJ experience was side stage, you know. Standing between all the hard cases with all the cords wrapped in my legs. It was like 'Okay, well where do you go from there? Now I've gotta go sit in the audience?' *laughs* It was very bizarre and surrealistic and that's totally unrelated to why we started doing this... I was doing it to connect with the fans. And then all this other stuff was gravy. So I gave the fanzine to the band.

The one's I gave it to loved it. Jeff told me he loved it. Stone was like "Oh hey, this is amazing!' And at the time Dave... I was so amazed that this thing that I do because I love their music and was moved by it, they were, in turn, really grateful and really dug it. Stone, I think at one point, stayed up all night reading it and said 'Amazing magazine!' Personally he was telling me. Things like that are just mind blowing that they can even happen. I have definitely had a lot of experiences throughout doing Footsteps just knowing that everybody who worked for PJ, that we were able to watch side-stage a lot. And have passes and do all that stuff.

JL: For the last 18 years of so I've worked at various places where there was other reasons, other than my fandom, where... I've had these opportunities to talk to different folks and different folks around the band as well. Not only through work, but also because of work, people started to know me. Like 'Oh I do a fanzine' and all these other things like that.

But I wanted to speak up and talk about the most recent thing... Total, total props to Stone Gossard. He seriously, recently... he totally hooked up TwoFeetThick starting in August. I talked to him about Brad for my work-work, for my day job. And at the end of it I kind of said "Oh, you know whatever. The other couple of folks that I do my fansite with, TwoFeetThick, just say 'Hello.' ' I only just kind-of threw that out there. That they say 'Hello.' And he just perked right up! And he was just like asking me a million questions about it... and totally unprompted he was just like 'You know if you guys ever want to, you know, like have a chat or whatever. Have a conversation or do some interviews I'm totally up for it!'

He totally meant it because really soon after that, I believe it was on Labor Day (a U.S. Holiday), wasn't it Kathy?

KD & JR: Yeah it was.

JL: We got this e-mail the day before Labor Day: 'Are you free tomorrow?' I'm like 'Yes! Definitely!' And we ended up spending I think about an hour on the phone with Stone for TwoFeetThick specifically. He was so generous. And talked about Brad and talked about PJ and The Vault and he was just really super open to any question. Even my crazy questions about 1990 and stuff like that.

JR: He's got a good memory.

JL: Yeah! Oh my God he's got a crazy good memory! Even after a whole hour, and this is my second conversation with him, he was like 'I don't feel like we covered everything.' You know? Like he wants to talk another time and I was like "Who's gonna say no to that?!? Of course!' And he ended up talking to JR and I. Talking to him a third time. We were just asking these crazy specific things and he was telling us these crazy stories about how Jeff has this crazy archive of PJ stuff and it was just amazing. So I didn't want to tell a recent story of where Stone, I get the sense that all the guys are like this, but that Stone recently super, super awesome to TwoFeetThick. Stone, if you're listening, super-props to you man! Thank you so much!

JR: Yeah, exactly.

JL: You made our site amazing. We are grateful.

TR: Cool! We've got some more fans on the lines here talking about their experiences and a couple of questions for you folks.

*gives out number*

1. Caller: My first show for PJ was in 1996 in October at North Charleston Colosseum. ...And haven't ever heard a recording of the show in all the years that I went there. How do you get so much detail (in the TwoFeetThick Concert Chronology, http://www.twofeetthick.com/concert-chronology/) and all the information about what Ed said and the way the crowd was? How did you get so much information from all the shows that PJ has done over all these years?

JR: I was actually gonna give maybe some far-back history on this. One of the first things I remember from the internet was through the message boards you could have attachments and this PJ songbook, or was it concert book, just kept getting passed around and people would modify it and it wasn't like all these file sharing things. One guy said, I believe his name was Caleb, he was like 'I'll maintain it.' And so he maintained it and through the message boards and through the message boards (he would ask) 'Hey did anyone go to this show in Montreal in '93?' (someone would respond) 'Oh yeah I did.' (Caleb would say) 'Well tell me about it.' And they just collected this thing. And then I guess that morphed into the Concert Chronology on fivehorizons.com. And I can't tell you how much bandwidth I spent on that site, just reading the shows. But all of that is fan contributed. It was maintained by Karen Rose (sp?) and Jean Bruns (sp?) for a whole bunch of years. I guess when they decided to bow out they said 'Listen, we'd like you guys to maintain it.' And so we've maintained it since, I think, 2005 or 2006.

JL: No it was earlier than that. Maybe '04.

JR: Okay. It all comes from fans. Fans back in those days used to just write in a lot more. Here you've got message boards you've got you tube, all that sort of stuff. But the notes come from fans. Although I know we go to almost every show...

JL: That's not true...

JR: ...Right but still there are entire tours where we can't... Kathy can't write her crazy notes after every show. So we need those sort of memories.

TR: I was gonna say if you've ever seen a show with Kathy Davis she is working while enjoying the show.

*laughter*

KD: I learned to write in the dark while never looking at my actual paper and pen.

TR: She's like the show stenographer.

MM: Kathy do you have one of those flashlight pens that you click on and the flashlight goes on and you can write at the same time?

JR: No she has one of those hats like a spelunker...

KD: I just think the things and the words come out through my fingers. No. I write in the dark in these little mini composition books and just flip the pages and underline songs so I know where... what I'm talking about. It's kind of a dorky old school (way of doing things)... but it gets the job done and I know what all my shorthand means. If I write a certain thing I know what it means and I can expound on it. That's where my crazy notes come from.

The only time I don't take them is when I'm in the front row because my seatmates always forbid it. But other than that I'm just kind of sneaking 'em in there in between songs.

Caller: I just thought it was so cool that you had so much detail even down to verbatim, things that he said to the crowd at a show that was so long ago... That just brought really cool memories for me because that was my first show...

JL: Actually I wanted to say that back in the day when Jean and Karen were doing it for Five Horizons... I can't explain how much work they put in to that. I remember they had,... starting with the '96 tour and I think that's why you saw so much detail starting in '96 or so with the shows, they would beforehand find a fan. They would figure out what fan was going to be at that show and that was their job. To e-mail right after the show 'This is what happened.' Just like Kathy takes notes now. They would find somebody who was going to go to every show and send in notes right after. So that's why there's, like 'Oh, this is what Ed said' and stuff like that cause somebody was taking notes and sending them right after.

I think by '98 people were on cell phone duty. I remember calling in a couple of details right after, standing in the parking lot with a crumpled piece of paper I had scribbled on.

It's their diligence that started it and we are the people who carry it on, I think.

KD: Yeah. Thank you Tom (caller) is it, for pointing that out. That it means something to you cause that's the whole point to me: Is having it there for an archive for us all to use...

JR: The best thing you could do is the next show that you go to... You'd be surprised at how much you can write when you write right after the show or the next morning. Just blab it all down and send it to us and we'll use it. Trust me.

KD: Brain dump.

*gives out number*

End Part I.

---

Part II

TB: Hey I just wanna say something about the... I hate to even say the word "f-e-s-t-i-v-a-l"...

TR: The party weekend?

TB: It's funny because the word 'festival' never really came up except for completely out of context with Rob's question asking about festivals. And... I guess just because Kelly (Curtis. PJ's manager) said 'Well speaking of that... We have this thing in mind...'

So anyway I'll sort of clear the air that it's not a festival and... it's gonna be, hopefully, if we can pull it off, it's gonna be just a weekend kind-of 20th anniversary celebration. And it's not gonna be in May so... Brad (previous caller) can rest assured that he can go ahead and get married and hopefully he'll be able to make the get together. The weekend get together.

JR: Yeah, now Tim tomorrow there's gonna be a thousand stories with the only thing saying 'It's not in May! It's not in May!'

*laughter*

KD: Or 'There not having a festival now!' 'Festival plans canceled!'

MM: 'Pearl Jam cancels festival on account of wedding...'

*laughter*

MM: Exactly so... you heard it here first folks...

TR: For two weeks in a row they've heard it here first.

TB: I just didn't want Brad to go out and get another tattoo saying "Don't play the festival in May...'

*laughter*

JR: That's on his chest...

*gives out number*

TR: I want to get in to how you guys wound up naming your site from one of these wacky Christmas singles so we'll get to that in a few seconds here...

JL: ...With Lollapalooza there are so many stories of how much fun the guys (PJ) were having during that tour. There was some story about Ed and Chris (Cornell) running around in golf carts and I think JR... Both JR and I our first shows of PJ's were both that Lollapalooza '92 tour. But JR didn't you end up meeting... Don't you have a story form Lollapalooza?

JR: Yeah and that's actually a good one... As far as meeting the band cause aside from Stone I'd never met the guys before... I was, long story short, got a back stage pass for the Lake Fairfax, VA show and I was back there just hanging out and Ed walked by, I think it was a few sets, maybe during one of the other bands, and this completely floored me.

I can still almost picture it. I came up to him and started talking to him and shook his hand and... I was like 'Hey can I tell you something?' He's like 'Yeah lets... Walk with me and lets talk.' And I told him that I'd... We'd just heard Footsteps cause it was just on Rockline (a radio program), I think a month earlier, and I said 'Hey a friend of mine, we've been playing that at open mikes and we really love the song. Is it ever gonna get released?' And he completely floored me by asking me, he's just like 'Hey can you send me that tape? I'd really like to hear it!' And I kept on thinking 'Gosh! What sort of artist is gonna ask me a question and find out what I want... Or what I've done with his music?' It just completely floored me. I think he even walked away. I don't even know if I said 'Goodbye' but I was just kind of standing there like 'Oh my gosh! This artist just... asked me this!' and all I wanted to do was just tell him a simple story. All the stories you hear are true. (Ed is) Down to earth,... kind to fans.

TB: I think it's cause he is a fan... And has never ever forgotten that...

JR: Yeah.

TB: ...to this day.

JL: You know that's true Kath... Think over the years how many stories have you heard?... We have opportunity to hear so many stories, you would think that we would hear some bad ones but I can honestly say that I have never heard a bad one. I have never heard the "grumpy day" or the "Eddie dissed me" or anything like that. And that continues to surprise me... in a good way! I've never heard anything other than, like 'Wow! They were so cool!'

KD: Yeah I've never heard anybody talk smack about anybody in my band.

*laughter*

KD: (jokingly) And if they do they're dead to me anyway!

*laughter*

KD: No I totally agree Jess. Like I've said we're both in a very unique position to hear a lot of really incredible stories and you would think that someone with all the pressure that Ed's had to deal with that he would of completely lost his mind to the point where somebody would get the brunt of it... That it would make a great story, and it just to this day have not surfaced so I think that's testament to what a great strong personality he has. And like Tim said he's such a music fan. You just get that impression over and over. Like the stories he told about taking a DAT tape to shows and sitting there and the lights come up and he thinks the show is still gonna go on... It's just such a great experience to be a fan of somebody who knows where you're coming from.

JL: Although I'm a little jealous of they guy on the phone who got to sort-of randomly look over and see Ed and Chris Cornell just standing there enjoying the show just like they were. That's an amazing story! I love that!

KD: I love that story... Yeah that whole Lollapalooza tour I could go on for hours about that too. Wasn't there a bile beer drinking competition between Ed and Al Jourgensen (of Ministry) or something?

JR: Mr. Lifto. (a unique performer from the Jim Rose Circus Side Show)

KD: Oh, Lifto! Oh yeah there's footage of them drinking that bile beer. Oooo...

*audibly shudders*

TB: They actually passed that job around but it was Matt "The Tube" Crowley (sp?)... was the guy who started that whole thing.

KD: Oh yeah I say Jim Rose many-a-time, believe me... Wooof! I wouldn't drink that!

JL: It's on You Tube and watch it yourselves everybody. It's gross!

*laughter*

KD: It's disgusting!

JR: He was really good at it.

JL: There's this sort-of weird look on his face like 'Look at this! I'm gonna do the most disgusting thing ever!' And then they just suck it down. It's just so gross!

KD: I think he won too. I think Ed did win, if I remember correctly. Anyway, that's another story. It's all your crap you don't need to know here at TwoFeetThick.com...

*TR takes a caller*

Caller: The band, they don't like to play one song. And Eddie has a problem with it. It's No Way off Yield. They've only played it twice live...

TR: ...For your information they brought (No Way) back, I believe on the West coast tour last year and they've done it a bunch... So it's back in rotation and it's on the bootleg so you need to obtain some of those bootlegs son!

MM: Gremmie.net, baby!

TR: You can buy them right at the store (the Goods section of pearljam.com) can't you!

TR: Well speaking of that two foot thick rhinosaurus, Kathy why don't one of you espouse on us about this Ramblings and then we'll take a listen to this Ramblings Christmas thing in a minute... Tell us about it and how it influenced you to...

KD: I'll ge the ball rolling on that... Once we decided to start doing TwoFeetThick.com we developed all this on chat. So we sat down and chat... I don't even know how long we were chatting we were just spewing out ideas and, you know... What we want to put on there. What we want. And it was a what kind of a name is gonna... You know, not to overuse the work 'encompassing' but... is gonna encompass everything that we're about and what we want to say and... Well it's gonna be for the kind of the obscure details and the very fine details of being a fan of the band and the things that we're passionate about. And I think Jess, did you come up with 'For the impassioned fan'?

JL: Yeah... We were thinking about kind of a subtitle cause 'Two Feet Thick' doesn't... you don't automatically get the PJ connection there so we wanted to make sure that when you came to the site you could tell it was about PJ and what it was all about immediately.

KD: Cause even the hardest-core, some of the hard-core fans... It just might not come to their mind where 'Two Feet Thick' the name comes from but the last callers totally said it. It's from Ramblings and, in fact that is in the 'About Us', I think, on our website about where it comes from but... We were just chatting on e-mail going 'Okay what's it gonna be? What's it gonna be?' And I think I typed in 'I am a rhinosaurus and my skin is two feet thick.' Because I thought 'That's from the first fan club single' on Ramblings, you know the B-Side of Let Me Sleep (It's Christmas Time) where they're all sitting around talking and there's plunking guitar going on and I think Ed just randomly said it. It might have been talking about some crappy experience he had, I don't know... He just kind of blurted it out and it seemed like such a non sequiter and it was so bizarre and I'm like 'Yeah' and I loved rhinos on top of that which is even funnier... So that's kind-of where our name came from... To us it reminds us that we're obscure weirdo's, but we love PJ and it just kind-of ties it all together. That's my take on the name...

JL: I think also that it clicked for all three of us because it was both something where somebody who was a hard-core PJ fan would go 'Oh! I know where that's from'... 'For the detailed collector...' as Ed would say in concert. For the person who has all the bootlegs and stuff like that. But also just the words 'two feet thick' sort of imply just a depth of knowledge, like caring about every detail. We thought it was alliterative and I think that's why we all kind of thought it clicked: Because it was an obscure PJ reference and it was something that meant that we go pretty deep into the PJ stuff.

KD: Yeah and there's only the occasional mis-link to a porn site there that comes up too so that's awesome...

*laughter*

MM: I noticed that today. I clicked on a link and I said 'Wow! What are these big *indecipherable*?'

KD: That's not what they mean by 'Two feet thick' is it? Ewww...

JR: Yeah. One time people got to us by googling 'two feet chicks' and I wonder how they got that...

*laughter*

TR: That's on a different Sirius/XM channel...

JR: Yeah but even from that single the green the black and the white even... From our site that's where it came basically from that color scheme of that rhino single. Even (just to) plug one of our favorite articles on the site if you jsut search on the site for 'Christmas single' we've covered the first three, we're working on the fourth. We just like to dive deep into these things. Real obscure facts about how many were pressed and... I don't know. It gets us going.

JL: Yeah. What did the run-out groove say? And what is the fine print on the back?

JR: Right. And what did Mike mean when he was talking about Tiny Tim and stuff like that. Obscure stuff...

TR: Lets get pretty obscure right now and we'll check out this Ramblings...

*TR gives station ID & plays Ramblings*

KD: You know I'm a Beatles fan from when I was little and they used to do Christmas singles and I just thought it was the coolest thing when PJ did theirs and of course REM has always put out their annual Christmas single so I just thought 'Okay, this band is cool! They've got a Christmas single.' And I don't care if I get it in Easter it's just a Holiday single now. That's fine.

TR: It's Flag Day! Flag Day! The Flag Day single!

KD: The Flag Day single! Whatever holiday it is... Arbor Day.

JL: Fan Club Single Day...

KD: I just think it's a great thing either way.

JR: Single De Mayo

*laughter*

JR: Sorry...

TR: It comes out... It's the day Tim bierman wants to put it out. That's the holiday

TB: Well believe me I want to put it out at Christmas but it's not up to me, unfortunately...

TR: Ahhh there we go! Disspelling myths again!

What I really want to get into now, and especially talk to Jessica about this, is something you can read and download and find unbelievably informative and beyond cool is something Jessica had put together on the TwoFeetThick website. It's the 1990 Music For Rhinos: The Making OF Pearl Jam. Her mini-book about the origins of the band and I just wanted to let you talk a little bit about your research and detail and...

KD: Or as Kathy calls it: The Opus.

JL: For the band's 20th birthday, like the actual day they formed 20 years ago was October 22nd. So this date had been sort-of looming in our minds all year and I think Kathy and John sort of both knew that I had this blue binder that's kind of been in my backpack for the last several years. Just sort of privately. And I'm not sure what to do with it exactly because I kind of have a way... For a bunch of years I was heavy into the research departments of Spin and stuff like that. And I just had access to details and facts and it was what I spent my days doing and stuff... I because so interested in 'Well how did these five guys meet?' or 'these four guys meet?' and 'How did my favorite band come to exist?' Because the more I ever heard about PJ the more crazy it is that these guys know each other. I just thought it was sort of a miracle...

You hear the short version of it: Stone and Jeff knew each other in Seattle and they were in Green River and stuff like that. And Mike was playing on the side... Everybody knows the basics but to me it still didn't quite click. 'But why... How did this band exactly come to be?' So finally... And I have had this super opportunity to interview various people throughout the years, including Ed... Talked to him a bunch of years ago. And I talked to Matt Cameron a couple of times. I talked to Jeff a couple of times... I've talked to Chris Cornell. I've talked to, either through work or for my zine, when I was doing Tickle My Nausea back in the day...

And for whatever reason in my mind I because really focused on 'Well tell me about what happened in 1990.' 'Tell me about... How exactly did Ed get the tape?' or 'Why did Jack Irons and Eddie meet each other?' 'Tell me the details of it.' And the more I heard, especially after I talked to Ed, and that was a bunch of years ago, I kind of heard a line in a Clash song and I kind of felt nervous about asking him 'You know there's a line in a Clash song about 'Mammasan' in that Clash song Straight to Hell...' and he's like 'Oh my God! I can't believe!...' I pulled out the tape and he's like 'I can't believe... Yeah!

That's where it came from!' And I was just kind-of flabbergasted. The more that I talked to everybody, and I would stumble upon something in an article here and an article there, and the pieces just started falling together for me throughout the years. And all the stuff leading up to PJ, all the 1990 stuff is part of a larger thing that I don't know what to do with the rest of so we'll see, we'll see for the future, but there's ton's more. There's like 1991 and all the years before 1990. But anyway... For the band's 20th

anniversary I couldn't think of a better way to give back to the community. Cause I have gotten so much personally in my life from PJ and the least I could do is (make this mini-book and think that)... Maybe this will be entertaining to other fans. I guess it ended up being 13,000 words and it starts with January 1st, 1990 and takes you through December 31st, 1991.

At the beginning it's about Mother Love Bone about to put out their amazing record and by the end of the year you've got this brand new band called PJ. And along the way it's like 'How did Eddie meet Jack Irons?' And 'Exactly what date did Alive get written?' And just the craziest details... And I think that it just sort-of underscores what we've been talking about: The crazy fan connection.

The band too. The idea that Eddie ended up meeting these guys. There's so much happenstance involved. I could tell a million stories about it. PJ wouldn't exist except for such a huge, crazy list of coincidences. Eddie decided to play hooky from work and he ended up meeting Jack Irons one night. And then a year later Jack Irons was like 'Hey you should call up that guy Eddie.'

So that's the basic story. And basically, where possible I tried to let the guys tell the story. I think people get enough of writers telling people stuff so... Talking to Stone recently too that was part of what we talked about quite a bit in the TwoFeetThick interviews we did in September. He was a super, super good sport. He was answering questions like 'what was the name of this

demo? Of the Stone Gossard demos?' 'Why did you name it Richards E?' And I remember JR, he was telling us 'Oh, something about that reminded me of Keith Richards.' And we were sitting there going 'Oh my God! That's so cool!' And hea was like, confirming...

JR: High five!

JL: ...the name of Eddie's bands and stuff like that.

So essentially there's just all this stuff from the guys themselves. From (Matt)Cameron remembering Stone and Jeff going to his shows when he was in a band called Skin Yard in like '85 and stuff like that. And there's Jeff talking about 'Oh my God! Finally I was in the band I wanted to be in!' And Stone saying crazy stuff... Awesome stuff like 'You know when the spirit of Rock and Roll brings you the right guy you've just gotta go with it.' About meeting Eddie and deciding to hire him on the spot.

And also I just thought it was kind of amazing when Eddie went up to Seattle for like 30 seconds... He went' up there for a few days, essentially, and as soon as that few days had taken place he said 'Alright, this is it.' He had a whole life in San Diego. He had a job and a relationship and all kinds of stuff. That was where his life was. But as soon as he met the PJ guys, he met Stone and Jeff, and Mike he just said 'I'm doing it!' He just pulled up stakes and started moving immediately. He started the process immediately. the courage that that took, it still floors me and we're 20 years later.

KD: Yeah and hear we all are as a result.

JL: Yep, he just took the leap off... He just took the leap. So... Thank you Eddie!... Anyway, that's what it's about and you can go read it free on our site. I've also been sending out print copies for folks who sort of like the fanzine experience. It's the same content but printed up nice and I've been getting some huge response from around the world on that. And that's an amazing thing. I won't lie I love mailing things. I've got a few copies left so the next, maybe 20, folks who want to hit TwoFeetThick send us an e-mail and I'll make sure you get a copy of the print version if you want cause I love sending out things in the mail. *laughs*

TR: Well congratulations on putting it together. It really is an incredible read. It's a really great piece of work for any PJ fan out there who wants to know any kind of history. Your attention to detail is astounding!

JL: Thanks! I just kind of felt that the story kind-of got told so many times that it was just not told with any detail. There's so much to it, like how it wasn't just one week where the band formed. It took two weeks actually for the band to form. All that... I felt like I knew a bunch of stuff that, sort-of, nobody had talked about so I wanted to put it out there in the guys' own words.

KD: And the thing that I love about the PJ fan experience, particularly that relates to that, is Jess I think you've shown me that binder when you're at my house one year for a show. Maybe it was '03 or something, and you had some little calendars and I was just like literally losing my mind over the thing. And just said 'Jess nobody has this perspective.' Just all the people you were able to talk to through various means, and just that perspective alone is a story that needs to be told, whatever story you're gonna tell. How grateful am I to have the TwoFeetThick.com production stamp on that. It's true that it goes along with our passion and the level to which we take things as fans. We're all doing the right thing. If Eddie hadn't took that leap we wouldn't be here... And to have that inspiration and to use our powers for good, if you will...

JL: Well thanks Kath. And it's funny that it just grew out of... When I was talking to Ed and he said 'On the third day I got locked out and wrote Oceans and I had figured out what day he had got there so suddenly I knew exactly the date that Oceans was written.

I don't know why facts like that are interesting to me, but I wanted to put them all down in sequence because it was just this jumble. And it felt like it needed to be sort-of straightened out. I just like to have it as a record, you know? So that's where it came from.

JR: I think it's super helpful too for the next generation of fans that are coming up, cause I was... whatever, I was I think 20 in 1990. So I mean I was cognizant of things that were going on. I didn't hear them until '91 but 20 years later everybody kind-of wants to go back and relive it, you know? It's why we like documentaries. It's why we like history shows. So you know we're not gonna find out this information from... You're gonna find it out from the band or somebody else that knows a lot about them. And Jess as you said,... Hearing the story sometimes from other writers or less credible sources... To hear it from a fan of 20 years who's done the things you've done. You know we're grateful that you shared it with us.

JL: Well thanks JR. I think we've all read a lot of stories... In various magazines and stuff, or just wherever... I think you might concur that most things are just sort of incomplete or just kind of... They gloss over the major points of things... Or (they are) downright kind-of wrong. And I guess part of it is I got a little frustrated with that. Cause if you are looking at every article you can start to see the pattern of what's true. I just wanna be able to put out 'Here's exactly what happened...' It was kind-of this thing I had to do... I didn't know if I was going to release it... I was always writing it for years and years and I finally felt like I had the one year of the puzzle complete enough to show people.

KD: Yeah it's just about her getting tired of me harassing her to do something about it.

*laughter*

KD: *emphatically* COME OOOONNN! Jessica!

END PART II.

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For part III of the transcript follow this link: http://community.pearljam.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=144001&p=3355679#p3355679