Top 30 Jeff Ament Quotes

I’m not going to say no to playing a show in Missoula.

There really is a certain magic that happens when you’re in the studio. And it’s important in life to feel that magic: to feel that there is something greater moving all this along.

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.

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

I just have a serious problem with business for business’ sake: this bottom-dollar mentality. I have a serious problem with evil.

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

We went to Big Sur about three years ago and hung out at the Esalen Institute.

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

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

I certainly didn’t want to be in a punk rock band, because I had already been in a punk rock band. I wanted to be in a band that could do anything – like Led Zeppelin.

Make movies. Don’t make videos. Videos are evil.

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.

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.’

It’s great that people are basically spending their two weeks of vacation to come out and be with us in some weird part of the world. And I think we owe it to them to take ’em to some cool places.

I get lost in my right brain, especially in creative things.

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

I don’t have a great voice or even a good voice.

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

Right after ‘Backspacer,’ my best friend got killed tragically. Something happened to me then where I got super motivated. I had a shelf of all this unfinished music… So I just went to work and made a conscious decision that I was going to finish a bunch of stuff. Life’s short.

We’ve always been a band that stood up for what we thought was right.

I played djembe, percussion, keyboards and I sang.

I led the state in defensive interceptions my senior year, with seven in nine games. Then I went to Montana to play basketball and found out quickly that my college career wasn’t going to work out how I’d envisioned it.

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

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.’

I’m a big fan of power trios where there’s only three instruments.

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.

That’s probably half the reason I wanted to be in a band – I wanted to see the world.

Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love talked trash about the fact that I hooped. I once stopped to say ‘Hi’ before a show, and as I walked away, Courtney yelled, ‘Go play basketball with Dave Grohl!’

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