Stone Gossard     Stone Gossard, Pearl Jam’s amazing lead guitarist, arrived on the Seattle scene well before joining one of the leading rock groups of the nineties.  Born on July 29, 1966, he grew up in Seattle, in one of the more prestigious suburbs.  Coming from a wealthy background, he went to private school at Northwest High School, where he became acquainted with Steve Turner & Alex Vincent of Green river, and the three of them became good friends. He was drawn to the school’s art program and immersed himself in music theory, film and theatre.  He also followed his passion, playing guitar.  He was entranced with Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page, and spent much of his teenage years developing remarkable guitar techniques.   He joined his friend Steve turner, to form the short-lived Ducky Boys, which were a mix of glam-metal and hard rock, and later dissolved in late 1983.  He spent the next two years playing his guitar and practising, before receiving the call from Green river in 1985. Upon joining the band, Stone seemed to find his music soul mate, so to speak.  Though harvesting very different backgrounds,  they shared a deep passion for the late 70’s music,  and classic R&B.  They formed a wonderful working relationship, and shared true chemistry.  Stone was different from Jeff, he was an intellectual, with a relaxed view on life, and coming from a wealthy background, had never really been concerned with financial concerns.  The two worked extremely well together. Not long after he joined Stone joined the band, they scored a record deal, which led to a one-off deal and the release of their EP come On Down.  The released further material under the record label Sub Pop.  The band began to experience a clash of ideals, and internal contradictions, and eventually they soon split in early 1988. Stone began a new project, with friend Jeff,  which also included  Bruce Fairweather, Greg Gilmore and the infamous singer Andrew Wood.  The called themselves Mother Love Bone.  Some likened them to Gun’s ‘n’ Roses, but they felt their vibe was a little different, more colourful with elements of psycholdelia, European Gothic and Middle Eastern Exotica.    The band was quick to capture attention from major record labels, and released the EP Shine, before beginning work for their next album Apple. A week before the release of their new album, Andrew Wood died suddenly of a heroin overdose.  They still released the album, and Stone went back to the drawing board. Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell, approached Stone about recording a tribute to Andrew Wood, which with the help of Jeff and Mike McCready & Matt Cameron led to the release of Temple of the Dog.  Then Stone and Jeff teamed up with Dave Krusen, to record instrumental tapes of their won, called ‘Stone Gossard Demos 1990’, but they needed a singer to bring the tunes alive, and which they did with the help from the exceptional voice of Eddie Vedder, which led to the grouping of Pearl Jam.