Duff playing with Mike McCready from Pearl Jam

Pearl Jam's Mike McCready gathers his friends together to fight a good fight

May 1, 2008
By GENE STOUT

In 1986, guitarist Mike McCready had just moved to Los Angeles with brothers Rick and Chris Friel, his bandmates in rock band Shadow, when Crohn's disease changed the course of his life and career.

With dreams of finding success in L.A. in the days before grunge turned Seattle into a mecca for rock musicians, the future guitarist for Pearl Jam was chilling over lunch at a Johnny Rockets in the Melrose district when something akin to Montezuma's revenge caused him to bolt from the table and storm the men's room.

"I thought, 'What the hell? Did I eat something bad?' " McCready recalled this week in a phone interview.

"I had never experienced having to go to the bathroom like that ever before in my life, other than diarrhea or something. This was a pain in my gut like I'd never felt before. It was excruciating. And I was only 21."

Though symptoms persisted, McCready was in denial about the seriousness of his condition until he began losing weight. As a starving musician, he didn't have much weight to lose.

After a diagnosis of Crohn's -- a chronic, inflammatory bowel disease with no known cure -- McCready was forced to move back to Seattle. Treatment helped him cope with the disease and today it's under control.

"I can easily forget how much pain it causes and what a nightmare it is not to be able to leave the house, not to mention losing weight, becoming anemic, feeling crazy, all sorts of things," he said.

He also wonders what might have happened had he not returned to Seattle in time to be swept up in the raging music scene that led to the formation of Pearl Jam.

"Who knows if anything would have happened for me?" he said.

McCready, who went public about his disease in 2002, is the star performer at a benefit for the Northwest Chapter of the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of American Saturday night at Showbox at the Market.

The awareness-raising show features McCready's side band, Flight to Mars, as well as rock band Feral Children and singer-songwriter Kristen Ward, who invited McCready to play on her new album.

The concert includes a free-form Hendrix tribute by a reunited Shadow, featuring McCready and the Friel brothers, as well as guest musician (and former Seattleite) Duff McKagan of Guns 'N Roses.

"Duff is one of the reasons why Rick and Chris and I moved down to L.A. in the first place," McCready said. "Because we saw him take off with Guns 'N Roses and we said, 'We gotta get out of Seattle. There's nothing going on here.' And in the late '80s there really wasn't."

Flight to Mars indulges McCready's longtime fascination with UFO, the English hard-rock band that featured guitarist Michael Schenker in the 1970s. Flight to Mars, formed six years ago, includes singer Paul Passerelli, guitarist Tim DiJulio, bassist Gary Westlake and drummer Kelly Van Camp. The group will play songs from UFO's "Strangers in the Night" album.

"I thought, 'Let's just do something fun. Let's do the "Strangers in the Night" record.' And then I could pretend to be Michael Schenker, who was a hero of mine growing up."

McCready couldn't remember when he became interested in UFO's melodic metal, but he always loved the songs from "Strangers in the Night."

"I used to stare at the album cover when I was playing it because it's a cool picture," he said.

Sitting in with the group is Seattle keyboardist Ty Bailie, whom McCready met while playing at the Pike Place Market Centennial concert last summer.

"He's a keyboard assassin," McCready said. "He's just amazing."

Playing in a side band helps McCready polish his skills as a guitarist.

"It tests me. When I'm playing with Tim (DiJulio), he really pushes me to play better. You try to play the best you can. It's kind of an ego thing," he said.

As for Pearl Jam, the group has been writing songs and kicking around ideas for its next album with Brendan O'Brien, who has produced a number of albums with the group.

"It may be a year from now before we put out a new record, maybe two years, but I don't think it'll be that long," McCready said. "We really want to take our time and make something that really stands out."

Pearl Jam will tour the East Coast this spring and summer but doesn't have any plans to launch a larger tour until a new album is finished. There also aren't any plans for a Seattle show in the foreseeable future.

"On the other hand," McCready said, "we don't usually take a lot of time off."

McCready hopes the CCFA benefit will become an annual event. Proceeds from the concert will send kids with Crohn's or colitis to Camp Oasis, a co-ed residential camp north of Los Angeles. Last year's benefit raised more than $14,000, helping to send about a dozen kids to the camp.

"I want this thing to turn into a self-fulfilling thing each year," he said. "It's about raising awareness and about me getting together will all my friends for a good cause."